To A Child
The greatest poem ever known
Is one all poets have outgrown:
The poetry, innate, untold,
Of being only four years old.
Still young enough to be a part
Of Nature's great impulsive heart,
Born comrade of bird, beast, and tree
And unselfconscious as the bee--
And yet with lovely reason skilled
Each day new paradise to build;
Elate explorer of each sense,
Without dismay, without pretense!
In your unstained transparent eyes
There is no conscience, no surprise:
Life's queer conundrums you accept,
Your strange divinity still kept.
Being, that now absorbs you, all
Harmonious, unit, integral,
Will shred into perplexing bits,--
Oh, contradictions of the wits!
And Life, that sets all things in rhyme,
may make you poet, too, in time--
But there were days, O tender elf,
When you were Poetry itself!
-Christopher Morley

Lyrics
When I was four, my best friend was Billy.
When I was four, my best friend was Cindy.
All summer long we played together.
Everything we had we shared with one another.

It didn't ever matter a thing in the world,
That he was a boy, and she was a girl.
We were just two souls, a girl and a boy,
Completely whole, full of joy.

The greatest poem ever known
Is one all poets have out grown
The poetry innate, untold
Of being four years old

The years passed by, Cindy became Cynthia.
The years passed by, Billy became William.
They pass on the street without noticing each other.
They work day and night, maybe comment on the weather.

They can buy anything they want in the world.
But what about the boy, what about the girl,
That used to play, without a care.
Are they still there, somewhere?

The greatest poem ever known
Is one all poets have out grown
The poetry innate, untold
Of being four years old

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Reflect on your own experiences of being four years old and remember how those early experiences shaped your beliefs about yourself and our world.  This song was inspired by a poem by Christopher Morley written in 1920.  We wanted to share the whole poem with you.