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Mr. Tom Posted 10 years ago
Grammar

Poem: Children" by Longfellow

Hi

Could you please help me understand the underlined part? Which questions is the poet referring to? Is it the reader's sensible guess? (In other words, his power of interpretation/exegesis?)

Come to me, O ye children!
For I hear you at your play,
And the questions that perplexed me
Have vanished quite away.

Ye open the eastern windows,
That look towards the sun,
Where thoughts are singing swallows
And the brooks of morning run.

Thanks,

Tom
  

Top answer

The questions are posed and answered in the course of the poem.

— AlpheccaStars

  • The questions are posed and answered in the course of the poem.
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8 Answers
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The questions are posed and answered in the course of the poem.
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I would guess it means perplexing philosophical or academic questions (later on the poem says "For what are all our contrivings / And the wisdom of our books"), but nothing more specific than that. These academic questions were dispelled by observing the childen's simple pleasures.
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AlpheccaStarsThe questions are posed and answered in the course of the poem.
Hm, OK, I didn't read it that way at all.
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GPYHm, OK, I didn't read it that way at all.
Well, not directly, but they are rather easy to infer...
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Poetry is often intensely personal, so sometimes you just have to assume that you won't have the entire story and leave it at that. The effort is still laudable, though!
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AlpheccaStarsWell, not directly, but they are rather easy to infer...
Sorry, I don't understand what you mean.
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And the questions that perplexed me
Have vanished quite away.


The questions that perplexed the author are (presumably) those of his own mature age, looming death, the transience of earthly things, the vain and petty preoccupations that besiege people in adulthood -- the antidote to all of that the poet sees in children, who are yet to be tainted by all
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XerxesThe questions that perplexed the author are (presumably) those of his own mature age, looming death, the transience of earthly things, the vain and petty preoccupations that besiege people in adulthood -- the antidote to all of that the poet sees in children, who are yet to be tainted by all of the above.
I fully agree.
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