Of the 8 Sonnets of a Little Girl, only two were published in Dowson’s lifetime: a modified version of the 8th, and this one, the 4th, in its original version. It appeared with the title “Sonnet to a little Girl” in London Society, volume 50, November 1886, over the initials E.C.D. Notice that while the title is dedicated to “a little girl,” in the first sentence of the poem he writes about the child “his” and “him.”

SONNETS
OF A LITTLE GIRL
(IV)

Even as a child whose eager fingers snatch
An ocean shell and hold it to his ear,
With wondering, awe-struck eyes is hushed to catch
The murmurous music of its coilèd sphere;
Whispers of wind and wave, soul-stirring songs
Of storm-tossed ships and all the mystery
That to the illimitable sea belongs,
Stream to him from its tiny cavity.
As such an one with reverent awe I hold
Thy tender hand, and in those pure grey eyes,
That sweet child face, those tumbled curls of gold,
And in thy smiles and loving, soft replies
I find the whole of love, hear full and low
Its mystic ocean’s tremulous ebb and flow.

Source of the poem: Poésie Schublade, in Ernest Dowson Collected Poems, R. K. R. Thornton with Caroline Dowson (editors), University of Birmingham Press (2003).

Previously published on Agapeta, 2015/01/14.