# The Child in the Garden explained — Poetry

> Chapter companion for Poetry by Henry van Dyke Jr..

## What happens

The speaker reflects on returning to a garden of innocent thought, only to find a child at the gate who represents his own lost childhood, inviting him to play.

## Themes in this chapter

### Spiritual Peace and Rest

The garden represents a state of untroubled thought and innocence, a place of spiritual rest.

### The Pilgrimage of Life

The speaker's journey back to the garden symbolizes a return to an earlier, purer stage of life's pilgrimage.

## Character check-ins

### Unknown

The speaker who comes to the garden of untroubled thought and encounters the child.

## Key lines

> When to the garden of untroubled thought I came of late, and saw the open door, And wished again to enter, and explore The sweet, wild ways with stainless bloom inwrought, And bowers of innocence with beauty fraught

Recently I came to a garden representing peaceful, innocent thoughts, saw the door open, and wanted to go back in to explore its pure and beautiful paths.

_The speaker describes a longing to return to a state of childhood innocence._

> Then just within the gate I saw a child— A stranger-child, yet to my heart most dear; He held his hands to me, and softly smiled With eyes that knew no shade of sin or fear: “Come in,” he said, “and play awhile with me; I am the little child you used to be.”

Inside the gate I saw a child I didn't recognize but felt deeply connected to; he smiled innocently and invited me to play, revealing he was my own childhood self.

_The child symbolizes the speaker's lost innocence and former self._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_10_se/chapters/the-child-in-the-garden
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_10_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/poetry_10_se/chapters