'An ox-stealer should be both tall and strong,

And I am but a little new-born thing,

Who, yet at least, can think of nothing wrong:—

My business is to suck, and sleep, and fling

The cradle-clothes about me all day long,—

Or half asleep, hear my sweet mother sing,

And to be washed in water clean and warm,

And hushed and kissed and kept secure from harm.

#dependence #infancy #innocence #maternal love #percy bysshe shelley #vulnerability

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