The Sports of Childhood Show the Future Man, from "Picture Poesies"

Houghton's image first appeared in "Home Thoughts and Home Scenes" (1865), engraved by the Dalziel Brothers and published by Routledge. This impression was reissued by the publisher in "Picture Poesies" (1874). To illustrating an anonymous poem, the artist drew a beach scene that includes children digging, playing with a toddler, and climbing on the rocks. At right, a man carries a child and holds the hand of another. The scholar Forrest Reid has pointed to unsettling elements in Houghton's images of children in "Home Thoughts and Home Scenes." Works that at first glance seem to celebrate middle class domesticity often contain bizarre or disturbing details that point to darker levels of the human psyche as revealed in the play of children.

The Sports of Childhood Show the Future Man

"Say, is it true, the line I quote?
Can boyhood's sports foretell,
As ocean weeds that idly float,
Reveal the tidal swell?

What diverse features of the mind,
Their boyish moods disclose?
One in his work delight can find;
The other in repose.

One lies to watch the briny foam
Upon the rocky ledge;
The other scoops himself a home
Close to the water's edge.

One leans a cheek on either hand
In cognitations rare
This builds a castle on the sand;
'That--castles in the the air!

But who the lot in life can trace,
Their future may bestow?
Or se eon either youthful face
Foreshadowings of woe?

Rather for each would hope foresee,
The path that suits him best;
And trust their happy lot may be
"Blessing--and to be blest."