esculent roots of the garden,
And the apple-trees cover'd with blossoms and the fruit
afterward, and wood-berries, and the commonest weeds by the road,
And the old drunkard staggering home from the outhouse of the
tavern whence he had lately risen,
And the schoolmistress that pass'd on her way to the school,
And the friendly boys that pass'd, and the quarrelsome boys,
And the tidy and fresh-cheek'd girls, and the barefoot negro boy and girl,
And all the changes of city and country wherever he went.
His own parents, he that had father'd him and she that had
conceiv'd him in her womb and birth'd him,
They gave this child more of themselves than that,
They gave him afterward every day, they became part of him.
The mother at home quietly placing the dishes on the supper-table,
The mother with mild words, clean her cap and gown, a wholesome odor falling off her person and clothes as she walks by,
The father, strong, self-sufficient, manly, mean, anger'd, unjust,
In the beginning of the poem  the child absorbs the impressions of passive objects into his being; now the child is absorbing active traits and emotions. 
 This ability to absorb one’s surroundings is one  of the crowning feature’s of childhood. Children are perpetually engaged in the process of learning and making connections. 
 The next lines go on to show the unforgettable and uncanny sensory details by which we recall familial relations. Mother has a certain smell. Father is rather exuberant. These are intimate details of family life that a child is sure to remember.
There Was a Child Went Forth