SONNET.
ON A SLEEPING INFANT.
ON A SLEEPING INFANT.
ON A SLEEPING INFANT.
Sleep’s dewy veil hath sealed thy curtained eyes,And lapped thine earliest cares in peaceful rest,Fair babe; yet soon all radiant shalt thou rise,Smiling new rapture to thy mother’s breast.Oh may no darker clouds obscure the skiesOf thy bright promise—mayest thou never knowThe cold world, stripped from its deceitful guiseOf hollow seeming and love’s empty show;Nor learn, with heart convulsed and passion-tost,That parents may forget, and friends grow chill,That health—home—fortune—country may be lost—That mortal idols are but mortal still;But slumber thus when earth’s last woes are o’er,Thus wake to light and life for evermore.
Sleep’s dewy veil hath sealed thy curtained eyes,And lapped thine earliest cares in peaceful rest,Fair babe; yet soon all radiant shalt thou rise,Smiling new rapture to thy mother’s breast.Oh may no darker clouds obscure the skiesOf thy bright promise—mayest thou never knowThe cold world, stripped from its deceitful guiseOf hollow seeming and love’s empty show;Nor learn, with heart convulsed and passion-tost,That parents may forget, and friends grow chill,That health—home—fortune—country may be lost—That mortal idols are but mortal still;But slumber thus when earth’s last woes are o’er,Thus wake to light and life for evermore.
Sleep’s dewy veil hath sealed thy curtained eyes,And lapped thine earliest cares in peaceful rest,Fair babe; yet soon all radiant shalt thou rise,Smiling new rapture to thy mother’s breast.Oh may no darker clouds obscure the skiesOf thy bright promise—mayest thou never knowThe cold world, stripped from its deceitful guiseOf hollow seeming and love’s empty show;Nor learn, with heart convulsed and passion-tost,That parents may forget, and friends grow chill,That health—home—fortune—country may be lost—That mortal idols are but mortal still;But slumber thus when earth’s last woes are o’er,Thus wake to light and life for evermore.
Sleep’s dewy veil hath sealed thy curtained eyes,
And lapped thine earliest cares in peaceful rest,
Fair babe; yet soon all radiant shalt thou rise,
Smiling new rapture to thy mother’s breast.
Oh may no darker clouds obscure the skies
Of thy bright promise—mayest thou never know
The cold world, stripped from its deceitful guise
Of hollow seeming and love’s empty show;
Nor learn, with heart convulsed and passion-tost,
That parents may forget, and friends grow chill,
That health—home—fortune—country may be lost—
That mortal idols are but mortal still;
But slumber thus when earth’s last woes are o’er,
Thus wake to light and life for evermore.