Poems in Two Volumes, Volume 1: To H. C.

To H. C.

To H. C.,
SIX YEARS OLD.
       *       *       *       *       *
  O Thou! whose fancies from afar are brought;
  Who of thy words dost make a mock apparel,
  And fittest to unutterable thought
  The breeze-like motion and the self-born carol;
  Thou Faery Voyager! that dost float
  In such clear water, that thy Boat
  May rather seem
  To brood on air than on an earthly stream;
  Suspended in a stream as clear as sky,
  Where earth and heaven do make one imagery;                10
  O blessed Vision! happy Child!
  That art so exquisitely wild,
  I think of thee with, many fears
  For what may be thy lot in future years.
  I thought of times when Pain might be thy guest,
  Lord of thy house and hospitality;
  And grief, uneasy Lover! never rest
  But when she sate within the touch of thee.
  Oh! too industrious folly!
  Oh! vain and causeless melancholy!                         20
  Nature will either end thee quite;
  Or, lengthening out thy season of delight,
  Preserve for thee, by individual right,
  A young Lamb's heart among the full-grown flocks.
  What hast Thou to do with sorrow,
  Or the injuries of tomorrow?
  Thou art a Dew-drop, which, the morn brings forth,
  Not doom'd to jostle with unkindly shocks;
  Or to be trail'd along the soiling earth;
  A Gem that glitters while it lives,                        30
  And no forewarning gives;
  But, at the touch of wrong, without a strife
  Slips in a moment out of life.

Back to chapter list of: Poems in Two Volumes, Volume 1