IV Blue eyes, against the whiteness pressed The while your trembling lips are fed, O blue eyes looking into blue! Fragoletta is so small, We wonder that she lives at all Tiny alabaster girl, Hardly bigger than a pearl; That is why we take such care, Lest some one run away with her. Richard Le Gallienne [1866 CHOOSING A NAME I HAVE got a new-born sister: I was nigh the first that kissed her. How papa's dear eyes did glisten! And papa has made the offer, I shall have the naming of her. Now I wonder what would please her, Charlotte, Julia, or Louisa? Ann and Mary, they're too common; Joan's too formal for a woman; Jane's a prettier name beside; Weighing the Baby Ellen's left off long ago; None that I have named as yet What do you think of Caroline? Lest the name that I should give her 13 Mary Lamb [1764-1847] WEIGHING THE BABY "How many pounds does the baby weigh— Grandfather ties the 'kerchief knot, Softly the echo goes around: The father laughs at the tiny girl; The fair young mother sings the words, While grandmother smooths the golden curl. And stooping above the precious thing, Murmuring softly "Little one, Grandfather did not weigh you fair." Nobody weighed the baby's smile, Or the love that came with the helpless one; Nobody weighed the threads of care, From which a woman's life is spun. No index tells the mighty worth Patient and faithful until death. Nobody weighed the baby's soul, For here on earth no weights there be Only eight pounds to hold a soul Oh, mother! laugh your merry note, Ethel Lynn Beers [1827-1879] ÉTUDE RÊALISTE I A BABY'S feet, like seashells pink, Might tempt, should heaven see meet, Like rose-hued sea-flowers toward the heat No flower-bells that expand and shrink Little Feet II A baby's hands, like rosebuds furled, Ope if you touch, though close upcurled,- Then, even as warriors grip their brands They close, clenched hard like tightening bands. No rosebuds yet by dawn impearled III A baby's eyes, ere speech begin, Love while the sweet thing laughs and lies, And sleep flows out and in, Sees perfect in them Paradise! Their glance might cast out pain and sin, By mute glad godhead felt within A baby's eyes. Algernon Charles Swinburne [1837-1909] LITTLE FEET Two little feet, so small that both may nestle In one caressing hand, Two tender feet upon the untried border Of life's mysterious land. 15 Dimpled, and soft, and pink as peach-tree blossoms, How can they walk among the briery tangles, These rose-white feet, along the doubtful future, Alas! since Woman has the heavier burden, Love, for a while, will make the path before them Will cull away the brambles, letting only But when the mother's watchful eyes are shrouded And these dear feet are left without her guiding, How will they be allured, betrayed, deluded, Into what dreary mazes will they wander, Will they go stumbling blindly in the darkness Or find the upland slopes of Peace and Beauty, Will they go toiling up Ambition's summit, Or in some nameless vale, securely sheltered, Some feet there be which walk Life's track unwounded, A round of happy days. |