The Poetical Works of Robert Montgomery :: :: University of Virginia Library

Vanish'd Infant! years have fled
Since thou wert coffin'd, pale and cold;
Yet, to me thou art not dead,
But still mine inward eyes behold
The fairy brow, and form, and cherub feature
Perfect as when they graced the living creature.

Little dream unloving Hearts
Which never thrill'd with parent-gladness,
Seldom from the soul departs
A shade of unpartaken sadness,
Cast by the death of some sweet babe who died,
As though this World its young soul terrified.

Coil'd within man's secret mind
Mysterious chords of feeling dwell;
But they ne'er their charms unwind
Till something wakes their dormant spell,
When lo! at once with magic life they move
Deeper than passion, but divine as love.

Ever thus, in casual street
A nursling pillow'd on the breast
If alone I chance to meet,
How oft it brings a fond unrest!—
The aching flutter of a wordless thought
With more than mem'ry in full action fraught.

Almost in my hand I feel
The cling and clasp of baby-fingers,
And a life-breath o'er me steal
Which faintly ebbs, and fondly lingers;
Till once again a cradled form I see,
And breathe, dead Flower! a father's prayer for thee.

Like a dove-wing in the sky
Melted and mingled with soft light,
Hast thou faded from an eye
That when it saw thee, grew more bright;
But still, in love's eternity thou art
A living infant to thy father's heart.