 | Poems of "Frank Forester" (Henry William Herbert) |  |
163
SONNET 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,
To smile new rapture on 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.
| Poems of "Frank Forester" (Henry William Herbert) | |