 | Selections from the American poets |  |
TO AN INFANT SLEEPING IN A GARDEN.
Rufus Dawes.
Sleep on, sweet babe! the flowers that wake
Around thee are not half so fair;
Thy dimpling smiles unconscious break,
Like sunlight on the vernal air.
Around thee are not half so fair;
Thy dimpling smiles unconscious break,
Like sunlight on the vernal air.
Sleep on! no dreams of care are thine,
No anxious thoughts that may not rest;
For angel arms around thee twine,
To make thy infant slumbers bless'd.
No anxious thoughts that may not rest;
For angel arms around thee twine,
To make thy infant slumbers bless'd.
Perchance her spirit hovers near,
Whose name thy infant beauty bears,
To guard thine eyelids from the tear
That every child of sorrow shares.
Whose name thy infant beauty bears,
To guard thine eyelids from the tear
That every child of sorrow shares.
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Oh! may thy life like hers endure,
Unsullied to its spotless close;
And bend to earth as calm and pure
As ever bowed the summer rose.
Unsullied to its spotless close;
And bend to earth as calm and pure
As ever bowed the summer rose.
| Selections from the American poets | |