University of Virginia Library

TO PRINCE HAL AND LITTLE QUEEN MAUDE.

I bring you these little song-blossoms;
They grew in my working-field:
No wonderful beauty or splendor
Can a trodden footpath yield:
But the breezes of childish laughter,
And the light in a baby's eye,
To the homeliest road bring a freshness
As free as the blue of the sky.
And I, for one, would much rather,
Could I merit so sweet a thing,
Be the poet of little children
Than the laureate of a king.