 | [Poems by Piatt in] The Children Out-of-doors |  |
21
THE SUNSHINE OF SHADOWS.
(ON A PHOTOGRAPH OF THREE CHILDREN.)
Three children's shadow-faces look
From my familiar picture-book:
Far from their father's threshold sweet
I found them in a noisy street.
From my familiar picture-book:
Far from their father's threshold sweet
I found them in a noisy street.
“Dear children, come with me,” I said,
“And make my home your own instead;
Your gentle looks, your tender words,
Shall mate the sunbeams, charm the birds.”
“And make my home your own instead;
Your gentle looks, your tender words,
Shall mate the sunbeams, charm the birds.”
They came, but never lip is stirred
With merry laugh or mirthful word:
As in a trance at me they look
Whene'er I ope their prisoning book.
With merry laugh or mirthful word:
As in a trance at me they look
Whene'er I ope their prisoning book.
But as I gaze, in reverie bound,
The silence overflows with sound;
From garden haunts of birds and bees
Hum voices through the blossoming trees.
The silence overflows with sound;
From garden haunts of birds and bees
Hum voices through the blossoming trees.
22
Like waters heard when breezes blow,
Light laughters waver to and fro;
Then, when my dream is gone, I say—
“Some wind has blown the sound away.’
Light laughters waver to and fro;
Then, when my dream is gone, I say—
“Some wind has blown the sound away.’
For the light breeze, alighting brief,
Turns with its sudden wings the leaf,
And, like a passing sunshine, they
Seem so to shout and fly away!
Turns with its sudden wings the leaf,
And, like a passing sunshine, they
Seem so to shout and fly away!
1864
| [Poems by Piatt in] The Children Out-of-doors | |