 | The ghost's entry and other poems |  |
130
A CHILD'S FACE
A PHOTOGRAPH
It is the picture of a little child:In the great Babel's roar—he hears it not:
In the great Babel's press—he sees it not.
His mother stoops beside him, and her arm
Caresses him in silence, near her heart. ...
—Sometime an old man shall be gazing at thee,
Sweet Wonder of the world and Wonderer sweet!
And, while his dim blue eyes are fixed on thine,
Like a tired pilgrim at the close of day
Who finds some pillow Nature smoothed for him
Of wayside moss and sinks to happy rest,
Unconsciously a dream, shall pass to thee—
131
Then, looking up to find that mother's face,
He shall be grey, the pilgrim weighed with years,
Weary with the long harvest of the world. ...
'Tis but a dream wherein the child grows old:
'Tis but a dream makes the old man a child.
| The ghost's entry and other poems | |