Poems By Richard Chenevix Trench: New ed |
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TO MY GODCHILD,
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26
TO MY GODCHILD,
ON THE DAY OF HIS BAPTISM.
No harsh transitions Nature knows,
No dreary spaces intervene;
Her work in silence forward goes,
And rather felt than seen:
No dreary spaces intervene;
Her work in silence forward goes,
And rather felt than seen:
For where the watcher, who with eye
Turned eastward, yet could ever say
When the faint glooming in the sky
First lightened into day?
Turned eastward, yet could ever say
When the faint glooming in the sky
First lightened into day?
Or maiden, by an opening flower
That many a summer morn has stood,
Could fix upon the very hour
It ceased to be a bud?
That many a summer morn has stood,
Could fix upon the very hour
It ceased to be a bud?
The rainbow colours mix and blend
Each with the other, until none
Can tell where fainter hues had end,
And deeper tints begun.
Each with the other, until none
Can tell where fainter hues had end,
And deeper tints begun.
But only doth this much appear—
That the pale hues are deeper grown;
The day has broken bright and clear;
The bud is fully blown.
That the pale hues are deeper grown;
The day has broken bright and clear;
The bud is fully blown.
27
Dear child, and happy shalt thou be,
If from this hour with just increase
All good things shall grow up in thee,
By such unmarked degrees:
If from this hour with just increase
All good things shall grow up in thee,
By such unmarked degrees:
If there shall be no dreary space
Between thy present self and past,
No dreary miserable place
With spectral shapes aghast;
Between thy present self and past,
No dreary miserable place
With spectral shapes aghast;
But the full graces of thy prime
Shall, in their weak beginnings, be
Lost in an unremembered time
Of holy infancy.
Shall, in their weak beginnings, be
Lost in an unremembered time
Of holy infancy.
This blessing is the first and best;
Yet has not prayer been made in vain
For them, though not so amply blest,
The lost and found again.
Yet has not prayer been made in vain
For them, though not so amply blest,
The lost and found again.
And shouldest thou, alas! forbear
To choose the better, nobler lot,
Yet may we not esteem our prayer
Unheard or heeded not;
To choose the better, nobler lot,
Yet may we not esteem our prayer
Unheard or heeded not;
If after many a wandering,
And many a devious pathway trod,
If having known that bitter thing,
To leave the Lord thy God;
And many a devious pathway trod,
If having known that bitter thing,
To leave the Lord thy God;
It yet shall be, that thou at last,
Although thy noon be lost, return
To bind life's eve in union fast
With this, its blessëd morn.
Although thy noon be lost, return
To bind life's eve in union fast
With this, its blessëd morn.
| Poems | |