Panama and Other Poems Narrative and Occasional :: :: University of Virginia Library

Women, if young ye be,
Or deep in years,
Shall your first doll recall
Not without tears.
Flaxen-haired, blue of eyes,
Ribboned with red;
What did it mean to you?
How much it said!
Buddings of motherhood,
Wish to caress,
Instinct to fondle, you
Could not repress.
Oft in the later years,
Mid falser joys,
Have ye not turned at night
Back to those toys?

Husband or friend ye find
Not what they seem,
Never your doll did fail
You of your dream.
Think then of little mites,
Lonely in mud;
Aid them to blossom there,
Help them to bud.
Give them some little gleam,
Damsels of five,
Lights out of fairyland,
Dolls so alive.
Think that these children have,
Mid all their mire,
Murmurs of motherhood,
Blindly aspire;
Something to dress, undress,
Give them to hold,
Bathe, and to put to bed,
Fold and unfold.
They, whatsoe'er their fate
Shall not forget,
This, that to-night your eyes
For them were wet.

Dolls, though of waxen smile,
Faces how frail,
Shall not in sterner years
Flee them or fail.