A Mother’s Song
Over fast-closed baby eyes
In the garden’s golden air
Blossom-white the butterflies
Hover, hurry, part and pair,
Sudden shinings, flown nowhere!
Blue, above, the unbounded skies!
Little one, O downy head,
O fingers clasping, shaped and small,
Laid in soft nest of your bed,
How the trees are Titan-tall
Over you that slumber, all
Ignorant of hope and dread!
O so small, and all around
Life so vast works wonders new.
Yet to you is set no bound
What you shall desire and do,
Find and fashion and hold true;
Deeps you hold no thought can sound:
You are sought by powers unknown;
On your trembling heart-strings play
Airs unheard, O little one!
Whisperings of far away,
Music made of day and day—
Lands of promise, all your own!
Wide as heaven the secrecies
You enfold: ev’n now, ev’n here,
You presage infinities,
While above in hope, in fear,
My white wishes, far and near,
Hover like the butterflies.
