TO MY SWEET GRAND-DAUGHTER, ELIZA GREENE DOANE, ON HER BAPTISMAL BIRTH-DAY. SWEET baby, when thy father We hailed him, as a blessed streak Now, two and twenty winters Have heaped on us their snows: Thou meek and gentle Jesus, And humbly, we implore Thy grace, To keep her for Thine own; Before Thy glorious throne. RIVERSIDE, ST. ANDREW'S DAY, 1854. THE NEW CRADLE. A very little boy, whose infant brother had died the day before, being asked where he was, sweetly replied, " Asleep, up stairs, in his new cradle." 66 ASLEEP, in his new cradle "- And one, whose truthful tenderness "Asleep, in his new cradle"- From death, could not be free; "Asleep, in his new cradle "- The lullabies of nature, Lost, in its symphonies: Asleep, in his new cradle ". He waits for you to come, God's loved ones, all, shall bring, Reign with their Saviour-King. RIVERSIDE, SEPTUAGESIMA, 1855. FANNY'S GRAVE. "There's pansies, that's for thoughts."-Ophelia, in Hamlet. UPON our darling Fanny's grave, The Pansies are in bloom: What sweetest thoughts, unbidden, spring, Upon that peaceful spot: The lilies of the valley wave, While she, on flowers immortal, treads, A thousand times more sweet. Still may her loveliness attract Our thoughts, and hearts above; Till, through the Cross she clasped, we join WHITSUNDAY, 1855. THE EYES OF THE ANGELS. A little child was disappointed, when her mother told her what the stars were She said, "I thought they were the eyes of angels," MOTHER, what are those little things, "The Stars, my child!" "I thought, Mother, "They look down on me, so like yours, As beautiful, and mild; When, by my crib, you used to sit, And watch your feverish child. And, always, when I shut my eyes, That they had opened theirs." RIVERSIDE, Monday before Easter, 1855. "MY LOVE LIES BLEEDING." THAT melancholy Amaranth; It haunts me all the day, With memories of "my birdie love," "Where is my precious baby' gone?" Rings out, on all the air; And stillness stuns my ear, the while; My Lizzie "birdie " nestles, now, Yet, still, her flute-notes sweet, I hear, Through all the breakers' roar : And, when she spreads her dovelike wings, The foaming surge, to brave: With plumes, like "yellow gold," she seems That melancholy Amaranth, With pendant, purple flowers, Like weeping-willow, stands to mark, The graves, of parted hours. Far, far, away, "my birdie love" Is "plashing" in the sea; "My love lies bleeding," all that's left, To solitude and me. August 15, 1856. *The common name, for the flower, known to botanists, as "Amaranthus Melancholicus; a favourite flower of the little grand-child, to whom these lines were written. The words in quotation, in these two pieces, are the baby language that they used together. FROM "DANPY" TO HIS "BIRDIE." WITH A WINTER BLOSSOM.* My "birdie " love, your little flowers. He laid the fair and fragrant things, And cheer him, when he grieves. So may his "birdie Lizzie" lie Till, at the gracious Saviour's call, ASCENSION, 1856. A PRAYER. Father, to Thy hands I give, * A curl of his hair. |