Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE BABE, by CONDE BENOIST PALLEN


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE BABE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: How strange when thou wert not, a life to-be!
Last Line: As utter peace and quiet as dreamless sleep.
Subject(s): Babies; Infants


I

How strange when thou wert not, a life to-be!
Nor ready fancy playing fondly drew
Thine unguessed lineaments in shape or hue,
Wrapt in the womb of possibility,
Where silence brooded o'er the darkened sea
Rolling a soundless tide; nor hint nor clew
Was murmured from that voiceless deep, nor blew
A message on the winds to tell of thee.

We know not whence, but like a sudden light
From darkness flashing out, and all aglow
With radiant light, thy being burst to flame!
But now the unseen held thee from our sight,
An unborn mystery, undreamed—and lo!
Love called, and thou didst answer to thy name.

II

Sweet mystery, thou living soul with eyes
To gaze upon the shifting scene that plays
In ceaseless change about life's narrow ways,
And wondering gather 'neath the circling skies
The fleeting, variant image as it flies,
While time with nimble shuttle weaves the days
Around thine unconcernèd head, and lays
His glittering thread athwart thy destinies;

Echoes of life around thee come and go
Unheeded, like the muffled sounds that fill
The lonely watches of the central deep,
When midnight bends aloft her sable bow,
And feathered silence falls around, as still
As utter peace and quiet as dreamless sleep.





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