Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ON A DEAR CHILD, by WILLIAM PETER


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ON A DEAR CHILD, by                    
First Line: Flowers for the loved,the lost! Bring flowers
Last Line: From one, that's worthy thee?
Subject(s): Children; Childhood


FLOWERS for the loved, the lost! Bring flowers,
The sweetest of the year;
They charm'd him in life's happiest hours,
And let them strew his bier.

Meet emblems of a spring, like his,
That bloom'd but to decay,
That stole, in dreams of gentle bliss
And innocence, away.

We weep, though not in bitterness,
Ours are not tears of gloom;
No thoughts, but those of tenderness,
Shall glisten round his tomb.

No painful recollections rise --
His morn -- it dawn'd so blest,
And, ere a cloud had dimm'd its skies,
Sweet lamb, he was at rest.

He's far away! Yet still I gaze
Upon his smiling face,
Still mark his little winning ways,
His every infant grace:

I listen for his airy tread,
His voice I turn to hear,
Nor knew I, till their sounds had fled,
That he was half so dear.

Each scene he loved, -- the sandy wild,
The rocks, the lone-blue sea, --
The birds, the flowers, on which he smiled, --
Shall long be dear to me.

Oh, had I been beside his bed,
But one sad kiss to share,
To soothe, perchance, his throbbing head,
To hear his heart's meek prayer.

To press his little grateful hand,
To watch his patient breath,
And gaze upon that smile, so bland,
So beautiful, in death.

But these are past. And why, my child,
Should I lament thy doom?
Thou wert a plant, too rare, too mild,
On earth's bleak wastes to bloom.

Oh, why should we disturb thy bliss,
(For such thy lot must be)
Why wish thee in a world like this,
From one, that's worthy thee?





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