Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, RUTH, by CELIA LEIGHTON THAXTER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

RUTH, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: A baby girl not two years old
Last Line: "safe in the arms of love divine."
Subject(s): Babies; Flowers; Life Change Events; Love; Mothers; Infants


A baby girl not two years old
among the phlox and pansies stands,
and full of flowers as they can hold
her mother fills her little hands

and bids her cross to where I stay
within my garden's fragrant space
and guides her past the poppies gay
'mid mazes of the blooming place

saying: "Go carry Thea these."
Delighted, forth the baby fares
between the fluttering-winged sweet peas;
her treasured buds she safely bears.

Tis but a step, but oh what stress
of care. What difficulties wait.
How many pretty dangers press
upon the path from gate to gate!

But high above her sunny head
she tries the roses, sweet to hold—
now caught in coreopsis red,
half wrecked upon a marigold,

or tangled in a cornflower tall,
or hindered by the poppy tops—
she struggles on, nor does she fall,
nor stalk nor stem her progress stops

until at last, the trials past,
victorious o'er the path's alarms,
herself, her flowers, and all are cast
breathless into my happy arms.

My smiling, rosy little maid—
And while her joy-flushed cheek I kiss
and close to mine its bloom is laid
I think, "So may you find your bliss

my precious. When in coming years
life's path grows a bewildering maze,
so may you conquer doubts and fears
and safely thread its devious ways

and find yourself all dangers past,
clasped to a fonder breast than mine,
and gain your heavenly joy at last
safe in the arms of love divine."





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