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MIMMA BELLA; IN MEMORY OF A LITTLE LIFE: 19 by EUGENE JACOB LEE-HAMILTON

First Line: WHAT ALCHEMY IS THINE, O LITTLE CHILD
Last Line: SHRINES IN ITS SANCTUARIES WHILE AGES FLOW.
Subject(s): DEATH - CHILDREN; DEATH - BABIES;

What alchemy is thine, O little Child,
Transmuting all our thoughts, thou that art dead,
And making gold of all the dross of lead
That leaves the soul's pure crucible defiled;

A vaporous gold, which I would fain have piled
Upon my palette, and with light brush spread
On Death's dark background, that thy baby head
Might wear a nimbus where the angels smiled?

Thus had I given back what thou hast wrought
In my own soul, and placed thee high among
The cherubs that are aureoled in glow;

Rimming thy brow with fine red gold of thought,
In such fair pictures as the English tongue
Shrines in its sanctuaries while ages flow.



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