Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, BAPTISM OF AN INFANT AT ITS MOTHER'S FUNERAL, by LYDIA HUNTLEY SIGOURNEY



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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

BAPTISM OF AN INFANT AT ITS MOTHER'S FUNERAL, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Whence is that trembling of a father's hand
Last Line: Be wafted from the minstrelsy of heaven.
Subject(s): Baptism; Stillbirth; Christenings; Death - Childbirth


WHENCE is that trembling of a father's hand,
Who to the man of God doth bring his babe,
Asking the seal of Christ? -- Why doth the voice
That uttereth o'er its brow the Triune Name
Falter with sympathy? -- And most of all,
Why is yon coffin-lid a pedestal
For the baptismal font?
Again I asked.
But all the answer was those gushing tears
Which stricken hearts do weep.
For there she lay,
The fair, young mother in that coffin-bed,
Mourned by the funeral train. The heart that beat
With trembling tenderness, at every touch
Of love of pity, flushed the cheek no more.
-- Tears were thy baptism, thou unconscious one,
And Sorrow took thee at the gate of life,
Into her cradle. Thou may'st never know
The welcome of a nursing mother's kiss,
When lost in wondering ecstacy, she marks
A thrilling growth of new affections spread
Fresh greenness o'er her soul.
Thou may'st not share
Her hallowed teachings, nor suffuse her eye
With joy, as the first germs of infant thought
Unfold, in lisping sound.
Yet may'st thou walk
Even as she walked, breathing on all around
The warmth of high affections purified,
And sublimated, by that Spirit's power
Which makes the soul fit temple for its God.
-- So shalt thou, in a brighter world, behold
That countenance which the cold grave did veil
Thus early from thy sight, and the first tone
Bearing a mother's welcome to thine ear
Be wafted from the minstrelsy of Heaven.





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