Death of an Infant
by Lydia Sigourney
DEATH found strange beauty on that polish’d brow,
And dash’d it out. There was a tint of rose
On cheek and lip. He touched the veins with ice,
And the rose faded.
Forth from those blue eyes
There spake a wishful tenderness, a doubt
Whether to grieve or sleep, which innocence
Alone may wear. With ruthless haste he bound
The silken fringes of those curtaining lids
For ever.
There had been a murmuring sound,
With which the babe would claim its mother’s ear,
Charming her even to tears. The spoiler set
The seal of silence.
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But there beamed a smile,
So fix’d, so holy, from the cherub brow,
Death gazed, and left it there. He dar’d not steal
The signet-ring of Heaven.
Public Domain Source: University of Michigan Library, Digital Collections