I saw where in the shroud did lurk
A curious frame of Nature』s work;
A floweret crushd in the bud,
A nameless piece of Babyhood,
Was in her cradle-coffin lying;
Extinct, with scarce the sense of dying:
So soon to exge the imprisoning womb
For darker closets of the tomb!
She did but ope an eye, and put
A clear beam forth, then straight up shut
For the long dark: neer more to see
Through glasses of mortality.
Riddle of destiny, who show
What thy short visit meant, or know
What thy errand here below?
Shall we say that Nature blind
Checkd her hand, and ged her mind,
Just when she had exactly wrought
A finishd pattern without fault?
Could she flag, or could she tire,
Or lackd she the Promethean fire
(With her nine moons long ws sid)
That should thy little limbs have quid?
Limbs so firm, they seemd to assure
Life of health, and days mature:
Womans self in miniature!
Limbs so fair, they might supply
(Themselves now but cold imagery)
The sculptor to make Beauty by.
Or did the stern-eyed Fate descry
That babe or mother, one must die;
So in mercy left the stock
And cut the branch; to save the shock
Of young years widowd, and the pain
When siate es back again
To the lone man who, reft of wife,
Thenceforward drags a maimèd life?
The ey of Heaven is dark,
And wisest clerks have missd the mark,
Why human buds, like this, should fall,
More brief than fly ephemeral
That has his day; while shrivelld es
Stiffen with age to stocks and stones;
And crabbèd use the sce sears
In sinners of an hundred years.
Mothers prattle, mothers kiss,
Baby fond, thou neer wilt miss:
Rites, which does impose,
Silver bells, and baby clothes;
Coral redder than those lips
Which pale death did late eclipse;
Music framed for infants glee,
Whistle uned for thee;
Though thou wantst not, thou shalt have them,
Lovis were they which gave them.
Let not one be missing; nurse,
See them laid upon the hearse
Of infant slain by doom perverse.
Why should kings and nobles have
Pictured trophies to their grave,
And we, churls, to thee deny
Thy pretty toys with thee to lie;
A more harmless vanity?