We Had A Child

We had a child, a little Fairy Prince, Let loose from Elfland for our heart's delight; Ah! was it yesterday or four years since He beamed upon our sight? Four years--and yet it seems but yesterday Since the blue wonder of his baby eyes. Beneath their ebon-fringèd canopies, Subdued us to his sway.

Three years--and yet but yestermorn it seems Since first upon his feet he swaying stood, Buoyed bravely up by memory's magic dreams Of elfin hardihood. He stood, the while that long-forgotten lore Lit all his lovely face with frolic glee; And then--O marvel! to his mother's knee Walked the wide nursery floor.

Two years gone by--ah, no! but yesterday Our bright-eyed nursling, swift as we could teach, Forsook the low soft croonings of the fay For broken human speech-- Broken, yet to our ears divinelier broken Than sweetest snatches from Heaven's mounting bird-- More eloquent than the poet's passionate word Supremely sung or spoken.

But O, our darling in his joyful dance Tottered death-pale beneath the withering north, Into a kinder clime, most blessed chance, We caught him swiftly forth, And there he bloomed again, our fairy boy, Two year-long Aprils through in sun and shower, Wing-footed Mercury of each merry hour, The Genius of our joy.

And evermore we shared his shifting mood Of hide-and-seek with April joy and sorrow, Till not one shadow of solicitude Remained to mar our morrow; Yea, every fear had flown, lest, welladay! The headlong heats or winter's piercing power Should light afresh upon our radiant flower And wither him away.

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We had a child, a little fairy child, He kissed us on the lips but yesternight, Yet when he wakened his blue eyes were wild With fevered light. We had a child--what countless ages since, Did he go forth from us with wildered brain, Will he come back and kiss us once again-- Our little Fairy Prince?