SONG XXVIII. A MOTHER's SOLILOQUY OVER HER DYING INFANT

Tender softness, infant mild! Perfect, sweetest, brightest child! Transient lustre! beauteous clay! Smiling wonder of a day! Ere the last convulfive start Rend thy unresisting heart; Ere the long enduring noon Weighs thy precious eye-lids down, Ah! regard a mother's moan,— Angush deeper than thy own!

Fairest eyes, whose dawning light Late with rapture blest my sight, Ere your orbs extinguish'd be, Bend their trembling beams on me! Drooping sweetness! verdant flow'r! Blooming,—with'ring in an hour! Ere thy gentle breast sustains Latest, fiercest, mortal pains, Hear a suppliant; let it be Partner in thy destiny!