A Child’S Noonday Sleep

Because you sleep, my child, with breathing light As heave of the June sea, Because your lips soft petals dewy-bright Dispart so tenderly;

Because the slumbrous warmth is on your cheek Up from the hushed heart sent, And in this midmost noon when winds are weak No cloud lies more content;

Because nor song of bird, nor lamb’s keen call May reach you sunken deep, Because your lifted arm I thus let fall Heavy with perfect sleep;

Because all will is drawn from you, all power, And Nature through dark roots Will hold and nourish you for one sweet hour Amid her flowers and fruits;

Therefore though tempests gather, and the gale Through autumn skies will roar, Though Earth send up to heaven the ancient wail Heard by dead Gods of yore;

Though spectral faiths contend, and for her course The soul confused must try, While through the whirl of atoms and of force Looms an abandoned sky;

Yet, know I, Peace abides, of earth’s wild things Centre, and ruling thence; Behold, a spirit folds her budded wings In confident innocence.