Poems (Argent)/My Little Namesake
MY LITTLE NAMESAKE.
"Sweet childish days that were as long As twenty days are now."—Wordsworth.
LITTLE Alice in the gardenShouts and plays the live-long dayAnd you cannot put a word in, "Little puss" is all you say.In and out the garden closes,A wild rose amid the roses!
She will lean on tiptoe beaming, Her blue eyes so full and brightIn your own, whose mystic dreaming Is not meet to cloud her sight.Darling, ne'er may sin nor sorrowGreet you in the dim to-morrow.
Little Alice, with your golden Hair a-blowing in the breeze,In a rippled sunshine folden, Happy as the honey bees. No sad thought of the hereafterBreaks upon your childish laughter.
You come up, my dearie, flying Here and there, like bird on wing,Where I sit in dreamland sighing, Yet I love to hear you sing.Love to see you almost dailyPlaying in the garden gaily!
Run away, old Pilot wants you, Claims you for another race,Nothing, sweet, I know, will daunt you, As you stroke his faithful face.I can see you in your bonnetWith the primrose ball upon it.
And I note your sly embraces On the collie by your side,Looking up with feline graces Guarding you with so much pride.Oh! my dimpled laughing treasure,You are dear beyond all measure.
Only child of such a mother, Dearest friend of early days,Ne'er a sister, ne'er a brother Comes to see your pretty ways!In the land of palms and beautyServing on a round of duty,
Your good father lives; the ocean, Silvered with a myriad lights,Rising in sublime emotion Thunders o'er the rocky heights.You, his only little daughterSailed long since across that water.
And we heard those waves of rapture Sing on an unconscious chime,Yet I long had failed to capture All the meaning of their rhyme,Of those voices, deep, sonorous,Swelling in tumultuous chorus!
Little Alice knows their meaning, Children see with clearer eyes,For bright spirits downward beaming Teach them many mysteries.They catch first heaven's intonationBy their humbleness of station.
Now with me in English fashion You are rooted firm and fast,And I love you with a passion That will through a lifetime last.You are sipping from love's chalice,And the angels call you Alice.
Little footsteps 'neath the casement Of my study framed in green, Muffled deep from top to basement With the ivy's dazzling sheen.I can hear your small voice flutterClose beside the folded shutter.
Oh! you airy, tiny vision, Keep your childhood, do not startOut of fairy fields Elysian, To reach up to woman's heart.Cupid ne'er should sport caresses,Net your soul to his gold tresses!
May the future bring you gladness, Give you, sweet one, all that's best,Never lay you low in sadness, Never sorrow dark your breast.Fitly as the April flowersMay you bloom 'mid sun and showers!
Oh! my childhood comes and blesses Once again as here I sit,And I feel the old caresses Round about my forehead flit.Time hath lain his finger hoaryOn that wealth of untold glory!
But I'm dreaming! let me waken To the present once again,See! the aspen leaves are shaken With the prophecy of rain! Good night, Alice! sleep has crowned youEarly, with God's sunshine round you!