Poems (Toke)/To Emma Laura

by Emma Toke

TO EMMA LAURA.

AGED THREE YEARS.

HOU art dancing on before me,
 My little happy child;
While I, beneath this summer sky,
Wander on in languid luxury,
 To dreamy thoughts beguiled.

Sweet is this "leafy month of June,"
 With all its glorious flowers,
But sweeter far to watch the rose
That on thy cheek unclouded glows,
 The hue of life's best hours.

And brighter than the summer sky
 Thine eyes' celestial blue,
Thy radiant smile and sunny hair
That mantles o'er thy forehead fair,
 In waves of golden hue.

Around me every leafy brake
 With woodland music rings;
But none so sweet as that wild lay,
Thy little voice the livelong day
 For very gladness sings.

Dance on, dance on, my merry one!
 Sport through the summer hours;
Life will not always thus to thee
One long, bright noon of sunshine be,
 One path of thornless flowers.

Thy morn is only opening now;
 O that through life's long day
The sunlight of this early time,
The dewy freshness of thy prime,
 Might never pass away!

Thou hast thy mother's name, my child;
 Her anxious love for thee
No better earthly wish can prove,
Than that thy lot of wedded love
 As blessed as hers may be.

But far that future; short the path
 Thy little feet have trod.
We cannot trace thine onward way,
But only use the present day,
 And leave the rest to God.

And oh! if now the precious seed
 In humble faith is cast,
We well may trust that sun and shower
Will surely bring our folded flower
 To bloom in heaven at last!

E.

June, 1845.