Poems Sigourney 1834/Death of an Infant

by Lydia Sigourney

For other versions of this work, see Death of an Infant (Sigourney).

DEATH OF AN INFANT.

Death found strange beauty on that polished brow
And dashed it out.—
                                There was a tint of rose
On cheek and lip.—He touched the veins with ice,
And the rose faded.—
                                  Forth from those blue eyes
There spake a wishful tenderness, a doubt
Whether to grieve or sleep, which innocence
Alone may wear.—With ruthless haste he bound
The silken fringes of those curtaining lids
Forever.—
                 There had been a murmuring sound,
With which the babe would claim its mother's ear,
Charming her even to tears.—The Spoiler set
His seal of silence.—
                                   But there beamed a smile
So fixed, so holy, from that cherub brow,
Death gazed—and left it there.—
                                                     He dared not steal
The signet-ring of Heaven.