Posthumous Poems/Sairey Gamp's Roundel

by Algernon Charles Swinburne

SAIREY GAMP'S ROUNDEL

A Baby's thumb, the little duck's,
Is fitter food than crust or crumb,
In baby's mouth when baby sucks
A baby's thumb.
It gives delight to all and some
Who wish the child the best of lucks
That ever to a child may come.

Its mien is pleasanter than Puck's,
Its air triumphant, placid, dumb,
Benignant, bland, when baby sucks
A baby's thumb.

Note.—In sending this roundel to his sister Isabel, on the 19th of February, 1883, Swinburne accompanied it with a note, of which only a fragment is preserved:—

"My dearest Abba,
"The preceding burst of lyric song, in Sairey's very best handwriting, was composed by that lady a day or two ago while dredging, and wrote down faithful before breakfast; which she do hope it may give satigefaction to Mrs. Harris—whose 'Eavenly dispogicion is well-beknown—and her family circle."