Child of my heart! My sweet, beloved first-born!
Thou dove, who tidings bring'st of calmer hours!
Thou rainbow, who dost come when all the showers
Are past, - or passing! Rose which hath no thorn, -
No pain, no blemish, - pure and unforlorn,
Untouched - untainted - O, my flower of flowers!
More welcome than to bees are summer bowers, -
To seamen stranded life-assuring morn.
Welcome! a thousand welcomes! Care, who clings
Round all, seems loosening now her snake-like fold!
New hope springs upwards, and the bright world seems
Cast back into her youth of endless springs! -
- Sweet mother, is it so? - or grow I old,
Bewildered in divine Elysian dreams?
Thou dove, who tidings bring'st of calmer hours!
Thou rainbow, who dost come when all the showers
Are past, - or passing! Rose which hath no thorn, -
No pain, no blemish, - pure and unforlorn,
Untouched - untainted - O, my flower of flowers!
More welcome than to bees are summer bowers, -
To seamen stranded life-assuring morn.
Welcome! a thousand welcomes! Care, who clings
Round all, seems loosening now her snake-like fold!
New hope springs upwards, and the bright world seems
Cast back into her youth of endless springs! -
- Sweet mother, is it so? - or grow I old,
Bewildered in divine Elysian dreams?