Death of an Infant

Death found strange beauty on that cherub brow,

And dash’d it out. – There was a tint of rose

O’er cheek and lip; – he touch’d the veins with ice,

And the rose faded. – Forth from those blue eyes

There spake a wistful tenderness, – a doubt

Whether to grieve or sleep, which Innocence

Alone can wear. – With ruthless haste he bound

The silken fringes of their 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 beam’d a smile,

So fix’d and holy from that marble brow, –

Death gazed and left it there; – he dared not steal

The signet-ring of Heaven.