A child asleep

How he sleepeth! [ having drunken

Weary childhood's mandragore,

From his pretty eyes have sunken

Pleasures, to make room for more---

Sleeping near the withered nosegay, which he pulled the day before.

Nosegays! leave them for the waking:

Throw them earthward where they grew.

Dim are such, beside the breaking

Amaranths he looks unto---

Folded eyes see brighter colours than the open ever do.

Heaven-flowers, rayed by shadows golden

From the paths they sprang beneath,

Now perhaps divinely holden,

Swing against him in a wreath---

We may think so from the quickening of his bloom and of his breath. ]

Vision unto vision calleth,

While the young child dreameth on.

Fair, O dreamer, thee befalleth

With the glory thou hast won!

Darker wert thou in the garden, yestermorn, by summer sun.

We should see the spirits ringing

Round thee, -- were the clouds away.

'Tis the child-heart draws them, singing

In the silent-seeming clay --

Singing! -- Stars that seem the mutest, go in music all the way.

[ As the moths around a taper,

As the bees around a rose,

As the gnats around a vapour,---

So the Spirits group and close

Round about a holy childhood, as if drinking its repose.

Shapes of brightness overlean thee,---

Flash their diadems of youth

On the ringlets which half screen thee,---

While thou smilest,... not in sooth

Thy smile... but the overfair one, dropt from some aethereal mouth.

Haply it is angels' duty,

During slumber, shade by shade:

To fine down this childish beauty

To the thing it must be made,

Ere the world shall bring it praises, or the tomb shall see it fade.]

Softly, softly! make no noises!

Now he lieth dead and dumb --

Now he hears the angels' voices

Folding silence in the room --

Now he muses deep the meaning of the Heaven-words as they come.

[ Speak not! he is consecrated --

Breathe no breath across his eyes.

Lifted up and separated,

On the hand of God he lies,

In a sweetness beyond touching -- held in cloistral sanctities.

Could ye bless him -- father -- mother?

Bless the dimple in his cheek?

Dare ye look at one another,

And the benediction speak?

Would ye not break out in weeping, and confess yourselves too weak? ]

He is harmless -- ye are sinful, --

Ye are troubled -- he, at ease:

From his slumber, virtue winful

Floweth outward with increase --

Dare not bless him! but be blessed by his peace -- and go in peace.