Is there such another Baby
As our Gertie’s bonny Boy?
In the Happy Isles there may be,
And I give his mother joy!
But this baby is no sample
From the mirth of Kingdom Come,
Brought to sell by, – but at home
In our climes, for wonder ample.
Just a plump incarnate sweetness;
Solid Bliss, & ever fresh
Budding Promise of completeness,
Rolled in rounded, healthy flesh;
Peace again in baby vesture,
Young serenity in clay,
Spirit of earth’s Better Day
Playing bo-peep in his nest here!
See him, with that moony whiteness,
And that blush of timid grace
That like clouds sun-tousled to brightness,
Reddens the translucent face;
Dusky eyes with inner laughter
Lighting up their shady wells,
Where a tiny spirit dwells
Answering to love’s calling after;
Lashes long & upward sweeping
Like the ripples envied sheet
Backward from brown pebbles leaping
Where the thinnest tide-waves beat.
And the eye-laugh only heaving
Shoots up ray-like through the rays
Of dark lashes, like the day’s
Down-light over vapors streaming.
Calm delight & little wonder
Look by turns from that dark eye,
And young thought sits gravely nudes
With quaint shadows flitting by!
Here is sweetness never broken
By a sullen brow, or life;
Baby griefs that light there, slips
Touch & fly, & leave no token!
All his gifts are as this setting,
Rounded, full of grace & ease;
Taking Earth as not forgetting
The pie-metal Eden’s peace.
Where is such another Baby
As our Gertie’s bonny Boy?
In what human home he may be,
Here I give his mother joy!
Gertie's Baby