Page:Roden Noel - A Little Child's Monument - 1881.pdf/51

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A LITTLE CHILD'S MONUMENT.

Of foam, into unfathomable gloom!
Worlds and shed leaves have all one doom.
Arise, arise!
Threaten not the tranquil skies.

Should Earth's tremendous Shade
Spare only you and yours?
Who regardeth empires fade
Untroubled, who impassive pours
Human joy, a mere spilt water,
Revels red with human slaughter!
Arise, arise!
Threaten not the tranquil skies.

Another Voice.

… Only a little child!
He was the world to me.
Pierced to the heart, insane, defiled,
All holiest hope! foul mockery,
Childhood's innocent mirth and rest;
Man's brief life a brutal jest.
There is no God;
Earth is Love's sepulchral sod!

Another Voice.

Only a little child!
Ah! then, who brought him here?
Who made him loving, fair, and mild,
And to your soul so dear?