All Quiet along the Potomac and other poems/Baby Looking out for Me
BABY LOOKING OUT FOR ME.
TWO little busy hands patting on the window,
Two laughing bright eyes looking out at me;
Two rosy red cheeks dented with a dimple;
Mother-bird is coming; Baby, do you see?
Down by the lilac-bush, something white and azure
Saw I in the window as I passed the tree;
Well I knew the apron and shoulder-knots of ribbon;
All belonged to Baby, looking out for me.
Talking low and tenderly
To myself, as mothers will,
Spake I softly, "God in heaven,
Keep my darling free from ill.
Worldly good and worldly honors
Ask I not for her from Thee;
But from want and sin and sorrow,
Keep her ever pure and free."
****
Two little waxen hands
Folded soft and silently;
Two little curtained eyes
Looking out no more for me;
Two little snowy cheeks,
Dimple-dented nevermore;
Two little trodden shoes,
That will never touch the floor;
Shoulder-ribbon softly twisted,
Apron folded, clean and white;
These are left me, and these only,
Of the childish presence bright.
Thus He sent an answer to my earnest praying,
Thus He keeps my darling free from earthly stain,
Thus He folds the pet lamb safe from earthly straying;
But I miss her sadly by the window-pane.
Till I look above it; then, with purer vision,
Sad, I weep no longer the lilac-bush to pass,
For I see her angel, pure, and white, and sinless,
Walking with the harpers by the Sea of Glass.
Two little snowy wings
Softly flutter to and fro;
Two tiny childish hands
Beckon still to me below;
Two tender angel eyes
Watch me ever earnestly
Through the loopholes of the stars;
Baby's looking out for me.