Poems (Welby)/Lines on Seeing a Beautiful Little Girl Gathering Flowers

by Amelia Welby

LINES WRITTEN WHILE GAZING ON A BEAUTIFUL LITTLE GIRL GATHERING FLOWERS.

I love to gaze on thy face, fair child,
 For thou seemest too bright for earth;
There's a music-tone in thy laughter wild,
 As it breaks from thy heart of mirth.

Affection speaks in thy soft blue eye.
 As its restless glances rove,
Thy voice of glee comes ringing by—
 Alas! for thy heart of love.

Ah! many a bright and airy dream
 Hath over thy spirit past,
Like sunshine o'er a laughing stream,
 Too beautiful to last.

I sigh to think of the transient joy,
 That illumines thy gladsome youth,
Of the guile and deceit, that will soon destroy
 Thy feelings of warmth and truth.

Thou 'rt plucking away from their slender stems,
 The rose and the lily fair,
Their bright leaves glittering with dewy gems,
 To wreathe in thy golden hair.

And now thou 'rt crowned, like a fairy queen,
 With flowerets of many a hue,
Thy brow 'neath their velvet leaves is seen
 Like a snow-flake shining through.

The rose, with its softest, richest dyes,
 Scarce rivals thy downy cheek,
Thy dewy lip with each blossom vies,
 And thine eyes with the violets meek.

Thou seemest to me but a brighter flower
 Just budding with beauty rife,
And deeming the world all a fairy-bower—
 Ah! this is thy dream of life.

But childhood will flee, and with riper years
 Thy thoughts will be borne away;
With a bosom thrilling with hopes and fears,
 Thou wilt move mid the fair and gay.

The feelings, that now in thy bosom sleep,
 Will burst from their dreamy thrall;
Alas! that love like a blight should creep,
 And wither those feelings all.

Ah! then thou wilt taste of the cup of wo
 If thy pure deep love be spurned,
For hearts, that like thine with affection glow,
 Have seldom their love returned.

Alas! that one care of earth should mar
 The beauty that seems divine—
That thine eye, like a softly gleaming star,
 Should e'er through a tear-drop shine.