Poems Sigourney 1834/Baptism of an Infant, at its Mother's Funeral
BAPTISM OF AN INFANT, AT ITS MOTHER'S FUNERAL.
Whence is that trembling of a father's hand,
Who to the man of God doth bring his babe,
Asking the seal of Christ?—Why doth the voice
That uttereth o'er its brow the Triune Name
Falter with sympathy?—And most of all,
Why is yon coffin-lid a pedestal
For the baptismal font?
Again I asked.
But all the answer was those gushing tears
Which stricken hearts do weep.
For there she lay—
The fair, young mother, in that coffin-bed,
Mourned by the funeral train. The heart that beat
With trembling tenderness, at every touch
Of love or pity, flushed the cheek no more.
Tears were thy baptism, thou unconscious one,
And Sorrow took thee at the gate of life,
Into her cradle. Thou may'st never know
The welcome of a nursing mother's kiss,
When in her wandering ecstacy, she marks
A thrilling growth of new affections spread
Fresh greenness o'er the soul.
Thou may'st not share
Her hallowed teaching, nor suffuse her eye
With joy, as the first germs of infant thought
Unfold, in lisping sound.
Yet may'st thou walk
Even as she walked, breathing on all around
The warmth of high affections, purified,
And sublimated, by that Spirit's power
Which makes the soul fit temple for its God.
So shalt thou in a brighter world, behold
That countenance which the cold grave did veil
Thus early from thy sight, and the first tone
That bears a mother's greeting to thine ear
Be wafted from the minstrelsy of Heaven.