Samuel Kettell, ed. Specimens of American Poetry. 1829.
By Death of an InfantLydia H. Sigourney (17911865)
D
And dash’d it out. There was a tint of rose
On cheek and lip;—he touch’d the veins with ice,
And the rose faded.—Forth from those blue eyes
There spoke a wishful tenderness,—a doubt
Whether to grieve or sleep, which Innocence
Alone can wear. With ruthless haste he bound
The silken fringes of their curtaining lids
For ever. There had been a murmuring sound
With which the babe would claim its mother’s ear,
Charming her even to tears. The spoiler set
His seal of silence. But there beam’d a smile
So fix’d and holy from that marble brow,—
Death gazed and left it there;—he dared not steal
The signet-ring of heaven.