Baby’s Shoes

William Cox Bennett (1820–1895)

O, THOSE little, those little blue shoes!

Those shoes that no little feet use.

O the price were high

That those shoes would buy,

Those little blue unused shoes!

For they hold the small shape of feet

That no more their mother’s eyes meet,

That, by God’s good will,

Years since, grew still,

And ceased from their totter so sweet.

And O, since that baby slept,

So hushed, how the mother has kept,

With a tearful pleasure,

That little dear treasure,

And o’er them thought and wept!

For they mind her forevermore

Of a patter along the floor;

And blue eyes she sees

Look up from her knees

With the look that in life they wore.

As they lie before her there,

There babbles from chair to chair

A little sweet face

That ’s a gleam in the place,

With its little gold curls of hair.

Then O wonder not that her heart

From all else would rather part

Than those tiny blue shoes

That no little feet use,

And whose sight makes such fond tears start!