Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Alfred H. Miles, ed. Women Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.

By Innocencies (1905). IV. The Desire

Katharine Tynan Hinkson (1861–1931)

GIVE me no mansions ivory white,

Nor palaces of pearl and gold;

Give me a child for all delight

Just four years old.

Give me no wings of rosy shine,

Nor snowy raiment, fold on fold,

Give me a little boy all mine

Just four years old.

Give me no gold and starry crown,

Nor harps, nor palm-branches unrolled,

Give me a nestling head of brown

Just four years old.

Give me a cheek that’s like the peach,

Two arms to clasp me from the cold;

And all my heaven’s within my reach

Just four years old.

Dear God, You give me from Your skies

A little Paradise to hold,

As Mary once her Paradise,

Just four years old.