To My Daughter

To My Daughter

[It is a beautiful conceit, that when a baby smiles in its sleep it is talking with the angels.]

Tell me, did the angels greet thee!

Greet my darling when she smiled?

Did they whisper softly, gently,

Pleasant words unto my child?

Did they whisper 'mid thy dreaming,

Thoughts that made thy slumbers glad,

Of the joy lighted city

Where the heart is never sad?

Did they tell thee of the fountains

Clear as crystal, fair as light,—

Of glory brighten'd country

Never shaded by a night.

Of life's pure pellucid river,—

Of the tree whose leaves do yield

Healing for the bruised nations?

Nations smitted, bruised, peeled?

Of the city ruby founded,

Built on gems of flashing light,

Pulling all earth's lustrous jewels,

And the gates of pearly white.

Darling when earth's shadows deepen

O'er thy prison hours of clay,

May the footsteps of God's angel

Ever linger round thy way

Frances Harper

1:29, p. 4

2.15.1862