Julia Sleeping

Julia Sleeping

Hush! let the baby sleep!

Mark her hand so white and slender,
Note her red lip, full and tender,
And her breathing, like the motion
Which the waves of calmest ocean

In their peaceful throbbing keep.

Hush! let the baby rest!

Who would wake from blissful sleeping,
To this world so filled with weeping,
Those sweet eyes like stars o'erclouded,
Those calm eyes with dark fringe shrouded,

Those crossed hands upon her breast?

Hush! let the baby rest!

See each white and taper finger,
Where a rose-tint loves to linger,
As the sun at evening dying,
Leaves a blush all warmly lying,

In the bosom of the west.

See on her lip a smile!

'Tis the light of dream-land gleaming,
Like the morning's first faint beaming;
Hush! still solemn silence keeping,
Watch her, watch her in her sleeping,

As she smiles in dreams the while.

I would paint her as she lies,

With brown ringlets damply clinging
To her forehead, shadows flinging
On its whiteness, or where tracings
Of the blue veins' interlacings

On its snowy surface rise.

God, hear our fervent prayer!

Through the whole of life's commotion,
As she stems the troubled ocean,
Give her calm and peaceful slumber,
And may sorrows not encumber

Her unfolding years with care;

Ah! see, her sleep is over!

Flushed her cheek is—she is holding
Mystic converse with the folding
Of the curtains o'er her drooping; she in their looping

Mortals ne'er beheld before?

Now, from her bath of sleep,

Many a deep'ning dimple showing,
She hath risen, fresh and glowing, 
Like a flower that rain hath brightened,
Or a heart that tears have lightened—

Tears the weary sometimes weep.

Herself the silence breaks!

Hear her laugh, so rich and ringing,
Hear her small voice quaintly singing;
She hath won us by caressings,
We exhaust all words in blessings,

When this precious baby wakes. 

Caroline Howard

1:31, p. 4

2.18.1860