The Bijou;
or Annual of Literature and the Arts
compiled by William Fraser
London: William Pickering,
1828
| [Page 1] |  |
| All good and guiltless thou art. |
| Some transient griefs will touch thy heart, |
| Griefs that along thy altered face |
| Will breathe a more subduing grace, |
| Than even those looks of joy that lie |
| On the soft cheek of infancy. |
| WILSON, To a Sleeping Child |
| HAST thou been in the woods with the honey-bee? | 1 |
| Hast thou been with the lamb in the pastures free? | 2 |
| With the hare through to copses and the dingles wild? | 3 |
| With the butterfly over the heath, fair child? | 4 |
| Yes: the light fall of thy bounding feet | 5 |
| Hath not startled the wren from her mossy seat; | 6 |
| Yet hast thou ranged the green forest-dells, | 7 |
| And brought back a treasure of buds and bells. | 8 |
| Thou know'st not the sweetness, by antique song | 9 |
| Breathed o'er the names of that flowery throng; | 10 |
| The woodbine, the primrose, the violet dim, | 11 |
| The lily that gleams by the fountain's brim: | 12 |
| [Page 2] |  |
| These are old words, that have made each grove | 13 |
| A dreary haunt for romance and love; | 14 |
| Each sunny bank, where faint odours lie | 15 |
| A place for the gushings of Poesy. | 16 |
| Thou know'st not the light wherewith fairy lore | 17 |
| Sprinkles the turf and the daisies o'er; | 18 |
| Enough for thee are the dews that sleep | 19 |
| Like hidden gems in the flower-urns deep; | 20 |
| Enough the rich crimson spots that dwell | 21 |
| Midst the gold of the cowslip's perfumed cell; | 22 |
| And the by the blossoming sweet-briars shed, | 23 |
| And the beauty that bows the wood-hyacinth's head. | 24 |
| Oh! Happy child in thy fawn-like glee! | 25 |
| What is remembrance or thought to thee? | 26 |
| Fill thy bright locks with those gifts of spring, | 27 |
| O'er thy green pathway their colours fling; | 28 |
| Bind them in chaplet and wild festoon— | 29 |
| What if to droop and to perish soon? | 30 |
| Nature hath mines of such wealth—and thou | 31 |
| Never wilt prize its delights as now! | 32 |
| For a day is coming to quell the tone | 33 |
| That rings in thy laughter, thou joyous one! | 34 |
| And to dim thy brow with a touch of care. | 35 |
| Under the gloss of its clustering hair; | 36 |
| [Page 3] |  |
| And to tame the flash of thy cloudless eyes | 37 |
| Into the stillness of autumn skies; | 38 |
| And to teach thee that grief hath her needful part, | 39 |
| Midst the hidden things of each human heart! | 40 |
| Yet shall we mourn, gentle child! for this? | 41 |
| Life hath enough of yet holier bliss! | 42 |
| Such be thy portion!—the bliss to look | 43 |
| With a reverent spirit, through nature's book; | 44 |
| By fount, by forest, by river's line, | 45 |
| To track the paths of a love divine; | 46 |
| To read its deep meanings—to see and hear | 47 |
| God in earth's garden—and not to fear. | 48 |
from The Bijou, 1828, pp. 1-3 |
 |