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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353995" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>The Child Of The Islands - Opening</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353995" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">I.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353995" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">OF all the joys that brighten suffering earth, <br>What joy is welcomed like a new-born child? <br>What life so wretched, but that, at its birth, <br>Some heart rejoiced--some lip in gladness smiled? <br>The poorest cottager, by love beguiled, <br>Greets his new burden with a kindly eye; <br>He knows his son must toil as he hath toiled; <br>But cheerful Labour, standing patient by, <br>Laughs at the warning shade of meagre Poverty! <br>II.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353995" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">The pettiest squire who holds his bounded sway <br>In some far nook of England's fertile ground, <br>Keeps a high jubilee the happy day <br>Which bids the bonfires blaze, the joybells sound, <br>And the small tenantry come flocking round, <br>While the old steward triumphs to declare <br>The mother's suffering hour with safety crowned; <br>And then, with reverent eyes, and grey locks bare, <br>Falters--'GOD bless the Boy!' his Master's Son and Heir! <br>III.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353995" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">The youthful couple, whose sad marriage-vow <br>Received no sanction from a haughty sire, <br>Feel, as they gaze upon their infant's brow, <br>The angel, Hope, whose strong wings never tire-- <br>Once more their long discouraged hearts inspire; <br>Surely, they deem, the smiles of that young face, <br>Shall thaw the frost of his relentless ire! <br>Homeward they turn in thought; old scenes retrace; <br>And, weeping, yearn to meet his reconciled embrace! <br>IV.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353995" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Yea, for this cause, even SHAME will step aside, <br>And cease to bow the head and wring the heart; <br>For she that is a mother, but no bride, <br>Out of her lethargy of woe will start, <br>Pluck from her side that sorrow's barbéd dart, <br>And, now no longer faint and full of fears, <br>Plan how she best protection may impart <br>To the lone course of those forsaken years <br>Which dawn in Love's warm light, though doomed to set in tears! <br>V.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353995" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">The dread exception--when some frenzied mind, <br>Crushed by the weight of unforeseen distress, <br>Grows to that feeble creature all unkind, <br>And Nature's sweetest fount, through grief's excess, <br>Is strangely turned to gall and bitterness; <br>When the deserted babe is left to lie, <br>Far from the woeful mother's lost caress, <br>Under the broad cope of the solemn sky, <br>Or, by her shuddering hands, forlorn, condemned to die: <br>VI.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353995" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Monstrous, unnatural, and MAD, is deemed, <br>However dark life's Future glooms in view, <br>An act no sane and settled heart had dreamed, <br>Even in extremity of want to do! <br>And surely WE should hold that verdict true, <br>Who, for men's lives--not children's--have thought fit <br>(Though high those lives were valued at their due) <br>The savage thirst of murder to acquit, <br>By stamping cold revenge an error of crazed wit! <br>VII.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353995" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">She--after pains unpitied, unrelieved-- <br>Sate in her weakness, lonely and forlorn, <br>Listening bewildered, while the wind that grieved, <br>Mocked the starved wailing of her newly born; <br>Racking her brain from weary night till morn <br>For friendly names, and chance of present aid; <br>Till, as she felt how this world's crushing scorn, <br>Passing the Tempter, rests on the Betrayed,-- <br>Hopeless, she flung to Death the life her sin had made! <br>VIII.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353995" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Yes, deem her mad! for holy is the sway <br>Of that mysterious sense which bids us bend <br>Toward the young souls new clothed in helpless clay,-- <br>Fragile beginnings of a mighty end,-- <br>Angels unwinged,--which human care must tend <br>Till they can tread the world's rough path alone, <br>Serve for themselves, or in themselves offend. <br>But God o'erlooketh all from His high throne, <br>And sees, with eyes benign, their weakness--and our own! <br>IX.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353995" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Therefore we pray for them, when sunset brings <br>Rest to the joyous heart and shining head; <br>When flowers are closed, and birds fold up their wings, <br>And watchful mothers pass each cradle-bed <br>With hushed soft steps, and earnest eyes that shed <br>Tears far more glad than smiling! Yea, all day <br>We bless them; while, by guileless pleasure led, <br>Their voices echo in their gleesome play, <br>And their whole careless souls are making holiday. <br>X.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353995" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">And if, by Heaven's inscrutable decree, <br>Death calls, and human skill be vain to save; <br>If the bright child that clambered to our knee, <br>Be coldly buried in the silent grave; <br>Oh! with what wild lament we moan and rave! <br>What passionate tears fall down in ceaseless shower! <br>There lies Perfection!--there, of all life gave-- <br>The bud that would have proved the sweetest flower <br>That ever woke to bloom within an earthly bower! <br>XI.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353995" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">For, in this hope our intellects abjure <br>All reason--all experience--and forego <br>Belief in that which only is secure, <br>Our natural chance and share of human woe. <br>The father pitieth David's heart-struck blow, <br>But for himself, such augury defies: <br>No future Absalom his love can know; <br>No pride, no passion, no rebellion lies <br>In the unsullied depth of those delightful eyes! <br>XII.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353995" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Their innocent faces open like a book, <br>Full of sweet prophecies of coming good; <br>And we who pore thereon with loving look, <br>Read what we most desire, not what we should; <br>Even that which suits our own Ambition's mood. <br>The Scholar sees distinction promised there,-- <br>The Soldier, laurels in the field of blood,-- <br>The Merchant, venturous skill and trading fair,-- <br>None read of broken hope--of failure--of despair! <br>XIII.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353995" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Nor ever can a Parent's gaze behold <br>Defect of Nature, as a Stranger doth; <br>For these (with judgment true, severe, and cold) <br>Mark the ungainly step of heavy Sloth,-- <br>Coarseness of features,--tempers quickly wroth: <br>But those, with dazzled hearts such errors spy, <br>(A halo of indulgence circling both <br>The plainest child a stranger passes by, <br>Shews lovely to the sight of some enamoured eye! <br>XIV.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353995" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">The Mother looketh from her latticed pane-- <br>Her Children's voices echoing sweet and clear: <br>With merry leap and bound her side they gain, <br>Offering their wild field-flow'rets: all are dear, <br>Yet still she listens with an absent ear: <br>For, while the strong and lovely round her press, <br>A halt uneven step sounds drawing near: <br>And all she leaves, that crippled child to bless, <br>Folding him to her heart, with cherishing caress. <br>XV.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353995" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Yea, where the Soul denies illumined grace, <br>(The last, the worst, the fatallest defect <br>SHE, gazing earnest in that idiot face, <br>Thinks she perceives a dawn of Intellect: <br>And, year by year, continues to expect <br>What Time shall never bring, ere Life be flown: <br>Still loving, hoping,--patient, though deject,-- <br>Watching those eyes that answer not her own,-- <br>Near him,--and yet how far! with him,--but still alone! <br>XVI.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353995" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Want of attraction this love cannot mar: <br>Years of Rebellion cannot blot it out: <br>The Prodigal, returning from afar, <br>Still finds a welcome, giv'n with song and shout! <br>The Father's hand, without reproach or doubt, <br>Clasps his,--who caused them all such bitter fears: <br>The Mother's arms encircle him about: <br>That long dark course of alienated years, <br>Marked only by a burst of reconciling tears! <br>XVII.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353995" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">CHILD OF THE ISLANDS! if the watch of love <br>To even the meanest of these fates belong, <br>What shall THINE be, whose lot is far above <br>All other fortunes woven in my song? <br>To guard THY head from danger and from wrong, <br>What countless voices lift their prayers to Heaven! <br>Those, whose own loves crowd round, (a happy throng!) <br>Those, for whom Death the blessed tie hath riven; <br>And those to whose scathed age no verdant branch is given! <br>XVIII.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353995" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">There's not a noble matron in the land, <br>Whose christen'd heir in gorgeous robes is drest,-- <br>There's not a cottage mother, whose fond hand <br>Rocks the low cradle of her darling's rest,-- <br>By whom THOU art not thought upon and blest! <br>Blest for thyself, and for HER lineage high <br>Who lull'd thee on her young maternal breast; <br>The Queenly Lady, with the clear blue eye, <br>Through whom thou claimest love, and sharest loyalty! <br>XIX.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353995" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">They pray for THEE, fair child, in Gothic piles, <br>Where the full organ's deep reverberate sound <br>Rolls echoing through the dim cathedral aisles, <br>Bidding the heart with inward rapture bound, <br>While the bent knee sinks trembling to the ground. <br>Till, at the signal of some well-known word, <br>The white-robed choristers rise circling round; <br>Mingling clear voices with divine accord, <br>In Hallelujahs loud, that magnify the Lord! <br>XX.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353995" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">They pray for THEE in many a village church, <br>Deep in the shade of its sequester'd dell, <br>Where, scarcely heard beyond the lowly porch, <br>More simple hymns of praise less loudly swell; <br>Oft led by some fair form,--remember'd well <br>In after years among the grateful poor-- <br>Whose lot it is in lordly halls to dwell, <br>Thence issuing forth to seek the cotter's door, <br>Or tread with gentle feet the sanded schoolhouse floor. <br>XXI.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353995" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">They pray for THEE, in floating barks that cleave <br>Their compass-guided path along the sea; <br>While through the topmast shrouds the keen winds grieve, <br>As through the branches of some giant tree; <br>And the surf sparkles in the vessel's lee. <br>Par from thine Albion's cliffs and native home, <br>Each crew of loyal mariners may be, <br>But, mingling with the dash of Ocean's foam, <br>That prayer shall rise, where'er their trackless course they roam. <br>XXII.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353995" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">And where, all newly on some foreign soil <br>Transplanted from the o'erpeopled Fatherland, <br>(Where hardy enterprise and honest toil <br>Avail'd them not) the Emigrant's thin band, <br>Gather'd for English worship, sadly stand; <br>Repressing wandering thoughts, which vainly crave <br>The Sabbath clasp of some familiar hand, <br>Or yearn to pass the intervening wave <br>And wet with Memory's tears some daisy-tufted grave:-- <br>XXIII.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353995" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">There, even there, THY name is not forgot-- <br>Child of the land where they were children too! <br>Though sever'd ties and exile be their lot, <br>And Fortune now with different aspect woo,-- <br>Still to their country and religion true, <br>From them the Indian learns, in broken phrase, <br>To worship Heaven as his converters do; <br>Simply he joins their forms of prayer and praise, <br>And, in Thy native tongue, pleads for Thy valued days. <br>XXIV.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353995" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Yea, even Earth, the dumb and beautiful, <br>Would seem to bid Thee welcome--in her way; <br>Since from her bosom thou shalt only cull, <br>Choice flowers and fruits, from blossom and from spray. <br>Spring--Summer--Autumn--Winter--day by day, <br>Above thy head in mystery shall brood; <br>And every phase of glory or decay, <br>And every shift of Nature's changeful mood, <br>To THEE shall only bring variety of good! <br>XXV.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353995" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">No insufficient harvest's poverty, <br>One grain of plenty from thy store can take; <br>No burning drought that leaves green meadows dry, <br>And parches all the fertile land, shall make <br>The fountains fail, where thou thy thirst shalt slake! <br>The hardest winter that can ever bind <br>River, and running rill, and heaving lake, <br>With its depressing chain of ice, shall find <br>An atmosphere round THEE, warm as the summer wind! <br>XXVI.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353995" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">From woes which deep privations must involve, <br>Set in luxurious comfort far aloof, <br>THOU shalt behold the vanishing snow dissolve, <br>From the high window and the shelter'd roof; <br>Or, while around thee, webs of richest woof <br>On gilded pillars hang in many a fold; <br>Read, in wise books, writ down for thy behoof, <br>(Sounding like fables in the days of old!) <br>What meaner men endure from want and pinching cold. <br>XXVII.</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><a href="http://www.citatepedia.com/comments.php?id=353995" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none">Oh, since this is, and must be, by a law <br>Of God's own holy making, shall there not <br>Fall on thy heart a deep, reflecting awe, <br>When thou shalt contemplate the adverse lot <br>Of those by men, but not by Heaven, forgot? <br>Bend to the lowly in their world of care; <br>Think, in thy Palace, of the labourer's cot; <br>And justify the still unequal share <br>By all they power to aid, and willingness to spare!</a></div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><a href="http://poems.citatepedia.com/">poem</a> by <strong><a rel="author" href="http://authors.citatepedia.com/by.php?a=Caroline+Elizabeth+Sarah+Norton">Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton</a></strong></div>

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