Edwardsville spectator. [volume] (Edwardsville, Ill.) 1819-1826, 1822-08-31
POETRY.
10 my Daughter on the Morning cfhe,
Birth Day.


by Iopp BYRON.
Hail, to this teeming stage Of strife
Hail, lovely miniature OF life
Pilgrim of MANY cares untold
Lamb of the worlds extended fold
Fountain of hopes, and doubts, and fears
Sweet promise of ecstatjc years
How family would bend the knee,
And turn idolater to thee
IT'S natures hip--felt-confessed,
Far as the life which warns the breast;
The sturdy savage midst his clan,
The rIdest portrature of man,
In trackless woods, and boundless plains,
Where everlasting wildness reigns,
Owns the still throb--the secret start
The hidden impulse Of the heart.
Dear babe, ere yet upon thy years
The soil of human vice appears
Ere passion hath disturbed thy check,
And prompted what thou darest not speak;
Ere that pale lip is blanched with care,
Or from those eyes shoot fierce despair,
Would could meet thy untuned ear
And gust it with a fathers PRAYER.
But little reck'st thou, oh my child
OF travail on life's thorny wild,
Of all the dangers, all the woes
Each lettering footstep which enclose
All little reck'st thou of the scene
So darkly wrought, that spreads between
The little all we here can find,
And the dark mystic sphere behind!
I-;ttIe r~-,'st thou, my earliest born!
OF clouds that gathered round thy morn,
Oh arts to lure thy soul astray,
OF SHARES that intersect thy way,
0fsecret foes, Of friends untrue,
ofhends who stab the hearts they WOO,
Little thou reck'st of this sad store
Would thou might never reck them more!
But thou wilt burst this transient sleep,
And thou wilt wake, my babe, to weep
The tenant of a frail abode,
Thy tears must flow. as mine have flowed
Beguled with follies, every day,
Sorrow must wash thy faults away;
And thou may'st wake perchance to prove
The pang ofunrequited love.
Unconscious babe though on that brow
No half-hedged misery nestles now
Scarce round those placid lips smile
Maternal fondness shall beguile,
Ere the moist footsteps of tear
And prematurely pave the way
For sorrows of ripper day.
Oh could a fathers PRAYER repel
The eyes sadgrief, the bosom's swell
Or could fatherhope to bear
A darling child's allotted care
Then thou, my babe, should'st slumber still
Exempted from all human i'll:
Aparent's love thy peace should free,
And ask its wounds again for thee.
Sleep on, my child, the slumber brief
Too soon shall melt away to grief
Too soon the dawn of wo shall break,
And briny rills bedew thy check
Too soon shall sadness quench those eyes
That breast be agonized with signs;
And anguish DER the beams ofnoon,
Lead clouds of care-ah much too soon.
Soon wilt thou reck of cares unknown,
OF wants and sorrows all their own,
OF many pang and many a wo,
That thy dear sex alone can know
OF many an i'll, untold, unsung,
That will not, may not, find tongue;
But kept concealed without control,
Spread the fell cancers of the soul
Yet be thy lot, my babe, more blcst-
Nav joy still animate thy breast
Still midst thy least propitious days,
Shedding its rich inspiring rays
A fathers heart shall daily bear
Thy name upon its secret prayer;
And as he seeks his last repose,
Thine image ease life's parting throes.
Then hail, sweet miniature of life
Hail to this teeming stage of strife 81
Pilgrim of many cares untold
Lamb ofthe worlds extended fold
Fountain of hopes, and doubts and fears!
Sweet promise of ecstatic years!
How family would bend the knee,
And turn idoIater to thee