The Caucasian. (Shreveport, La.) 1900-192?, 1907-05-12

and session by the superintendent. -
Committee, Mrs. Hicks. chairman,l
Misses Owens and Her.
Thomas Bailey Aldrich, the poet,
whose death recently has left a void in
American literature. will be more read
now than ever Poet lovers will realize
that a. poet is gone from earth. and will
want to catch the daintiness and grace
of his high and lovely imagination while
the world is yet mourning for him.
In selecting her reading for the final
meeting of the teachers association, Miss
Soape took from the poet 5 treasury AL
dricl1s poetic gem, Baby Bell" Her
sweetly modulated voice was in accord
with the beauty and grace OF the poem,
and in the closing elegaic verses was
touched with inefable sadness.
BABY BELL.
Have you no6 heard the poets tell
How came the dainty Baby Bell
Into this world of ours?
The gates of heaven were left ajar,
With folded hands and dreamy eyes,
Wandering out of Paradise,
She saw this planet like star,
Hung in the glistening depths of
evell--
Its bridges, running to and fro,
Ger which the white winged angels go,
Bearing the holy dead to heaven.
- * hoe
feet
So light they did not bend the bells
Of the celestial asphodels,
They fell like dew upon the flowers;
Then all the air grew strangely sweet
And thus came dainty Baby Bell
Into this world of ours.
She came and brought delicious May,
The swallows built beneath the caves;
Like sunlight, in and out the leaves
The robins went the livelong day;
The lily swung its noiseless bell;
And DER the perth the trembling vine
Seemed bursting with its veins of wine.
How sweetly, softly, twilight fell
o, earth was full of singing birds
And opening spring-tide flowers.
When the dainty Baby Bell
Came to this world of ours!
0, Baby, dainty, Baby Bell,
How fair she grew from day to day
What woman nature filled her eyes,
What poetry within them layi
Those deep and tender twilight eyes,
So full of meaning, pure and bright,
AS if she yet stood in the light
Of those oped gates of Paradise
And SO we loved her more and more:
All, never in our hearts before
Was love so lovely born:
we felt we had link between
This real world and that unseen
The land beyond the morn;
And for the love of those dear eyes,
For love of her whom God led forth
(The mothers being ceased on earth
When Baby Bell came from Paradise),
And woke the chords OF JOY and
pain,
1--WE. said, Dear Christ our hearts bent
down
Like violets after rain.
And now the orchards, which were
white
And red with blossoms when she came,
Were rich in autun,n's mellow. PRIME;
The clustered apples burnt like flame;
THE soft-cheeked peaches blushed and
fell.
/ ne ivory chestnut burst ITS shell,
The grapes hung purpling in the grange,
And time wrought just as rich a change
In little Baby Bell.
Her lossome form more perfect grew,
| And in her features we could trace,
| In softened curves her mothers face.
| Her angel nature ripened too:
| We thought her lovely when she came
| But she was holy, sanity now
Around her pale angelic blow
| We saw a slender ring Of flame!
Gods hand had taken away the seal
That held the portals Of her speech
| And oft she said a few strange WORDS
Whose meaning lay beyond on ieaNn
She never was a child to us,
| We never held her beings key;
| We could not teach her holy things
She was Christ's self in purity.
1t came upon us by degrees,
| We saw its shadow ere it fell
The knowledge that our God had sent
His messenger for Baby Bell
| We shuddered with unlanguaged PAIN
And all orr hopes were changed 10
fears,
And all our thoughts ran into tears
Like sunshine into ram.
1--WE cried aloud in our belief,
I"O snite rs gently. gently, God!