Poetry Archives

Beautiful Boy—thy heavenward thoughts
  Are pictured in thine eyes,
Thou hast no taint of mortal birth,
Thy communing is not of earth,
  Thy holy musings rise:
Like incense kindled from on high,
Ascending to its native sky.

And such a head might once have graced
  The infant Samuel, when
Call’d by the favour of his God,
The youthful priest the Temple trod
  Beloved of Heaven and men!
The same devotion on his brow
As brightens in thy forehead now.

Or, thou may’st seem to Fancy’s eye
  One borne by arms Divine;
One, whom on Earth a Saviour bless’d,
And on whose features left impress’d
  The Contact’s holy sign:
A light, a halo, and a grace,
So pure th’ expression of that face.

Or, has the Painter’s skill alone
  Such grace and glory given?
Clothed thee with attributes which seem
Creations of an angel’s dream,
  To raise the soul to Heaven?
No, as he found thee, he arrayed,
And Genius taught what God had made!