Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Alfred H. Miles, ed. Women Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.

By Phantasmion. A Fairy Tale (1837). XIII. “See yon Blithe Child”

Sarah Coleridge (1802–1850)

SEE yon blithe child that dances in our sight?

Can gloomy shadows fall from one so bright?

Fond mother, whence these fears?

While buoyantly he rushes o’er the lawn,

Dream not of clouds to stain his manhood’s dawn,

Nor dim that sight with tears.

No cloud he spies in brightly glowing hours,

But feels as if the newly vested bowers

For him could never fade:

Too well we know that vernal pleasures fleet,

But having him, so gladsome, fair, and sweet,

Our loss is overpaid.

Amid the balmiest flowers that earth can give

Some bitter drops distil, and all that live

A mingled portion share;

But, while he learns these truths which we lament,

Such fortitude as ours will sure be sent,

Such solace to his care.