_Sweet! when first my baby ear
Curled itself and learned to hear,
'Twas your silver-singing voice
Made my baby heart rejoice._
_Hushed upon your tender breast,
Soft you sang me to my rest;
Waking, when I sought my play,
Still your singing led the way._
_Cradle songs, more soft and low
Than the bird croons on the bough;
Olden ballads, grave and gay,
Warrior's chant, and lover's lay._
_So my baby hours went
In a cadence of content,
To the music and the rhyme
Keeping tune and keeping time._
_So you taught me, too, ere long,
All our life should be a song,--
Should a faltering prelude be
To the heavenly harmony;_
_And with gracious words and high,
Bade me look beyond the sky,
To the Glory throned above,
To th' eternal Light and Love._
_Many years have blossomed by:
Far and far from childhood I;
Yet its sunrays on me fall,
Here among my children all._
_So among my babes I go,
Singing high and singing low;
Striving for the silver tone
Which my memory holds alone._
_If I chant my little lays
Tunefully, be yours the praise;
If I fail, 'tis I must rue
Not t' have closelier followed you._