Baby Charley.

Sidney Lanier 1842 (Macon) – 1881 (Lynn)



He's fast asleep.  See how, O Wife,
Night's finger on the lip of life
Bids whist the tongue, so prattle-rife,
   Of busy Baby Charley.

One arm stretched backward round his head,
Five little toes from out the bed
Just showing, like five rosebuds red,
   -- So slumbers Baby Charley.

Heaven-lights, I know, are beaming through
Those lucent eyelids, veined with blue,
That shut away from mortal view
   Large eyes of Baby Charley.

O sweet Sleep-Angel, throned now
On the round glory of his brow,
Wave thy wing and waft my vow
   Breathed over Baby Charley.

I vow that my heart, when death is nigh,
Shall never shiver with a sigh
For act of hand or tongue or eye
   That wronged my Baby Charley!

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

38 sec read
202

Quick analysis:

Scheme AAAB CCCB DDDB EEEB FFFB
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 680
Words 125
Stanzas 5
Stanza Lengths 4, 4, 4, 4, 4

Sidney Lanier

Sidney Lanier was a poet, writer, composer, critic, professor of literature at Johns Hopkins and first flutist with the Peabody Symphony Orchestra in Baltiimore. He wrote the Centennial cantata for the opening ceremony of the 1876 Centennial celebration in Philadelphia. more…

All Sidney Lanier poems | Sidney Lanier Books

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