Her First-Born by Charles Tennyson Turner. Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. 1895. A Victorian Anthology, 1837-1895

Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895.

Her First-Born

Charles Tennyson Turner (1808–79)


IT was her first sweet child, her heart’s delight:
And, though we all foresaw his early doom,
We kept the fearful secret out of sight;
We saw the canker, but she kiss’d the bloom.
And yet it might not be: we could not brook	5
To vex her happy heart with vague alarms,
To blanch with fear her fond intrepid look,
Or send a thrill through those encircling arms.
She smil’d upon him, waking or at rest:
She could not dream her little child would die:	10
She toss’d him fondly with an upward eye:
She seem’d as buoyant as a summer spray,
That dances with a blossom on its breast,
Nor knows how soon it will be borne away.