| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
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| A Child’s Portrait |
| | | William James Dawson (b. 1854) |
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| HER face is hushed in perfect calm, | |
| Her lips half-open hint the psalm | |
| The angels sing, who wear God’s palm: | |
| And in her eyes a liquid light, | |
| With somewhat of a starry sheen, | 5 |
| Comes welling upward from the white | |
| And vestal soul that throbs within. | |
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| A golden tangle is her hair | |
| That holds the sunlight in its snare; | |
| And one pure lily she doth wear | 10 |
| In her white robe: and she doth seem | |
| A flower-like creature, who will fade | |
| If suns strike down too rude a beam, | |
| Or winds blow roughly on her shade. | |
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| The golden ladders of the Dawn | 15 |
| Meet at her feet, where on the lawn | |
| She stands, in tender thought withdrawn: | |
| And little wonder would it be, | |
| If on those slanting stairs she trod, | |
| And, with one farewell smile toward me, | 20 |
| Were caught into the smile of God. | |
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