Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900.

By Annie R.Stillman

1443 Birth

JUST when each bed was big with bloom,

And as prophetic of perfume,

When spring, with her bright horoscope,

Was sweet as an unuttered hope;

Just when the last star flickered out,

And twilight, like a soul in doubt,

Hovered between the dark and dawn,

And day lay waiting to be born;

Just when the gray and dewy air

Grew sacred as an unvoiced prayer,

And somewhere through the dusk she heard

The stirring of a nested bird,—

Four angels glorified the place:

Wan Pain unveiled her awful face;

Joy, soaring, sang; Love, brooding, smiled;

Peace laid upon her breast a child.