Richard Frederick Littledale (1833-1890). II. "In Paradise Reposing." Alfred H. Miles, ed. 1907. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century

Alfred H. Miles, ed. The Sacred Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.

II. “In Paradise Reposing”

By Richard Frederick Littledale (1833–1890)


IN Paradise reposing
By Life’s eternal well,
The tender lambs of Jesus
In greenest pastures dwell.

Their palms and tiny crownlets,	5
Aglow with brightest gem,
Bedeck the baby Martyrs
Who died in Bethlehem.

With them the rose-wreathed army
Of children undefiled,	10
Who passed through mortal torments
For love of Christ the Child.

With them in peace unending,
With them in joyous mirth,
Are all the stainless infants	15
Which since have gone from earth.

The Angels, once their guardians,
Their fellows now in grace,
With them, in love adoring,
See God the Father’s Face.	20

The lullaby to hush them
In that eternal rest,
Is sweet angelic singing,
Their nurse God’s Mother blest:

For she who rocked the cradle	25
In Nazareth of old,
Now bendeth o’er the younglings
Within that happy fold.

O Jesu, loving Shepherd,
Who tenderly dost bear	30
The lambs in Thine own Bosom,
Bring us to join them there.