| Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867. | | | | III. To Adelaide | | By Bryan Waller Procter (1787–1874) |
| | | CHILD of my heart! my sweet beloved First-Born! | |
| Thou dove, who tidings bring’st of calmer hours! | |
| Thou rainbow, who dost shine when all the showers | |
| Are past,—or passing! Rose, which hath no thorn, | |
| No spot, no blemish,—pure, and unforlorn! | 5 |
| Untouched, untainted! O, my Flower of flowers! | |
| More welcome than to bees are summer bowers, | |
| To stranded seamen life-assuring morn! | |
| Welcomes,—a thousand welcomes! Care, who clings | |
| Round all, seems loosening now his serpent fold, | 10 |
| New hope springs upward, and the bright world seems | |
| Cast back into a youth of endless springs! | |
| Sweet mother, is it so?—or, grow I old, | |
| Bewildered in divine Elysian dreams? | | | | |
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