| Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867. | | | | I. On a Picture of Lillie | | By Benjamin Penhallow Shillaber (1814–1890) |
| | | A TRUTHFUL page is childhood’s lovely face, | |
| Whereon sweet Innocence has record made,— | |
| An outward semblance of the young heart’s grace, | |
| Where truth, and love, and trust are all portrayed. | |
| O blessed childhood! Like the wakening day, | 5 |
| The auroral flash bespeaks thy rising sun, | |
| And spreads a roseate tint about thy way, | |
| And Hope’s gay blossoms open one by one. | |
| Sweet Lillie! As I gaze upon thy brow, | |
| I feel my heart expanding into prayer, | 10 |
| That happiness may e’er maintain as now | |
| The truthful seeming it exhibits there; | |
| May after life no bitterness impart, | |
| But lie, as now, like sunshine round thy heart! | | | | |
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