Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume I. Of Home: of Friendship. 1904. | | | | Poems of Home: I. About Children | | The Unfinished Prayer | | Anonymous |
| | | “NOW I lay,”—repeat it, darling. | |
| “Lay me,” lisped the tiny lips | |
| Of my daughter, kneeling, bending | |
| O’er her folded finger-tips. | |
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| “Down to sleep”—“To sleep,” she murmured, | 5 |
| And the curly head bent low; | |
| “I pray the Lord,” I gently added; | |
| “You can say it all, I know.” | |
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| “Pray the Lord”—the sound came faintly, | |
| Fainter still—“My soul to keep;” | 10 |
| Then the tired head fairly nodded, | |
| And the child was fast asleep. | |
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| But the dewy eyes half opened | |
| When I clasped her to my breast, | |
| And the dear voice softly whispered, | 15 |
| “Mamma, God knows all the rest.” | |
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| Oh, the trusting, sweet confiding | |
| Of the child heart! Would that I | |
| Thus might trust my Heavenly Father, | |
| He who hears my feeblest cry. | 20 | | | |
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