| |
| THE SUMMER sun was sinking | |
| With a mild light, calm and mellow; | |
| It shone on my little boy’s bonnie cheeks, | |
| And his loose locks of yellow. | |
| |
| The robin was singing sweetly, | 5 |
| And his song was sad and tender; | |
| And my little boy’s eyes, while he heard the song, | |
| Smiled with a sweet, soft splendor. | |
| |
| My little boy lay on my bosom | |
| While his soul the song was quaffing; | 10 |
| The joy of his soul had tinged his cheek, | |
| And his heart and his eye were laughing. | |
| |
| I sate alone in my cottage, | |
| The midnight needle plying; | |
| I feared for my child, for the rush’s light | 15 |
| In the socket now was dying; | |
| |
| There came a hand to my lonely latch, | |
| Like the wind at midnight moaning; | |
| I knelt to pray, but rose again, | |
| For I heard my little boy groaning. | 20 |
| |
| I crossed my brow and I crossed my breast, | |
| But that night my child departed,— | |
| They left a weakling in his stead, | |
| And I am broken-hearted! | |
| |
| O, it cannot be my own sweet boy, | 25 |
| For his eyes are dim and hollow; | |
| My little boy is gone—is gone, | |
| And his mother soon will follow. | |
| |
| The dirge for the dead will be sung for me, | |
| And the mass be chanted meetly, | 30 |
| And I shall sleep with my little boy, | |
| In the moonlight churchyard sweetly. | |
| |
