“Give me a little child
To draw this dreary want out of my breast,”
I cried to God.
“Give, for my days beat wild
With loneliness that will not rest
But under the still sod!”
It came — with groping lips
And little fingers stealing aimlessly
About my heart.
I was like one who slips
A-sudden into Ecstasy
And thinks ne'er to depart.
“Soon he will smile,” I said,
“And babble baby love into my ears —
How it will thrill!”
I waited — Oh, the dread,
The clutching agony, the fears!—
He was so strange and still.
Did I curse God and rave
When they came shrinkingly to tell me‘ twas
A witless child?
No... I... I only gave
One cry... just one... I think... because...
You know... he never smiled.