A LITTLE child, one night, awoke and cried, <br />'Oh, help me, father! there is something wild <br />Before me! help me!' Hurrying to his side <br />I answered, 'I am here. You dreamed, my child.' <br />'A dream? —' he questioned. 'Oh, I could not see! <br />It was so dark! — Take me into your bed!'— <br />And I, who loved him, held him soothingly, <br />And smiling on his terror, comforted. <br />He nestled in my arms. I held him fast; <br />And spoke to him and calmed his childish fears, <br />Until he smiled again, asleep at last, <br />Upon his lashes still a trace of tears…. <br />How like a child the world! who, in this night <br />Of strife, beholds strange monsters threatening; <br />And with black fear, having so little light, <br />Cries to its Father, God, for comforting. <br />And well for it, if, answering the call, <br />The Father hear and soothe its dread asleep! — <br />How many though, whom thoughts and dreams appall, <br />Must lie awake and in the darkness weep.<br /><br />Madison Julius Cawein<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/child-and-father/
