Germ of new life, whose powers expanding slow <br /> For many a moon their full perfection wait,-- <br /> Haste, precious pledge of happy love, to go <br /> Auspicious borne through life's mysterious gate. <br /> <br /> What powers lie folded in thy curious frame,-- <br /> Senses from objects locked, and mind from thought! <br /> How little canst thou guess thy lofty claim <br /> To grasp at all the worlds the Almighty wrought! <br /> <br /> And see, the genial season's warmth to share, <br /> Fresh younglings shoot, and opening roses glow! <br /> Swarms of new life exulting fill the air,-- <br /> Haste, infant bud of being, haste to blow! <br /> <br /> For thee the nurse prepares her lulling songs, <br /> The eager matrons count the lingering day; <br /> But far the most thy anxious parent longs <br /> On thy soft cheek a mother's kiss to lay. <br /> <br /> She only asks to lay her burden down, <br /> That her glad arms that burden may resume; <br /> And nature's sharpest pangs her wishes crown, <br /> That free thee living from thy living tomb. <br /> <br /> She longs to fold to her maternal breast <br /> Part of herself, yet to herself unknown; <br /> To see and to salute the stranger guest, <br /> Fed with her life through many a tedious moon. <br /> <br /> Come, reap thy rich inheritance of love! <br /> Bask in the fondness of a Mother's eye! <br /> Nor wit nor eloquence her heart shall move <br /> Like the first accents of thy feeble cry. <br /> <br /> Haste, little captive, burst thy prison doors! <br /> Launch on the living world, and spring to light! <br /> Nature for thee displays her various stores, <br /> Opens her thousand inlets of delight. <br /> <br /> If charmed verse or muttered prayers had power, <br /> With favouring spells to speed thee on thy way, <br /> Anxious I'd bid my beads each passing hour, <br /> Till thy wished smile thy mother's pangs o'erpay.<br /><br />Anna Lætitia Barbauld<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/to-a-little-invisible-being-who-is-expected-soon/
