An angel with a radiant face, <br />Above a cradle bent to look, <br />Seemed his own image there to trace, <br />As in the waters of a brook. <br /> <br />'Dear child! who me resemblest so,' <br />It whispered, 'come, O come with me! <br />Happy together let us go, <br />The earth unworthy is of thee! <br /> <br />'Here none to perfect bliss attain; <br />The soul in pleasure suffering lies; <br />Joy hath an undertone of pain, <br />And even the happiest hours their sighs. <br /> <br />'Fear doth at every portal knock; <br />Never a day serene and pure <br />From the o'ershadowing tempest's shock <br />Hath made the morrow's dawn secure. <br /> <br />'What then, shall sorrows and shall fears <br />Come to disturb so pure a brow? <br />And with the bitterness of tears <br />These eyes of azure troubled grow? <br /> <br />'Ah no! into the fields of space, <br />Away shalt thou escape with me; <br />And Providence will grant thee grace <br />Of all the days that were to be. <br /> <br />'Let no one in thy dwelling cower, <br />In sombre vestments draped and veiled; <br />But let them welcome thy last hour, <br />As thy first moments once they hailed. <br /> <br />'Without a cloud be there each brow; <br />There let the grave no shadow cast; <br />When one is pure as thou art now, <br />The fairest day is still the last.' <br /> <br />And waving wide his wings of white, <br />The angel, at these words, had sped <br />Towards the eternal realms of light!-- <br />Poor mother! see, thy son is dead!<br /><br />Henry Wadsworth Longfellow<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-angel-and-the-child-from-jean-reboul-the-baker-of-nismes/
