Ah cease thy tears and sobs, my little life! <br />I did but snatch away the unclasped knife: <br />Some safer toy will soon arrest thine eye, <br />And to quick laughter change this peevish cry! <br />Poor stumbler on the rocky coast of woe, <br />Tutored by pain each source of pain to know! <br />Alike the foodful fruit and scorching fire <br />Awake thy eager grasp and young desire: <br />Alike the good, the ill offend thy sight, <br />And rouse the stormy sense of shrill affright! <br />Untaught, yet wise! mid all thy brief alarms <br />Thou closely clingest to thy mother's arms, <br />Nestling thy little face in that fond breast <br />Whose anxious heavings lull thee to thy rest! <br />Man's breathing miniature! thou mak'st me sigh-- <br />A babe art thou -- and such a thing am I! <br /> <br />To anger rapid and as soon appeased, <br />For trifles mourning and by trifles pleased; <br />Break friendship's mirror with a tetchy blow, <br />Yet snatch what coals of fire on pleasure's altar glow! <br /> <br />Oh thou that rearest with celestial aim <br />The future seraph in my mortal frame, <br />Thrice holy Faith! whatever thorns I meet <br />As on I totter with unpractised feet, <br />Still let me stretch my arms and cling to thee, <br />Meek nurse of souls through their long infancy!<br /><br />Samuel Taylor Coleridge<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/to-an-infant/
