Death found strange beauty on that cherub brow, <br />And dash'd it out. There was a tint of rose <br />On cheek and lip;--he touch'd the veins with ice, <br />And the rose faded.--Forth from those blue eyes <br />There spoke a wishful tenderness,--a doubt <br />Whether to grieve or sleep, which Innocence <br />Alone can wear. With ruthless haste he bound <br />The silken fringes of the curtaining lids <br />For ever. There had been a murmuring sound <br />With which the babe would claim its mother's ear, <br />Charming her even to tears. The spoiler set <br />His seal of silence. But there beam'd a smile <br />So fix'd and holy from that marble brow,-- <br />Death gazed and left it there;--he dared not steal <br />The signet-ring of Heaven.<br /><br />Lydia Howard Huntley Sigourney<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/death-of-an-infant-2/
