Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.
Poems of Home: I. About ChildrenSeven Times Four
Jean Ingelow (1820–1897)H
Fair yellow daffodils, stately and tall!
When the wind wakes, how they rock in the grasses,
And dance with the cuckoo-buds slender and small!
Here ’s two bonny boys, and here ’s mother’s own lasses,
Eager to gather them all.
Mother shall thread them a daisy chain;
Sing them a song of the pretty hedge-sparrow,
That loved her brown little ones, loved them full fain;
Sing, “Heart, thou art wide, though the house be but narrow,”—
Sing once, and sing it again.
Sweet wagging cowslips, they bend and they bow;
A ship sails afar over warm ocean waters,
And haply one musing doth stand at her prow.
O bonny brown sons, and O sweet little daughters,
Maybe he thinks on you now!
Fair yellow daffodils, stately and tall—
A sunshiny world full of laughter and leisure,
And fresh hearts unconscious of sorrow and thrall!
Send down on their pleasure smiles passing its measure,
God that is over us all!