THEY'LL SAY THAT GOD HAD NEED OF HER.

A CHILD'S EARLY DEATH.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

They'll say that God had need of her
Before her time,
That angels sought her company

 

For beauty's sake
In mind or soul,
That stars will shine far brighter

 

In the night of all their dread
Now that she is dead at six years old,
And they must feel the cold

 

Of her departure all the more,
Like one whose ship has left the shore
For far off places,

 

They must have her face in mind
To keep as photograph,
In silver frame,

 

Until such time
That she and they
Are once again in arm's fond hold

 

And all the love returns
To cease the cold
And lonely days of aching grief.

 

Reviews

[just rose.]

this is haunting. I think of an article I read in National Geographic about this catacomb in Italy where the bodies are mummified, and one is of an angelic two-year-old who passed on from pneumonia at the turn of the twentieth century, and she is so gorgeously and so unbearably sad; you can feel the parents' immeasurable grief absolutely howling down ninety years from the tender perfection of the little ringlets of her hair. astoundingly well done in simple language here; where platitudes come up against reality, cold and inexplicable.

[Terry Collett]

This is an older poem. It was quite popular when I first published it elswhere. your reviews is very insightful.