Royal Infant

[RichardB]

On the Royal Infant,

Still-born, Nov. 5, 1817.

"O fairest Flower no sooner blown than blasted." - Milton

A THRONE on earth awaited Thee ;

A Nation long'd to see thy face,

Heir to a glorious Ancestry,

And Father of a mightier Race.

Vain hope! that throne thou must not fill;

Thee may that Nation ne'er behold;

Thine ancient House is heirless still,

Thy line shall never be unroll'd.

Yet while we mourn thy flight from earth,

Thine was a destiny sublime;

Caught up to Paradise in birth,

Pluckt. by Eternity from Time;

The Mother knew her Offspring dead:-

O was it grief, or was it love,

that broke her heart ?— The Spirit fled

To seek her nameless Child above.

Led by his natal star, she trod

His path to heaven :— the meeting there,

And how they stood before their God,

The day of judgment shall declare.

J. M.

Sheffield, Nov. 12, 1817.

http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=2AkIAAA...brr=1#PPA457,M1