Persia

I am writing this song at the close

Of a beautiful day of the spring

In a dell where the daffodil grows

By a grove of the glimmering wing;

From glades where a musical word

Comes ever from luminous fall,

I send you the song of a bird

That I wish to be dear to you all.

I have given my darling the name

Of a land at the gates of the day,

Where morning is always the same,

And spring never passes away.

With a prayer for a lifetime of light,

I christened her Persia, you see;

And I hope that some fathers to-night

Will kneel in the spirit with me.

She is only commencing to look

At the beauty in which she is set;

And forest and flower and brook,

To her are all mysteries yet.

I know that to many my words

Will seem insignificant things;

But you who are mothers of birds

Will feel for the father who sings.

For all of you doubtless have been

Where sorrows are many and wild;

And you know what a beautiful scene

Of this world can be made by a child:

I am sure, if they listen to this,

Sweet women will quiver, and long

To tenderly stoop to and kiss

The Persia I've put in a song.

And I'm certain the critic will pause,

And excuse, for the sake of my bird,

My sins against critical laws —

The slips in the thought and the word.

And haply some dear little face

Of his own to his mind will occur —

Some Persia who brightens his place —

And I'll be forgiven for her.

A life that is turning to grey

Has hardly been happy, you see;

But the rose that has dropped on my way

Is morning and music to me.

Yea, she that I hold by the hand

Is changing white winter to green,

And making a light of the land —

All fathers will know what I mean:

All women and men who have known

The sickness of sorrow and sin,

Will feel — having babes of their own —

My verse and the pathos therein.

For that must be touching which shows

How a life has been led from the wild

To a garden of glitter and rose,

By the flower-like hand of a child.

She is strange to this wonderful sphere;

One summer and winter have set

Since God left her radiance here —

Her sweet second year is not yet.

The world is so lovely and new

To eyes full of eloquent light,

And, sisters, I'm hoping that you

Will pray for my Persia to-night.

For I, who have suffered so much,

And know what the bitterness is,

Am sad to think sorrow must touch

Some day even darlings like this!

But sorrow is part of this life,

And, therefore, a father doth long

For the blessing of mother and wife

On the bird he has put in a song.