AN ANGEL IN PLASTER

Dear smiling little snub-nosed baby face 
With angel wings, 
Be thou the guardian of this house, and grace 
Its sublunary things.

Look laughing down, O blessed babe, and lend

That guileless charm, 
That beaming joy, to sweeten and defend 
Our dwelling from all harm.

Bid sorrow shun the threshold of this door,
And memory

Cease in this place forever to deplore 
What has been—and must be.

Come sun or storm, come merriment or tears,
No care can fret 
Thy radiant spirit, nor the heavy years 

Invade it with regret.

Surely thou art a traveller from a land 
That knows no grief! 
The life of men thou canst not understand— 
So turbulent, so brief.