[Editor: This poem by Menie Parkes was published in Poems (1867).]
On My Birthday.
Another gift! another gift!
It matters not, my Father,
That kindly hearts their wishes send,
And smiles around me gather.
Unless thy down-bent smile is gazing
And my glad heart to thee upraising.
Another gift! another gift!
Send down thy tender love;
Cast round my heart thy golden chain;
Oh, look down from above,
And send me gifts of Heavenly grace
From Heaven — thy sacred dwelling-place.
Another gift! a Father’s gift!
A Father’s matchless benison,
A Father’s hand of generous wealth,
And kindness never done,
To clothe me in His raiment fine,
And deck with gems that earth outshine.
A heart to love; a life to prove
My kingly birth and rank to come,
And such a likeness of my God
As shows my heirship to my home —
These be Thy gifts, my Saviour-Sire,
And these be all my heart’s desire.
Source:
Menie Parkes, Poems, F. Cunninghame, Sydney, [1867], page 106
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