One Year Old [poem by Agnes Neale]

[Editor: This poem by Agnes Neale was published in Shadows and Sunbeams (1890).]

One Year Old.

One year old to-morrow
Little stainless feet,
Set on life’s rough pathway,
Dainty, fresh, and sweet.

One year old to-morrow;
Eyes so glad and bright,
Trying hard to fathom
Every wondrous sight.

One year old to-morrow;
Tiny pink-hued hands,
Holding all our heart strings
In love’s slender bands.

Lips of dewy sweetness,
Fresh as any flower,
Keeping all your secrets
Till some golden hour.

Will the feet just started
On the way of life,
Some day faint and falter
In the cruel strife?

Will the eyes just opened
Sometime, in long years,
Have their dancing gladness
Drowned in bitter tears?

Will those soft pink fingers
Ever clasp in prayer
That lips cannot utter,
Sealed by dumb despair?

Darling little rosebud,
Fair and fresh and sweet,
God alone can guard you
From the ills you meet!

Darling little sunbeam,
Dancing free and bright,
May God always fill you
With His own glad light!

One year old to-morrow;
May God guard you, dear;
Keep you pure and stainless
Through each coming year!

Source:
Agnes Neale, Shadows and Sunbeams, Adelaide: Burden & Bonython, 1890, pages 45-47