Page:Collected poems vol 1 de la mare.djvu/118

 S Ann came in one summer's day,
 * She felt that she must creep,

So silent was the clear cool house,
 * It seemed a house of sleep.

And sure, when she pushed open the door,
 * Rapt in the stillness there,

Her mother sat, with stooping head,
 * Asleep upon a chair;

Fast — fast asleep; her two hands laid
 * Loose-folded on her knee,

So that her small unconscious face
 * Looked half unreal to be:

So calmly lit with sleep's pale light
 * Each feature was; so fair

Her forehead — every trouble was
 * Smoothed out beneath her hair.

But though her mind in dream now moved,
 * Still seemed her gaze to rest —

From out beneath her fast-sealed lids,
 * Above her moving breast —

On Ann; as quite, quite still she stood;
 * Yet slumber lay so deep

Even her hands upon her lap
 * Seemed saturate with sleep.