Page:Tale of Paraguay - Southey.djvu/51

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Ere long the cares of helpless babyhood To the next stage of infancy give place, That age with sense of conscious growth endued, When every gesture hath its proper grace: Then come the unsteady step, the tottering pace; And watchful hopes and emulous thoughts appear; The imitative lips essay to trace Their words, observant both with eye and ear, In mutilated sounds which parents love to hear.

Serenely thus the seasons pass away; And, oh! how rapidly they seem to fly With those for whom to-morrow like to-day Glides on in peaceful uniformity! Five years have since Yeruti's birth gone by, Five happy years;—and ere the Moon which then Hung like a Sylphid's light canoe on high Should fill its circle, Monnema again Laying her burthen down must bear a mother's pain.