Page:The volunteer, and other poems, Asquith, 1916.djvu/18

 TO A BABY FOUND PADDLING NEAR THE LINES.

AIL! O Baby of the May

In the bubbling river-bed,

Playing where the cannon play,

With the shrapnel overhead!

Sparkling in and flashing out

Through the eddies and the shallows,

With your feet among the trout,

And your head among the swallows;

While the wag-tails on the daisies

Lead you in the minuet,

Twinkling through the flow'ry mazes,

Baby, do you quite forget

That, with shrapnel overhead,

Other babes are put to bed?

Baby, may the buttercup,

When you tumble, pick you up;

If you fall beside the willow,

Lilies rise to be your pillow!

In the winter should you go

Straying far without a rest,

Down beneath the drifting snow

May you be the mouse's guest; 14