William Baxter My Wife and Boys (1867)

 

T H E

L A D I E S '   R E P O S I T O R Y .
D E C E M B E R,   1 8 6 7 .

 

M Y   W I F E   A N D   B O Y S .
BY REV. WILLIAM BAXTER.
HOW often change the poet's themes!
    In youth his harp has but one tone,
Like old Anacreon's tuneful lyre,
    It murmurs love, and love alone.

Then it was inspiration sweet
    To catch the gleam of golden curls,
And hear upon the evening breeze
    The laughter of the village girls.

Then moonlight walks and whispered words,
    With one the dearest of them all;
And fairest, too--at least to me,
    My fancy still will oft recall.

But when I turn me from this page,
    Though young no longer, eyes meet mine
With such a calm and trustful look,
    They seem to have a glow divine.

They are the eyes of one, like me,
    'Tis true, a little past her prime,
But now they shed a lovelier light
    Than when I praised them first in rhyme.

Then we the sunshine only saw,
    Since we have seen the shade of life;
But through the sunshine and the shade
    She's been my true, my faithful wife.

An hour ago two happy boys,
    The elder seven, the younger five,
Played round my knees, their roguish eyes
    With fun and mischief all alive;

Begged me for stories, and were sad
    As "The Babes in the Wood" I told;
"Tom Thumb" called forth their laughter,
    And "The Giant Killer" made them bold.

The stories done, they clasped their hands,
    And kneeling, "Now I lay me" said;
And now they slumber side by side,
    While angels doubtless guard their bed.

I watch their calm untroubled sleep,
    And feel life hath no purer joys,
Than God bath granted unto me,
    In that dear wife, and those dear boys.

We've had our sorrows, too, we've seen
    Our babes in death's embraces cold;
Dear lambs, we loved them, but they are
    Now lambs of the good Shepherd's fold.

He by whose will so fair a morn
    Upon our life's short day arose,
Though clouds may come, at last will give
    A cloudless sunset at its close.

 

[The Ladies' Repository 27 (December 1867): 709.]

ABOUT THE ELECTRONIC EDITION

      William Baxter's "My Wife and Boys" was first published in The Ladies' Repository: A Monthly Periodical Devoted to Literature and Religion, Vol. 27, No. 12, December 1867, p. 709. This volume, edited by I. W. Wiley, was published in Cincinnati and Chicago by Poe and Hitchcock and in New York by Carlton and Porter.

      Addenda and corrigenda are earnestly solicited.

Ernie Stefanik
Derry, PA

Created 19 April 2000.
Updated 28 June 2003.

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