Saturday, April 2, 2011

"Where's the Baby?" by Alice Williams Brotherton

Oh dear, where is the Baby gone?
I can't tell where I missed him;
Why only last night in his crib
I tucked him safe and kissed him!
This boy, with marbles, top and ball,
In knickerbockers dressed,
This cannot be the baby small
I cradled in my breast.

I wanted the weenty teenty thing
In dresses soft and white,
That I could cuddle, kiss, and sing
Soft by-lows to at night.
But stay--here are the self-same eyes,
His very dimpled chin,
These are his rosy pouting lips
With milk-white teeth within.

This is my Baby.--But how changed!
I hear his merry shout
As he goes sliding down the stair,
And dancing in and out;
Splashing and dashing through the brook,
With brow and check of tan.
Heigho! My baby's gone; instead
I see,--a little man.

Ah well, when evening comes again
With sleep and story-time,
A little white-gowned form will come
Into my lap to climb;
His wee head cradled on my heart
Will still this yearning pain.
O then I'll know that I have found
My baby-boy again!

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I found this poem online at a little website called Black Cat Poems. It's a rather large collection of all types of poems put together in one place and categorized by subject or poet.
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I found this poem to be exactly how I feel about my oldest son especially. How they used to be your little baby and then they are growing up to be so big and you wonder where all the time has gone and where your baby has gone. The realization that its only when they really need you that you can catch some small hint that they were your little baby. It makes you sad to realize that they soon will not need you and all you have left are your memories when they were small and relied upon you so much.
I know that this poem will touch any parent as we have all bee through this stage where we wish our children were small again. We seem to forget that they won't always need us and we don't cherish all the little moments as much as we should. Then we turn around one day, and our babies are gone, grown into bigger children or teens or even adults. We sit there and try to figure out how that happened and where did our sweet little baby went.

1 comment:

  1. This is just like me and my little sister. I don't have any kids, but I feel like my little sister is just like my child because I've helped raised her ever since she was a little baby. She's 9 years old now,and these days when I look at her, I tell her I can't believe how big she has gotten! I still can't believe it. How fast time flies...

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