Babette Deutsch




For the Infant Michael

Sweet, where music softly goes 
Toward silence, and upon that bed 
Sleeping, is remembered: 
Where the breathing of the rose 
Defines a fragrance halfway fled: 
Or from wintry wings unshed 
Hover rumours of the snows: 
In such hushed, such honey-holding, 
Subtle ways your being runs, — 
O virgin bud be slow, unfolding 
A radiance like the sun's.