RETIRED THOUGHTS TO A DEPARTED INFANT. Isabella Kelly (née Fordyce) Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
Broad Street Oxford OX1 3BG UK
Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
Taylor Institution Library St Giles' Oxford OX1 3NA UK info@eighteenthcenturypoetry.org https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/
Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. T122123 Kelly, Isabella, 1759-1857. Collection of Poems and Fables on Several Occasions. London W. Richardson 1794 pp. 38-39. 72p.

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RETIRED THOUGHTS TO A DEPARTED INFANT . Go , first , sweet hope ! to thine own Heaven succeed , While here thy mother's heart must ever bleed , Must ever mourn , till that auspicious day That lays me where thy much-lov'd ashes lay . This lonely hour my sorrows reach no ear , This lonely hour no eye beholds this tear ; My angel ! thou from thy resplendent throne Oh ! take this moment , it is all thine own ; Spite of religious aid my wishes rise , Ah ! me ! how weak to wish thee from the skies ! Sometimes ( delusion strong ) I see thee smile , I hear thy lisping voice my cares beguile , And fancy wandering ( how remote from truth ) Surveys thee blooming in the pride of youth ; Beholds thee all a mother can implore ; Reason returns , and says , thou art no more ! Ah ! sad remembrance , why exert thy power , Why , why recal the past endearing hour , When thy sweet frame upon my breast repos'd , And opening beauty every look disclos'd ? Each happier mother , vain of her delight , Still , still obtrudes her darling on my sight ; Then in the harmless smile , the feeble cry , I hear the voice , I see thy languid eye : Oh ! still my child , if in thy perfect state , Thou hast a knowledge of my suffering fate , In gentle dreams thy beauteous form display , And bring me tidings from the realms of day ; Tell thy sad mother when the hour draws near , That we shall meet , nor other parting fear ; And Heaven , still gracious to the mourning kind , Oh ! deign to send me peace , a will resign'd ; Save me from murmurs at thy high decree , And teach my heart , that's best that pleases thee .