Page:Enoch Arden, etc - Tennyson - 1864.djvu/27

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
ENOCH ARDEN.
11
And Enoch faced this morning of farewell
Brightly and boldly. All his Annie’s fears,
Save, as his Annie’s, were a laughter to him.
Yet Enoch as a brave God-fearing man
Bow’d himself down, and in that mystery
Where God-in-man is one with man-in-God,
Pray’d for a blessing on his wife and babes
Whatever came to him: and then he said
‘Annie, this voyage by the grace of God
Will bring fair weather yet to all of us.
Keep a clean hearth and a clear fire for me,
For I’ll be back, my girl, before you know it.’
Then lightly rocking baby’s cradle ‘and he,
This pretty, puny, weakly little one,—
Nay—for I love him all the better for it—
God bless him, he shall sit upon my knees
And I will tell him tales of foreign parts,
And make him merry, when I come home again.
Come, Annie, come, cheer up before I go.’