This poem by Susan was written Christmas Eve, 1868, and published in the Crawfordsville Journal.
Christmas Song for Children
Oh, could I have my wish this Christmas night,
Some fairy should fly through the cold starlight,
And bear you away on her gentle breast,
To gardens enchanted, where all that’s best,
Sweetest, and best, from every clime,
Should blossom in endless summer-time.
Of myrtle and rose should our garden be,
For the children only, their friends and me.
Built round it a wall, with towers high,
Should shut out all but the clear blue sky,
And circle a palace where banners bright
Float far and free in the soft sunlight.
And violet eyes, lifted meekly up,
And the tulip, bearing her golden cup
Of perfume, should greet the morning sun,
As the beautiful days come one by one,
With never a cloud, and never a tear,
From summer to summer, year to year.
And every path in that garden sweet
Should bear the light print of baby feet,
And ring with shouts of children at play
By babbling brooks that merrily stray
Through beds of lilies, away, away,
Where murmuring water, and bee, and bird,
Make the sweetest music ear ever heard.
There would we live and never grow old;
There measure the years with sands of gold;
In the rose garden whose gates are free
To children only, their friends and me.
It cannot be so–the wishes I bring
Are but the longing of Winter for Spring.
One fairy only haunts this world of ours;
His path is crowded with fadeless flowers;
And the spell that lies in his rosy wings
Is strange as the wonderful song he sings
To charm away sorrow–’twill pass you by,
While the fairy Love is hovering nigh.
This Christmas eve, oh, guard them well,
True love, thou sleepless sentinel!
Beneath they wings, warm lands and fair
Lie sheltered in enchanted air;
And circling walls to thee belong,
And mystic bars, unseen, but strong,
Oh, guard them, Love, with magic key,
The children dear, their friends, and me.
