Angel's Whisper by Samuel Lover

Ireland’s 100 favourite poems

In Ireland they thought that when a child smiles in its sleep it is “talking with the angels.”
Samuel_lover-An Angel's Whisper-Image copyright Ireland Calling
He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven. Image copyright Ireland Calling

The Angel’s Whisper

A baby was sleeping,
It’s mother was weeping,
For her husband was far on the wild raging sea;
And the tempest was swelling
Round the fisherman’s dwelling,
And she cried, “Dermot, darling, oh come back to me!”

Her beads while she numbered,
The baby still slumbered
And smil’d in her face as she bended her knee;
“Oh blest be that warning,
My child, thy sleep adorning,
For I know that the angels are whispering with thee.

Ogham, the mysterious language of the trees The Origins of the Ogham alphabet are still a mystery for many historians, but it is primarily thought to be an early form of the Irish written Language.

“And while they are keeping
Bright watch o’er thy sleeping,
Oh, pray to them softly, my baby, with me!
And say thou would’st rather
They’d watch o’er thy father!—
For I know that the angels are whispering with thee.”

The dawn of the morning
Saw Dermot returning,
And the wife wept with joy her babe’s father to see;
And closely caressing
Her child, with a blessing,
Said, “I knew that the angels were whispering with thee.”

He Wishes for the Cloths of Heaven. Image copyright Ireland Calling