No More Learning

_Cain_. I will--but wherefore?

_Adah_. Our little Enoch sleeps upon yon bed
Of leaves, beneath the cypress.

_Cain_. Cypress! 'tis
A gloomy tree, which looks as if it mourned
O'er what it shadows; wherefore didst thou choose it
For our child's canopy?

_Adah_. Because its branches
Shut out the sun like night, and therefore seemed
Fitting to shadow slumber.

_Cain_. Aye, the last--
And longest; but no matter--lead me to him.
[_They go up to the child_.
How lovely he appears! his little cheeks, 10
In their pure incarnation,[124] vying with
The rose leaves strewn beneath them.

_Adah_.
And his lips, too,
How beautifully parted! No; you shall not
Kiss him, at least not now: he will awake soon--
His hour of mid-day rest is nearly over;
But it were pity to disturb him till
'Tis closed.

_Cain_. You have said well; I will contain
My heart till then. He smiles, and sleeps! --sleep on,
And smile, thou little, young inheritor
Of a world scarce less young: sleep on, and smile! 20
Thine are the hours and days when both are cheering
And innocent! _thou_ hast not plucked the fruit--
Thou know'st not thou art naked! Must the time
Come thou shalt be amerced for sins unknown,
Which were not thine nor mine? But now sleep on!
His cheeks are reddening into deeper smiles,
And shining lids are trembling o'er his long
Lashes,[125] dark as the cypress which waves o'er them;
Half open, from beneath them the clear blue
Laughs out, although in slumber. He must dream-- 30
Of what? Of Paradise! --Aye! dream of it,
My disinherited boy! 'Tis but a dream;
For never more thyself, thy sons, nor fathers,
Shall walk in that forbidden place of joy!