Candles that Burn / Aline Kilmer

Candles that Burn

Candles that burn for a November birthday,
   Wreathed round with asters and with goldenrod,
As you go upward in your radiant dying
   Carry my prayer to God.

Tell Him she is so small and so rebellious,
   Tell Him her words are music on her lips,
Tell Him I love her in her wayward beauty
   Down to her fingertips.

Ask Him to keep her brave and true and lovely,
   Vivid and happy, gay as she is now,
Ask Him to let no shadow touch her beauty,
   No sorrow mar her brow.

All the sweet saints that came for her baptising,
   Tell them I pray them to be always near.
Ask them to keep her little feet from stumbling,
   Her gallant heart from fear.

Candles that burn for a November birthday,
   Wreathed round with asters and with goldenrod,
As you go upward in your radiant dying,
   Carry my prayer to God.

~~
Aline Kilmer (1888-1941)
from Candles that Burn, 1919

[Poem is in the public domain in Canada, the United States, and the European Union]

Aline Kilmer biography