"Will the Angels Take Me Up?" (1876)
Little Willie's Last Question.
A Beautiful Ballad.
Words by Rev. E. H. Sears
Music by Joseph Philbrick Webster, 1819-1875

1.
Some have thought that in the dawning
Of our being's freshest glow,
God is nearer little children
Than their parents ever know;
And that if you listen sharply,
Better things than you can teach,
And a sort of mystic wisdom
Trickles through their careless speech.

2.
How it is I cannot answer --
But I knew a little child,
Who, among the thyme and clover,
And the bees was running wild;
And he came one summer eve-ning,
With his ringlets o'er his eyes,
And his hat was torn in pieces,
Chasing bees and butterflies.

3.
"Now I'll go to bed, dear mother,
For I'm very tired of play!"
And he said his -- "Now I lay me" --
In a kind and careless way;
And he drank the cooling water
From his little silver cup,
And said gaily, "when 'tis morning,
Will the angels take me up?"

4.
Down he sank with rouguish slumber,
In his little trundle bed,
And the kindly god of slumber
Show'r'd the poppies o'er his head;
"What could mean his speaking strangely?"
Asked his musing mother then --
"Oh! 'twas nothing but his prattle:
What can he of angels ken?"

5.
There he lies, how sweet and placid!
And his breathing comes and goes,
Like a zephyr moving softly,
And his cheek is like a rose;
But she lean'd her ear to listen
If his breathing could be heard --
"Oh!" she murmured, "if the angels
Took my darling at his word!"

6.
Night within its folding mantle
Hath the sleepers both beguiled,
And within its soft embracings
Rest the mother and the child;
But she's startled from her dreaming,
By a sound that strikes her ear --
'Tis a sigh from little Willie,
Lying on his trundle near.

7.
Thro' the night she watch'd her darling,
Now despairing, now in hope;
And about the break of morning
Did the angels take him up.
Nevermore his -- "Now I lay me"
Will be said from mother's knee,
Nevermore among the clover,
Will he chase the bumble-bee.