18 Birthday Poems for Daughter: Sweet, Short, and Heartfelt Poems

Dear Fanny! nine long years ago,
While yet the morning sun was low,
And rosy with the eastern glow
The landscape smiled;
Whilst lowed the newly-wakened herds —
Sweet as the early song of birds,
I heard those first, delightful words,
“Thou hast a child!”

Along with that uprising dew
Tears glistened in my eyes, though few,
To hail a dawning quite as new,
To me, as time:
It was not sorrow — not annoy —
But like a happy-maid, though coy,
With grief-like welcome, even joy
Forestalls its prime.

So mayst thou live, dear! many years,
In all the bliss that life endears,
Not without smiles, nor yet from tears
Too strictly kept:
When first thy infant littleness
I folded in my fond caress,
The greatest proof of happiness
Was this — I wept.

In the morning of life’s day,
All before is bright and gay,
All behind is like a dream,
Or the morn’s uncertain beam,
Falling on a misty stream.
In the morning of thy youth,
Learn this sober, solemn truth;
Life is passing like a stream,
Or a meteor’s sudden gleam;
Like the bright aurora’s blaze,
Disappearing while we gaze;
Soon the child becomes a maid,
In the pride of youth arrayed,
And her mind and form expand
To proportions great and grand;
Then she changes to a wife,
Battling with the ills of life;
Thus we come and thus we go,
And our cups with joy and woe,
Oft are made to overflow.
Each returning bright birthday,
Like the mile-stones by the way,
Will remind you as you go—
Though at first they pass so slow
That behind there is one more
And, of course, one less before;
Watch the moments as they fly,
With a never tiring eye—
Since you cannot stop their flow,
O! improve them as they go.

My dear, the bard his greeting sends,
And wishes you and all your friends,
A happy birthday meeting.
Let social pleasures crown the day,
But while you chase dull care away,
Remember time is fleeting.

Then learn the lesson of this day,
Another year has pass’d away,
Beyond our reach forever.
And as the fleeting moments glide,
They bear us on their noiseless tide,
Like straws upon the river,
Into that vast, unfathomed sea,
Marked on the map “eternity,”
With neither bound nor shore.
There may we find some blissful isle
Where basking in our Saviour’s smile,
We’ll meet to part no more.

Oh! This is a happy, beautiful world!
My heart is light and gay;
The birds in the trees sing blithely to me
And I’m six years old to-day.

Yes, six, and father has bought me a book,
And mother, the sweetest doll,
All dressed in white with blue eyes bright,
And the nicest hat and shawl.

My kitty sat quietly near the fire
As Dolly and I came by;
Miss Dolly bowed, and pussy meowed,
And opened her yellow eye.

Ah me! if Kit could only talk,
And Dolly could but chat,
We’d social be as any three—
Talk, sing, and all of that.

I dressed all up in grandma’s cap,
And put on her glasses too;
“Why, Grandma!” I said, as I looked at myself,
“I’m almost as old as you.”

My mother softly kissed my cheek,
And then she blessed me too,
Praying that I, as years went by,
Might be as good and true.

My birthday song is a merry one,
And my heart is warm and light;
Kind father, mother, and dear grandma,
Sweet dolly and pussy, good night.