Page:Poems Sherwin.djvu/78

A mother's eye had witnessed all
Her nourished hopes decay and fall.
 But little now remains untold;
The world unfeeling all, and cold—
Thought Collin's punishment was light
And deemed his sentence just and right.
$\scriptstyle {\left.{\begin{matrix}\ \\\\\ \\\ \ \end{matrix}}\right\}\,}$Imprisonment. The months roll'd on,
Behold him from his prison gone,
A lonely—wretched—altered one.
 The bitterest thoughts had filled his breast,
Chang'd his ideas,—stolen his rest.
Like Cain, a mark was on his brow,
All—all despised and shunn'd him now.

 He crossed the heath—he sought the moor,
Where oft his steps had trod before.
None now came forth the youth to meet,
No friendly face turned round to greet,—
And even Norah pass'd him by,
With alter'd look, and head awry;
This seemed the last he e'er could feel,
His blood froze up, his heart turned steel.
With madden'd thoughts he sought his home,
One being still he knew would come
To welcome him with heart and soul,
And to the door he softly stole.
He listened, but could hear no sound,
A deathlike stillness hover'd round:
He shudder'd, and unlatched the door,
When, stretched upon the cold brick floor,
His mother lay!—her only bed
A heap of straw. No taper shed