The Poetical Works of Jonathan E. Hoag/Mother and Child

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search

Mother and Child

Why fall those tears, those silent, crystal tears?
  Why seek you solitude when eve is nigh,
And gazing on the eternal, distant stars,
  For treasures which you vainly weep and sigh?

Why flow those tears, those grave, lamenting tears?
  O child, my blessed child, do you not see,
When dusk of night prevailed and this frail bark
  Dashed on the shore, I clung alone to thee?

A mother's loving heart is rent in twain;
  I mourn for mine while yet apart I stay;
You know not half my poignant anguish, child,
  Nor can you wipe those falling tears away.

You have not felt a mother's passionate love;
  No innocent babe's adoring care is thine;
Your heart mine own can darkly comprehend;
  Your soul but vaguely sounds the depths of mine.

Aye, mother dear, I now can understand,
  As never yet, the searching pangs you feel!
When those you loved have gone a little space,
  Sometimes my earth-bound sight can ill reveal.

And yet those sacred tears I seem to see
And yearn—ah, how I yearn to be with thee!

1916