Australian Lyrics &c :: :: University of Virginia Library

God took your mother to Him. Do not weep;
For so He giveth His beloved sleep.
And sleep she needed, after all her pain;
She left you, but to welcome you again
After your own probation term is done.
You have your task to finish, as this one,

Who had not lost all her youth's golden crown
When the Lord, well pleased, took her for His own.
O children, do not weep!
For so He giveth His belovèd sleep.

She passed into the day from a long night,
As we woke up into this morning bright;
Her night was dark and painful, but her day
Is fair as Austral mornings are in May.
And Time will heal your wounds, as it healed mine;
For I, too, lost a mother as benign
And tender and engrossing as was yours,
And grief refused to pass, save as the hours
Pass—imperceptibly.
Weep not! for, flow'r-like, she was born to die.

My mother lies beneath a far-off sky,
Where the wild channel beats incessantly
Upon the Sussex cliffs. I cannot have
E'en the poor joy of looking on her grave;
I cannot strew the violets on her breast;
I cannot sit where her palms, crossed in rest,
Are symbols of the pure humility
With which she learned to live and learned to die.
I may not even roam
Up the sad road that leads to her last home.

But you can plant white lilies in the spring
Over your love, and see them blossoming
With each returning spring—a parable
Of her reflowering who loved them well.
And you can to her side for comfort creep,
And sit close by her where she lies asleep.
You will not be far parted, even here
While in the body pent. Be of good cheer,
And, children, do not weep,
For so He giveth His belovèd sleep.