University of Virginia Library

TO MY MOTHER.

When shall my mother see again,
Her once familiar own?
When shall my mother hear again,
My once familiar tone?
I hear a murmur, faint and low—
A dirge from earth's alloy!
It speaks—my spirit, rise and go,
Where thou wast born a boy.
Thou wast my night, my morn, my noon,
A gem divinely dear!
I lost thee, son, too soon! too soon!
And seek thee with a tear!
I, like a shepherd, weak and old,
Whose sun has set in joy,
Has lost a lamb from out his fold,
Like thou, my darling boy!
On nature's dust, with human rain,
My vows I humbly grave,
Till words grow wild with wo and pain,
And wash me in the grave!
Oh! that I could like Chilo die,
In one immortal joy!
Then could this heart's maternal sigh,
Exhaust for thee, my boy!
There is a tear for all mankind,
I shed my last to thee!
A spring, from that immortal mind,
Which earth shall never see.
Though I be young and few in years,
And know but little joy;
Yet, while I weep in manhood's tears,
I wish I was a boy!
There was a day—but that has fled!
I claimed it as mine own—
There bloomed a flower—but that is dead!
My Eden's left alone.
There was a rainbow, beaming bright,
A cloud has veiled its joy!
But while it lured my eagle sight,
I was my mother's boy.
In God's great sea of boundless love,
There rolls a wave for me;
While, from his ark, he wings a dove,
To waft my sorrows free.
But that great tide which flows from thee,
Shall thrill my soul with joy;
'Tis so much like thy love for me,
When I was mother's boy.
The snares of earth shall lure me not,
On land, or sea, or main;
No; till this heart shall mould and rot,
My virtue shall remain.
That ocean tide, immense of God,
Shall waft my bark of joy;
Till this proud heart shall feel the clod,
I'll be thy darling boy!
Though earth may shine in living charms,
And feast my youthful eye;
Yet, in thine own, maternal arms,
This heart shall freely die!
Though grief, and pain, and strife, and wo!
Be dregs of earth's alloy;
Yet, this I feel, and this I know,
I drank none when a boy!