 | Forest Songs and Other Poems |  |
6
THE LOST CHILD.
1
A cry is on the mountains wild—It is the cry of a lost child;
Like a lost lamb's its bleating cry,
“O mammy, mammy!” to the sky:
And the sky, with azure smile,
Never answers it the while.
2
The mother stares from field to field—Where can her Hans'l lie concealed?
From mother's wrath to mother's fear
She flies, but finds him far nor near.
To all the Saints she cries in vain,
Then to the Spirits makes her plain.
7
3
“Thou Wassermännli, what have I doneThat thou shouldst take my little son?
Upon the stone beside the lake,
I never failed to leave thy cake.”
And to the water wails she wild:
“Give back my child! give back my child!”
4
The child forlorn went crying stillUp the hill and down the hill,
Till a Cross he came upon,
Where, 'twixt the Virgin and St. John,
The Blessed Saviour bled and wept—
There he laid him down and slept.
5
The weary mother found the place:He slept with tear-beblubbered face.
She clutched her Hans'l, boxed his ears,
And then she kissed away his tears.
Thou Blessed Mother, when we stray,
Do thou the same for us, we pray!
| Forest Songs and Other Poems | |