University of Virginia Library

THE MOTHER'S ADVICE.

I have heard you out, my boy; now let me speak.
We are alone together, you and I:
So we have been: the new tie changes all.
You are not pledged as yet? So far is well—
Nay now, be patient, hear me till the end:
I do not mean to gainsay with one word
Your marriage as a marriage: 'tis the way
And process of the world: the mother's turn
Cedes to this stronger heritage of time,
And the wise mother grieves not: only this,
I deem it in my duty chiefly now
To mind you how past things have stood with us,
To argue out your future as I may
In all forbearance where I see you touch'd
So nearly: therefore hear, my boy, and weigh
The words as calmly as the words are said.
It is my right and duty to advise
Tho' hardly to forbid: these few calm words
And I have done: yours is it to decide,
The sequel good or evil most is yours:
And as you say hereafter so shall I.
For when your father died, and left the land
Encumber'd, you had been at school a year,
And you and I were lonely in the world
And very poor at first: the place is small,
The income scarce enough to hold our heads
Above the yeoman, but the name is old,
And you at least are born a gentleman;
But one so little rich this name can bring
No license to be idle. This alone
Were profit more than loss, if this were all.
Weigh then, my son, her station with your own,
To her in fairness weigh it while you may.
Most free am I of narrow county pride,
That mates by pedigree, and would despise
Earth's fairest choice with no armorial stem;
But this at least allow me to premise,
As something in the scale of yes or no,
Her grade is not as yours: tho' young and fair,
The daughter of a village lawyer, still
She is not much to bring me for your wife
Without a dower to this bare manor-house,
Whose crumbling rafters chide their needy lord.