Beyond the star-dust and the ether-flaw Where truth first folds her wings I reached the empty quiet, whence I saw The little sum of things. An atom in a wreath of fiery smoke Slow curling through that dark, The faint Earth quivered, as if tears would choke The glimmer of its spark. The earnest silence of the heavens' war Mine eyes could not abide, And throbbing to the pulses of my star The heart within me cried: O Mother, from thy womb my body came, Thy labour was my birth, My spirit's fire was kindled at thy flame, Thine am I, Mother Earth! What do I here, an augur of thy death, Who live but by thy life? Oh, I will haste, and pay my debt of breath, A weapon in thy strife! I will take water to the drooping fern, Unyoke the sweating steers, The swords of brothers from their bosoms turn, And dry thy children's tears. I know, dear Mother, that thine hour is nigh; My service saves not thee: But blessed are thy children, if they die To ease thine agony. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE AWAKENING RIVER by KATHERINE MANSFIELD THRENODY by RALPH WALDO EMERSON CARLYLE AND EMERSON by MONTGOMERY SCHUYLER THE MOUNT OF OLIVES, SELECTION by ANEIRIN BRUCE: IN PRAISE OF FREEDOM by JOHN BARBOUR THE WEST WIND by WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT AN EXCUSE FOR SO MUCH WRIT UPON MY VERSES by MARGARET LUCAS CAVENDISH |