STRANGE mockery of motherhood! They who should feel the fostering care Maternal, and the tender good Of home when fondling arms are there, Must, ere their time, in mimic show Of age and sacred duties, be Thus wise to guide, thus deep to know, The artless needs of infancy. The little mothers! Will they win The bitter-sweet of elder years? Will love protect them from the sin, And faith gleam dauntless through the tears? God grant some guerdon for the loss Of childly joy: and when they come To woman-ways and woman's cross, Give them a fate more frolicsome. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ODE SUNG AT THE OPENING OF THE INTERNATIONAL EXHIBITION by ALFRED TENNYSON CORSICA by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD THE LAST MAN: LIFE'S UNCERTAINTY by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES MY FLOWERS by PIERRE JEAN DE BERANGER LARABELLE: CANTO SECOND by LEVI BISHOP THE WANDERER: 1. IN ITALY: EROS by EDWARD ROBERT BULWER-LYTTON DON JUAN: CANTO 16 by GEORGE GORDON BYRON MASQUE AT THE MARRIAGE OF THE EARL OF SOMERSET: FIRST SQUIRE (2) by THOMAS CAMPION |