And thou hast never, never known A mother's love, a mother's care! Hast wept, and sigh'd, and smil'd alone, Unblest by e'en a mother's prayer. Oh, if sad sorrow's blighting hand Hath e'er an arrow, it is this; To feel that phrenzy's burning brand Hath wip'd away a mother's kiss; To mark the gulf, the starless wave, Which rolls between thee and her love, To feel that better were a grave, A grave beneath -- a home above; Than thus that she should linger on, In dreamless, sunless solitude; Like some bright ruin'd shrine, where one All loveliness and truth hath stood. And he, her love, her life, her light, How burst the storm o'er him! Oh, darker than Egyptian night, 'T was one wild troubled dream! To gaze upon that eye, whose beam Was love, and life, and light, To mark its wild and wandering gleam Which dazzles but to blight; To turn in anguish and despair -- From those wild notes of sadness, And feel that there was darkness there, The midnight mist of madness; To start beneath the thrilling swell Of notes still sweet, tho' wasted, To mark the idol lov'd too well, In all its beauty blasted; Oh! it were better far to kneel, In darkly brooding anguish, Upon the graves of those we love, Than thus to see them languish. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CHRIST'S KINGDOM AMONG THE GENTILES by ISAAC WATTS THE NO-LONGER-MERRY ANCIENT MONARCH by FRANKLIN PIERCE ADAMS ON THE PASSING OF THE LAST FIRE HORSE FROM MANHATTAN ISLAND by KENNETH SLADE ALLING THE LAST MAN: INSIGNIFICANCE OF THE WORLD by THOMAS LOVELL BEDDOES TO ONE IN A GARDEN by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT KNOWLEDGE by THOMAS CURTIS CLARK THE PREFACE TO DIVINE SONGS AND MEDITACIONS by ANNE COLLINS |