"YOUR life was hard with mangling clothes, You scrubbed our floors for years; But now, your children are so good, That you can rest your poor old limbs, And want for neither drink nor meat." "It's true," she said, and laughed for joy; And still her voice, with all her years, Could make a song-bird wonder if A rival sweetness challenged him. But soon her face was full of trouble: "If I could only tear," she said, "My sister Alice out of her grave -- Who taunted me when I was poor -- And make her understand these words: 'See, I have everything I want, My children, Alice, are so good' -- If I could only once do that, There's nothing else I want on earth." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONNET: TO HOMER by JOHN KEATS THE THREE KINGS by HENRY WADSWORTH LONGFELLOW RIDDLE: A CANDLE by MOTHER GOOSE THE LORD OF THOULOUSE; A LEGEND OF LANGUEDOC by RICHARD HARRIS BARHAM THE FALL OF THE YEAR by EMIL BLEMONT REMEMBRANCE by WILLIAM LISLE BOWLES DEATH by STOPFORD AUGUSTUS BROOKE |