Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TWO LIVES. PART 2: 14 by WILLIAM ELLERY LEONARD

First Line: I SAID HIS CHILD FOR LONG HAD LOVED HIM SO
Last Line: "HELP ME TO DO MY DUTY TO MY OWN."
I said his child for long had loved him so,
So pitied his desolation, his gray decline.
Though I too tried at pity, I opine,
For her sweet sake, yet forth from this, new woe,
Forth from her pitying love, began to grow:
She would be faithful to her father's line,
And faithful yet to me who called her mine,
Whilst father and husband on her overthrow
Each worked, by rendering her twofold task
Tenfold impossible. Distracted, torn,
Beside her bed the loving God she'd ask
Each winter evening, and again each morn
(The merciful God upon the great white throne):
"Help me to do my duty to my own."



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