Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, MOTHER AND SON, by PHOEBE CARY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

MOTHER AND SON, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Brightly for him the future smiled
Last Line: God ever gave to you!
Subject(s): Mothers


BRIGHTLY for him the future smiled,
The world was all untried;
He had been a boy, almost a child,
In your household till he died.

And you saw him young and strong and fair
But yesterday depart;
And you now know he is lying there
Shot to death through the heart!

Alas, for the step so proud and true
That struck on the war-path's track;
Alas, to go, as he went from you,
And to come, as they brought him back!

One shining curl from that bright young head,
Held sacred in your home,
Is all that you have to keep in his stead
In the years that are to come.

You may claim of his beauty and his youth
Only this little part--
It is not much with which to stanch
The wound in a mother's heart!

It is not much with which to dry
The bitter tears that flow;
Not much in your empty hands to lie
As the seasons come and go.

Yet he has not lived and died in vain,
For proudly you may say
He has left a name without a stain
For your tears to wash away.

And evermore shall your life be blest,
Though your treasures now are few,
Since you gave for your country's good the best
God ever gave to you!





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