Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SATISFIED, by HESTER A. BENEDICT


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SATISFIED, by                    
First Line: Where moss-made beds are brightest by the river
Last Line: Of locks long longed for -- and am satisfied.
Subject(s): Babies; Happiness; Infants; Joy; Delight


WHERE moss-made beds are brightest by the river,
And curtained round with wondrous-woven vines,
I lie and watch the water-lilies quiver
In the soft shadow of the haunted pines, --
Lie, as in dreams, amidst the languid laughter
Of waves at play upon the harbor bar,
And hear the sound of wings that follow after
The wind who knoweth where the bird-nests are.

So sweet the hour, I cannot well remember
If care has been, or wearying toil or pain,
Or life low leaning to a drear December,
Or vision tortured by a teary rain;
The eyes of sorrow have been kissed to sleeping
By lips where many a tender mystery hides,
Like music in the merry waters, keeping
My feet from climbing up the mountain sides.

Upon my book unread a bee sits sipping
Wild honey from the fragrant wild-rose mark,
And, listening, I can hear the dipping, dipping
Of light oars piloting a home-bound bark.
A new life flows through all the aisles of being;
I seem a pulsing portion of the haze
That floats and floats where saints sing softlier, seeing
The dawn of heaven's own Indian summer days.

And once again, oh, once again is lying
Upon my heart a dainty, dimpled cheek,
For whose young bloom my lips were ever crying
In the old time of which I cannot speak.
One little word -- the first that babies mangle --
I hear, and flush with mother-love and pride,
Feeling my fingers in a golden tangle
Of locks long longed for -- and am satisfied.





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