Classic and Contemporary Poetry
PATERNITY, by WILLIAM ROSE BENET Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Not only women dream the future's child Last Line: And all my being yearned: my son! My son! Subject(s): Fathers & Sons | ||||||||
Not only women dream the future's child Or children, though such deep desire they bear For all the rich rewards of motherhood, They smile in travail; though each girl ungrown Who sings her dolls uncertain lullabies Sees infant faces, feels soft arms that cling, Hears deep within the nursery of her heart A medley of small mirth adorable, And, as she grows, mothers all things she loves, Lacking the little head against her breast And yearning for it, when she cannot know Wherefore she yearns. Yet sometimes to a man, Roughest and sternest though he be of men, Shocked into strength and pondering from his young Exuberance and easy joy, there comes A longing that convulses all his soul; And, standing in the wind against some dawn's Prospect of racing cloud and lightening sky, Or hard-beset in battle with the world Deep in the city's stridence, or at pause Before some new-discovered truth of life, Unwittingly his hands go out to touch, Hold off, and scan the youth of him that was, Thrill to that brighter youth it is decreed Each father shall inherit from his son. And, if his hands grope blindly, so his heart, To hear a young voice at his shoulder speak, Know young, elastic strides beside his own, Resolve the problems of an unsullied heart Flaming to his for counsel. I scarce-grown Into my manhood, hovering, hovering still Over by boyhood (as the gravest, oldest Of men doth yet, or is no man of men), Felt my heart tense, and but a noon ago Strove in quick torture -- for no woman's arms, No woman's eyes, but for a questioning voice Beside me, and a sturdy little step In rhythm with mine. A phantom face looked up, Trusting, round-eyed, alive with curious joy; And all my being yearned: My son! My son! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SENTIMENTAL EDUCATION by TONY HOAGLAND MY FATHER'S CORPSE by ANDREW HUDGINS LOST CHILDHOOD by DAVID IGNATOW TO MY FATHER'S BUSINESS by KENNETH KOCH STUDY IN BLACK & WHITE by PAUL MARIANI MOVING AGAIN by WILLIAM MATTHEWS THE FALCONER OF GOD by WILLIAM ROSE BENET |
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