Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, RECOMPENSE, by AMY FORBES KING


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

RECOMPENSE, by                    
First Line: I knew you never asked a worldly thing
Last Line: A recompense for all I failed to be.
Subject(s): Death; Heaven; Regret; Shame; Dead, The; Paradise


I knew you never asked a worldly thing—
And yet you found so much to make you smile.
I never questioned—then—what I might bring
To help you carry on a longer while.

But now I have to lift my voice in prayer,
Bow low my head in agony and shame
To plead with God to give you standing there,
The things you should have had in my own name.

I knew you never asked a worldly thing,
But, oh, how much you longed to have me near.
You said once, it was all you ever wished
To have me share the things that you held dear.

Ah, Father, take her lovely little hand,
And give to her the love she yearned from me,
That in Your ideal holiness she'll find
A recompense for all I failed to be.





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