Classic and Contemporary Poetry
TO A CHILDLESS WOMAN, by SIEGFRIED SASSOON Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: You think I cannot understand. Ah, but I do Last Line: And you must pray for me before you fall asleep. Subject(s): Childlessness | ||||||||
YOU think I cannot understand. Ah, but I do... I have been wrung with anger and compassion for you. I wonder if you'd loathe my pity, if you knew. But you shall know. I've carried in my heart too long This secret burden. Has not silence wrought your wrong -- Brought you to dumb and wintry middle-age, with grey Unfruitful withering? -- Ah, the pitiless things I say... What do you ask your God for, at the end of day, Kneeling beside your bed with bowed and hopeless head? What mercy can He give you? -- Dreams of the unborn Children that haunt your soul like loving words unsaid -- Dreams, as a song half-heard through sleep in early morn? I see you in the chapel, where you bend before The enhaloed calm of everlasting Motherhood That wounds your life; I see you humbled to adore The painted miracle you've never understood. Tender, and bitter-sweet, and shy, I've watched you holding Another's child. O childless woman, was it then That, with an instant's cry, your heart, made young again, Was crucified for ever -- those poor arms enfolding The life, the consummation that had been denied you? I too have longed for children. Ah, but you must not weep. Something I have to whisper as I kneel beside you... And you must pray for me before you fall asleep. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BIRTHDAY POEM FOR A CHILDLESS MAN by CAROLYN KIZER NO BABY IN THE HOUSE by CLARA G. DOLLIVER FLOWERS FOR THE HEART by EBENEZER ELLIOTT NOSTALGIA by MYRTLE HILL ERDMANN |
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