Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, ABSENCE, by NATHANIEL PARKER WILLIS


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

ABSENCE, by             Poem Explanation         Poet's Biography
First Line: My birthday! O beloved mother!
Last Line: And be no more, as now, in a strange land, forlorn.
Variant Title(s): Birthday Verses
Subject(s): Birthdays; Mothers


"The heart that we have lain near before our birth, is the
only one that cannot forget that it has loved us."
PHILIP SLINGSBY

MY birthday! O beloved mother!
My heart is with thee o'er the seas!
I did not think to count another
Before I wept upon thy knees--
Before this scroll of absent years
Was blotted with thy streaming tears.

My own I do not care to check--
I weep--albeit here alone--
As if I hung upon thy neck,
As if thy lips were on my own,
As if this full, sad heart of mine,
Were beating closely upon thine.

Four weary years! How looks she now?
What light is in those tender eyes?
What trace of time has touched the brow
Whose look is borrowed of the skies
That listen to her nightly prayer?
How is she changed since he was there?
Who sleeps upon her heart alway--
Whose name upon her lips is worn--
For whom the night seems made to pray--
For whom she wakes to pray at morn--
Whose sight is dim, whose heart-strings stir,
Who weeps these tears--to think of her!

I know not if my mother's eyes
Would find me changed in slighter things;
I've wandered beneath many skies,
And tasted of some bitter springs;
And many leaves, once fair and gay,
From youth's full flower have dropped away--
But, as these looser leaves depart,
The lessened flower gets near the core,
And when deserted quite, the heart
Takes closer what was dear of yore--
And yearns to those who loved it first--
The sunshine and the dew by which its bud was nursed.

Dear mother! dost thou love me yet?
Am I remembered in my home?
When those I love for joy are met,
Does some one wish that I would come?
Thou dost--I am beloved of thee!
But as the schoolboy numbers o'er
Night after night, the Pleiades,
And finds the stars he found before--
As turns the maiden off her token--
As counts the miser o'er his gold--
So, till life's "silver cord is broken"
Would I of thy fond love be told.--
My heart is full--mine eyes are wet--
Dear mother! dost thou love thy long-lost wanderer yet?

Oh! when the hour to meet again
Creeps on--and, speeding o'er the sea,
My heart takes up its lengthened chain,
And, link by link, draws nearer thee,
When land is hailed, and from the shore,
Comes off the blessed breath of home,
With fragrance from my mother's door
Of flowers forgotten when I come--
When port is gained, and slowly now
The old familiar paths are passed,
And entering, unconscious how,
I gaze upon thy face at last,
And run to thee, all faint and weak--
And feel thy tears upon my cheek--
Oh! if my heart break not with joy,
The light of heaven will fairer seem,
And I shall grow once more a boy,
And, mother!--'twill be like a dream
That we were parted thus for years.
And once that we have dried our tears,
How will the days seem long and bright--
To meet thee always with the morn,
And hear thy blessing every night--
Thy "dearest"--thy "first-born"--
And be no more, as now, in a strange land, forlorn.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net