TO bear, to nurse, to rear, To watch, and then to lose: To see my bright ones disappear, Drawn up like morning dews; -- To bear, to nurse, to rear, To watch, and then to lose: This have I done when God drew near Among his own to choose. To hear, to heed, to wed, And with thy lord depart In tears that he, as soon as shed, Will let no longer smart. -- To hear, to heed, to wed, This while thou didst I smiled, For now it was not God who said, "Mother, give ME thy child." O fond, O fool, and blind, To God I gave with tears; But, when a man like grace would find, My soul put by her fears. O fond, O fool, and blind, God guards in happier spheres; That man will guard where he did bind Is hope for unknown years. To hear, to heed, to wed, Fair lot that maidens choose, Thy mother's tenderest words are said, Thy face no more she views; Thy mother's lot, my dear, She doth in naught accuse; Her lot to bear, to nurse, to rear, To love -- and then to lose. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...RAIN MUSIC by JOSEPH SEAMON COTTER JR. GENERAL WILLIAM BOOTH ENTERS INTO HEAVEN by NICHOLAS VACHEL LINDSAY URANIA; THE WOMAN IN THE MOON: THE THIRD CANTO, OR FULL MOON by WILLIAM BASSE PSALM 56 by OLD TESTAMENT BIBLE ASPIRATIONS: 4 by MATHILDE BLIND GRATITUDE by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT THE TOWERS OF PRINCETON [FROM THE TRAIN] by ROBERT BRIDGES (1858-1941) |