A WOMAN walking the street adown Saw at a casement, glint the gown Of a mother, meek, whose little son Had died with his child-joys just begun, And it smote her heart, for well she knew What Mother-love with a life may do; And she said, "Poor soul! how sad that she Should lose the child in his grace and glee!" For she thought of her boy that lived to-day, Though man-grown now and far away. But the woman there in the window-seat Looked with a smile, not sad, but sweet, And touched with pity, to the place Where she had marked the other's face; And she said, "Poor soul! her child is lost, For now he is only a man sin-tossed! But the boy I watched in his bright young day, He bides in my heart a child for aye." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...FLUSH OR FAUNUS by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING SNOW-FLAKES by MARY ELIZABETH MAPES DODGE HOMAGE TO SEXTUS PROPERTIUS: 1 by EZRA POUND THOSE WHO LOVE by SARA TEASDALE IDYLLS OF THE KING: GUINEVERE by ALFRED TENNYSON THE BLUET by W. I. LINCOLN ADAMS |