And thou hast never, never known A mother's love, a mother's care! Hast wept, and sigh'd, and smil'd alone, Unblest by e'en a mother's prayer. Oh, if sad sorrow's blighting hand Hath e'er an arrow, it is this; To feel that phrenzy's burning brand Hath wip'd away a mother's kiss; To mark the gulf, the starless wave, Which rolls between thee and her love, To feel that better were a grave, A grave beneath -- a home above; Than thus that she should linger on, In dreamless, sunless solitude; Like some bright ruin'd shrine, where one All loveliness and truth hath stood. And he, her love, her life, her light, How burst the storm o'er him! Oh, darker than Egyptian night, 'T was one wild troubled dream! To gaze upon that eye, whose beam Was love, and life, and light, To mark its wild and wandering gleam Which dazzles but to blight; To turn in anguish and despair -- From those wild notes of sadness, And feel that there was darkness there, The midnight mist of madness; To start beneath the thrilling swell Of notes still sweet, tho' wasted, To mark the idol lov'd too well, In all its beauty blasted; Oh! it were better far to kneel, In darkly brooding anguish, Upon the graves of those we love, Than thus to see them languish. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE SUPPLIANTS: PRAYER FOR DELIVERANCE. CHORUS by AESCHYLUS BROTHERLY LOVE by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH SARGENT'S PORTRAIT OF EDWIN BOOTH AT THE PLAYERS by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH THE ROBBER by JOHN GARDINER CALKINS BRAINARD POEM BY A PERFECTLY FURIOUS ACADEMICIAN by CHARLES WILLIAM SHIRLEY BROOKS HAMPTON TOWN by ABBIE FARWELL BROWN AMY'S CRUELTY by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING |