Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

MOTHER AND I by OLIVER MURRAY EDWARDS

First Line: WE ARE ALONE, WE TWO, MOTHER AND I
Last Line: WAIT NOT, THY TIME IS NOW, KNEEL THOU AND PRAY.
Subject(s): MEMORY; MOTHERS;
We are alone, we two, Mother and I:
We often feel a sadness when we think
Of olden days now past—forever gone,
When we were young and children did surround.
We live again in memory those days
When hearts beat fast, and life seemed but a song
With promise unfulfilled—those days are gone.
And now we live and watch our children dream,
And see grandchildren where our children were.
The years pass quickly by and changes come
Before the mind doth pause and realize;
And so the flood doth sweep forever on—
Successive generations come and go.

While oft we do not think or seek to know
The thought and purpose of created life,
Its mystery and whence we come and go,
Why do we live: there is some mighty plan
That moves resistlessly forever on
Into the Infinite, beyond this world,
Where material success or failure end the same.
Hope only is within the soul of man
When Faith and Love together show the way
To those same paths on which our fathers trod;

The paths that lead unto the great beyond,
That land of promise where loved ones wait,
Where we shall live with them forevermore.
Canst thou find Hope outside the Christian Faith;
Beyond our Father's God and Jesus Christ the Son
Who died on Calvary that we might live?
If not, then thou shouldst yield thy heart to Him
And show the way to others while 'tis day;
Before the night descends that doth enfold;
Now is the time of opportunity!
I plead with thee in love do not delay;
Wait not, thy time is now, kneel thou and pray.



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