Dear father and dear mother: Let me crave Your loving kindness there beyond the grave For my Erotion, the pretty maid Who bears these lines. Don't let her be afraid! She's such a little lassie -- only six -- To toddle down that pathway to the Styx All by herself! Black shadows haunt those steeps And Cerberus the Dread who never sleeps, May she be comforted, and may she play About you merry as the livelong day, And in her childish prattle often tell Of that old master whom she loved so well. Oh earth, bear lightly on her! 'Tis her due; The little girl so lightly bore on you. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...TO MY DEAR AND LOVING HUSBAND by ANNE BRADSTREET BELLS FOR JOHN WHITESIDE'S DAUGHTER by JOHN CROWE RANSOM BLOOD IS THICKER THAN WATER by WALLACE RICE MY LITTLE CAPE COD MAIDEN by KATHERINE FINNIGAN ANDERSON NOT DEAD, BUT GONE BEFORE by ANTIPHANES VARIATIONS ON A THEME by ALFRED GOLDSWORTHY BAILEY |