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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


MOTHER AND DAUGHTER; AN UNCOMPLETED SONNET SEQUENCE: 10 by AUGUSTA DAVIES WEBSTER

First Line: NOT LOVE, NOT LOVE, THAT WORN AND FOOTSORE THRALL
Last Line: "OR ELSE WHEN WAS THE MOMENT THAT LOVE WENT?"
Subject(s): LOVE; MOTHERS & DAUGHTERS;

Not Love, not Love, that worn and footsore thrall
Who, crowned with withered buds and leaves gone dry,
Plods in his chains to follow one passed by,
Guerdoned with only tears himself lets fall.
Love is asleep and smiling in his pall,
And this that wears his shape and will not die
Was once his comrade shadow, Memory--
His shadow that now stands for him in all.

And there are those who, hurrying on past reach,
See the dim follower and laugh, content,
"Lo, Love pursues me, go where'er I will!"
Yet, longer gazing, some may half beseech,
"This must be Love that wears his features still:
Or else when was the moment that Love went?"




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