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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
MOTHER EARTH, by GEORGE SANTAYANA Poet Analysis Poet's Biography
First Line: Beyond the star-dust and the ether-flaw
Last Line: To ease thine agony.
Subject(s): Earth; World
First Line: Beyond the star-dust and the ether-flaw
Last Line: To ease thine agony.
Subject(s): Earth; World
Beyond the star-dust and the ether-flaw
Where truth first folds her wings
I reached the empty quiet, whence I saw
The little sum of things.
An atom in a wreath of fiery smoke
Slow curling through that dark,
The faint Earth quivered, as if tears would choke
The glimmer of its spark.
The earnest silence of the heavens' war
Mine eyes could not abide,
And throbbing to the pulses of my star
The heart within me cried:
O Mother, from thy womb my body came,
Thy labour was my birth,
My spirit's fire was kindled at thy flame,
Thine am I, Mother Earth!
What do I here, an augur of thy death,
Who live but by thy life?
Oh, I will haste, and pay my debt of breath,
A weapon in thy strife!
I will take water to the drooping fern,
Unyoke the sweating steers,
The swords of brothers from their bosoms turn,
And dry thy children's tears.
I know, dear Mother, that thine hour is nigh;
My service saves not thee:
But blessed are thy children, if they die
To ease thine agony.
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