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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
A DEAD MOTHER, by GORDON BOTTOMLEY Poem Explanation Poet's Biography First Line: White-faced mother, what fragrant things Last Line: "to watch till my child appears." Subject(s): Abortion; Mothers | |||
"WHITE-FACED mother, what fragrant things Do you lay in the chest apart?" "They are little birth-shifts made long ago For the baby under my heart." "But why do you fold them with such tears That patter a pitiful rain? Bearing-time is a joyous time, And no one grieves for its pain." "I have carried death in my breast a month Where baby hands would cling: Something sucks my life away And creeps where milk should spring. "Though I shall see my baby's face, Its words I shall not hear; I wait with a heart-break for its sake On death ere the dawning year. "Three nights agone, woe-drenched, foredone, Sleep lent me a little grace, And I dreamed that it and I had met In a quiet happy place. "So dreams a bird in the dark that night Pales fast and day is nigh, And sings, and wakes at its song to find That night has still to die. "When I think of my two lyings-in, The birth-bed and the tomb, I wish my baby were buried with me -- At breast or in my womb. "I would rather lie in my grave all dead Through still, eventless years Than stand alone at Heaven's gate To watch till my child appears." | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...MY MOTHER'S HANDS by ANDREW HUDGINS CONTINENT'S END by ROBINSON JEFFERS IN THE 25TH YEAR OF MY MOTHER'S DEATH by JUDY JORDAN THE PAIDLIN' WEAN by ALEXANDER ANDERSON BLASTING FROM HEAVEN by PHILIP LEVINE |
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