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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
BALLAD OF A GRAY CLOAK, by ELIZABETH BUELL
First Line: The gray cloak of her motherhood
Last Line: Is heavy -- sweet to bear.
Subject(s): Caregivers; Mothers; Sacrifices; Solitude; Loneliness
First Line: The gray cloak of her motherhood
Last Line: Is heavy -- sweet to bear.
Subject(s): Caregivers; Mothers; Sacrifices; Solitude; Loneliness
The gray cloak of her motherhood
She tends with loving care,
The fabric of her worthiness
Must last through daily wear.
For little hands that travel
Its soft folds up and down,
Will tear a mother's heart-strings
And spoil a mother's gown.
(The gray cloak of her motherhood
She cannot buy in town.)
Its wide sleeves, watchful comforting
Has hollowed for a nest,
And little heads have lain therein
And little heads have blessed.
And sometimes, sorrow haunts it,
It's threadbare from the pain
Of loneliness that gnaws it
A thousand times again.
(The soft, gray cloak of motherhood
Is worn where tears have lain.)
God weaves strange robes of sacrifice
For mortal folk to wear,
Her cloak that love alone consumes
Is heavy -- sweet to bear.
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