|
|
|
Classic and Contemporary Poetry
BENEDICTION IN PASSING, by IRENE CARLISLE
First Line: Under the clouded road's precipitate edge
Last Line: And take your quiet baby to your breast.
Subject(s): Mothers; Sickness; Illness
First Line: Under the clouded road's precipitate edge
Last Line: And take your quiet baby to your breast.
Subject(s): Mothers; Sickness; Illness
Under the clouded road's precipitate edge,
What time we drive against the pale stars' rising,
Sometimes a faint lamp glimmers on the ledge,
Set in the thin dark lonely and surprising.
Who in these frosty cabins takes account
Of night, or notes how far the stars have swung?
Who sees the morning constellations mount
Save women long awake with ailing young?
This is the hour the mother, heavy-eyed,
Takes breath; the cough is done, the spasm past.
She turns her sleeping child upon its side,
Draws up the covers and lies down at last.
Our brief light splits the shadows overhead;
Sleep well, dream well, this little hour of rest.
Blow out the lamp; turn in the chilly bed
And take your quiet baby to your breast.
Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!
Other Poems of Interest...
A SICK CHILD by RANDALL JARRELL
AFTERNOON AT MACDOWELL by JANE KENYON
HAVING IT OUT WITH MELANCHOLY by JANE KENYON
SONNET: 9. HOPE by WILLIAM LISLE BOWLES