Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, A VOICE TO THE DYING, by GEORGE HERBERT CLARKE


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

A VOICE TO THE DYING, by                    
First Line: Unknown and uncounted the years thou hadst / lain in my bosom
Last Line: But never to be parted from her that bids thee come!
Subject(s): Comfort; Death; Future Life; Mothers; Dead, The; Retribution; Eternity; After Life


UNKNOWN and uncounted the years thou hadst lain in my bosom
Ere thou wast born,—
Thou, and the wife thou hast loved, the dog thou hast fondled,
The trees and the grasses by which thou hast lived;
A dim, ageless travail brought ye all forth,
And quiet hath been your mothering.

A quiet mothering,—
Yet have mine eyes not ceased from beholding thee,
Thee and all thy ways, — thine eager pride, and thy powers
That failed thee, thy yeas and nays and silences,
Thy reckoned gains, thy mad revolts, thy crowding sorrows,
Confessions sad;—all these thy mother's eyes have seen.

Come home,—
Thou who hast never been far from me, for all thy thinking,
'Thy little human tragedy—come home, dear child!
Beneath my breast come slumber once again,
Peradventure again to be born, again to die,
But never to be parted from her that bids thee come!





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