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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE LITTLE ONE THE WATER-SPIRIT LOVED, by JANET B. MONTGOMERY MCGOVERN
First Line: So young he could not go alone on earth
Last Line: Before whom I must smile dry-eyed?
Subject(s): Death - Children; Drowning; Mothers; Water; Death - Babies
First Line: So young he could not go alone on earth
Last Line: Before whom I must smile dry-eyed?
Subject(s): Death - Children; Drowning; Mothers; Water; Death - Babies
(Mother holding in her hand the garment of a drowned child.)
SO young he could not go alone on earth
Across that tiny stream.
How then can he go alone across that great gulf
Which the dead must pass?
Will the monsters there, too, envy me
And draw him down,
So that when I cross that gulf
The light in his eyes will not welcome me,
Or his baby smile?
But there, as here, must I ever be content
Holding his little garment in my hand?
Keeping it ever wet,
For I have neither man nor other child
Before whom I must smile dry-eyed?
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