Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, HIS MOTHER, by WILBUR DICK NESBIT


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

HIS MOTHER, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: A sodden image of a man
Last Line: "her blind faith in her ""little boy""?"
Subject(s): Mothers


A SODDEN image of a man,
He lurches slowly down the street,
Unconscious of the scornful scan
Of all those that he may meet--
A wreck, an outcast, hopeless, lost,
A drifting hulk that seeks no shore,
But billow-borne and tempest-tossed,
Will drift and drift forevermore.

And yet somewhere each morn and night
His name is whispered soft and low
In prayers that rise to the light
That shines with an eternal glow;
His name is whispered as of old
By one to whom he still is dear--
His mother with her heart of gold
Breathes forth a prayer God will hear.

Though lost to her through all these years,
He still remains her little boy
That ran to her with childish fears
Or brought to her each broken toy;
She has not seen his mottled face
Nor heard his husky, shining tone--
She breathes his name to that white place
Where angels kneel about the throne.

The mother-heart is deep, so deep
That none of us may know how long
Nor yet how surely it will keep
The love it has all sweet and strong;
Each morn and night she breathes his name
In blessings we may think unheard--
She does not know the ways of shame
Down where he looks with eyes all blurred.

A sodden image of a man,
A wreck, an outcast--but can we
Sense aught of the eternal plan,
Know aught of this great mystery?
She breathes her prayers night and dawn
And which among us would destroy
Her fancies of the days agone,
Her blind faith in her "little boy"?





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