Mothers there are who never mothers were, Whose breasts were never suckled by a child; To motherhood denied them, reconciled Where women's midnight Olivets occur. Yet more than gold and frankincense and myrrh They gave divinely, and as undefiled As ever the fecundant sunlight smiled To set a world of leaf and bloom astir. Mothers of Mercy in the swamps of shame, The Nightingales war's furies cannot still, Willards and Bartons of redemptive will, And the unnumbered unremarked of fame, The childless mothers, angel-like, who claim But one reward, love's labor to fulfil. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...CHAMBER MUSIC: 22 by JAMES JOYCE SPOON RIVER ANTHOLOGY: MRS. KESSLER by EDGAR LEE MASTERS SEVEN TWILIGHTS: 2 by CONRAD AIKEN CONCERNING NECESSITY by HAYDEN CARRUTH A MAN'S VOCATION IS NOBODY'S BUSINESS by JAMES GALVIN |