Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 3. THE MOTHER TO HER DAUGHTER, by EDWARD CARPENTER


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

TOWARDS DEMOCRACY: PART 3. THE MOTHER TO HER DAUGHTER, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Beautiful child that launchest out on the great sea of life
Last Line: Closer even than now.
Subject(s): Love; Mothers & Daughters


BEAUTIFUL child that launchest out on the great sea of life,
Soon I, thy Mother, must leave thee: soon the dark shall close me in, and
leave thee alone in the bright sunshine.
And thy lovers shall come and make love to thee: they shall lay their
fortunes at thy feet, and their strength and the glory of their manhood;
They shall desire thee, for thou art beautiful as the silver sickle moon
arising in heaven before the dawn.
Yet when they come forget not me, O my child: be not deceived by their
words;
For none ever again shall love thee as I love thee, none ever again shall
know, as I know, thy hidden thoughts—none shall read the light that plays
upon thy face as I can read it.
These shall love thee for themselves: they shall seek thee in order to
possess thee; but I have given all that I have to thee.
All the years that we have been together since than first pressed thy tiny
palm upon my breast to look into my face, until now;
I have given myself to thee.
Before thy feet, or ever thou couldst walk, my love has walked, my thoughts
have circled thee, my desire has made thee very beautiful.
If I might pray, I pray that when thou hast known the love of man
Thou, too, may'st become a mother, and so even through travail and
suffering may'st know the greater love.
Then far away down the years thou shalt remember me;
As when one ascends a mountain the opposite mountain lifts itself higher
and higher, so as thou goest farther from me I will grow upon thee clearer and
closer even than now.





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