Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE BROKEN HOUSEHOLD, by ALICE CARY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE BROKEN HOUSEHOLD, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Vainly, vainly, memory seeks
Last Line: Where none wander and none die.
Subject(s): Death – Children; Family Life; Fathers; Survival


VAINLY, vainly, memory seeks
Round our father's knee,
Laughing eyes and rosy cheeks,
Where they used to be:
Of the circle once so wide,
Three are wanderers, three have died

Golden-hair'd and dewy-eyed,
Prattling all the day,
Was the baby, first that died;
O, 'twas hard to lay
Dimpled hand and cheek of snow,
In the grave so dark and low!

Smiling back on all who smiled,
Ne'er by sorrow thrall'd,
Half a woman, half a child,
Was the next God call'd;
Then a grave more deep and wide
Made they by the baby's side.

When or where the other died
Only heaven can tell;
Treading manhood's path of pride,
Was he when he fell;
Haply thistles, blue and red,
Bloom about his lonesome bed.

I am for the living three
Only left to pray;
Two are on the stormy sea --
Farther still than they,
Wanders one his young heart dim,
Oftenest -- most -- I pray for him.

Whatsoe'er they do or dare,
Wheresoe'er they roam,
Have them, Father, in thy care,
Guide them safely home;
Home, O Father, in the sky,
Where none wander and none die.





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