Classic and Contemporary Poetry
TO A YOUNG LADY, WHOSE MOTHER WAS INSANE FROM HER BIRTH, by LUCRETIA MARIA DAVIDSON First Line: And thou hast never, never known Last Line: Than thus to see them languish. Subject(s): Insanity; Mothers; Madness; Mental Illness | ||||||||
And thou hast never, never known A mother's love, a mother's care! Hast wept, and sigh'd, and smil'd alone, Unblest by e'en a mother's prayer. Oh, if sad sorrow's blighting hand Hath e'er an arrow, it is this; To feel that phrenzy's burning brand Hath wip'd away a mother's kiss; To mark the gulf, the starless wave, Which rolls between thee and her love, To feel that better were a grave, A grave beneath -- a home above; Than thus that she should linger on, In dreamless, sunless solitude; Like some bright ruin'd shrine, where one All loveliness and truth hath stood. And he, her love, her life, her light, How burst the storm o'er him! Oh, darker than Egyptian night, 'T was one wild troubled dream! To gaze upon that eye, whose beam Was love, and life, and light, To mark its wild and wandering gleam Which dazzles but to blight; To turn in anguish and despair -- From those wild notes of sadness, And feel that there was darkness there, The midnight mist of madness; To start beneath the thrilling swell Of notes still sweet, tho' wasted, To mark the idol lov'd too well, In all its beauty blasted; Oh! it were better far to kneel, In darkly brooding anguish, Upon the graves of those we love, Than thus to see them languish. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE PARENTS OF PSYCHOTIC CHILDREN by MARVIN BELL VISITS TO ST. ELIZABETHS by ELIZABETH BISHOP FOR THE MAD by LUCILLE CLIFTON STONEHENGE by ALBERT GOLDBARTH DAY ROOM: ST. ELIZABETHS HOSPITAL by MICHAEL S. HARPER SEELE IN RAUM by RANDALL JARRELL A DREAM by LUCRETIA MARIA DAVIDSON |
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