Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE MEMORIAL PILLAR, by FELICIA DOROTHEA HEMANS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE MEMORIAL PILLAR, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: Mother and child! Whose blending tears
Last Line: Surely your hearts have met at last.
Alternate Author Name(s): Browne, Felicia Dorothea
Subject(s): Clifford, Anne. Countess Of Pembroke; Mothers & Daughters; Women


MOTHER and child! whose blending tears
Have sanctified the place,
Where, to the love of many years
Was given one last embrace --
Oh! ye have shrined a spell of power,
Deep in your record of that hour.

A spell to waken solemn thought --
A still, small undertone,
That calls back days of childhood fraught
With many a treasure gone;
And smites, perchance, the hidden source,
Though long untroubled -- of remorse.

For who, that gazes on the stone
Which marks your parting spot,
Who but a mother's love hath known --
The one love changing not?
Alas! and haply learned its worth
First with the sound of "Earth to earth!"
But thou, high-hearted daughter! thou,
O'er whose bright honored head
Blessings and tears of holiest flow,
E'en here were fondly shed --
Thou from the passion of the grief,
In its full burst, couldst draw relief.

For, oh! though painful be the excess
The might wherewith it swells,
In nature's fount no bitterness
Of nature's mingling dwells;
And thou hadst not, by wrong or pride,
Poisoned the free and healthful tide.

But didst thou meet the face no more
Which thy young heart first knew?
And all -- was all in this world o'er
With ties thus close and true?
It was! On earth no other eye
Could give thee back thine infancy.
No other voice could pierce the maze
Where, deep within thy breast,
The sounds and dreams of other days
With memory lay at rest;
No other smile to thee could bring
A gladdening, like the breath of spring.

Yet, while thy place of weeping still
Its lone memorial keeps,
While on thy name, midst wood and hill,
The quiet sunshine sleeps,
And touches, in each graven line,
Of reverential thought a sign;
Can I, while yet these tokens wear
The impress of the dead,
Think of the love embodied there
As of a vision fled?
A perished thing, the joy and flower
And glory of one earthly hour?

Not so! -- I will not bow me so
To thoughts that breathe despair!
A loftier faith we need below,
Life's farewell words to bear.
Mother and child! -- your tears are past --
Surely your hearts have met at last.





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