Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, HUSBANDS, by DOUGLAS MALLOCH


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

HUSBANDS, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: I think no woman really knows
Last Line: You lead him home to god at last.
Subject(s): Marriage; Weddings; Husbands; Wives


I think no woman really knows
The things her husband undergoes --
The constant struggle day and night,
The good and bad, the wrong and right,
The endless battle he must fight.

While hers the lot of husbands' wives,
He leads a multitude of lives --
The train, the office, and the street,
In victory and in defeat
Temptation ev'rywhere to meet.

One tempts with pleasure, one with gold;
Each day around him souls are sold:
Are sold for riches, sold for ease,
Or sold some baser sense to please --
He meets all day such things as these.

While you, the sheltered and the warm,
Know little gale or little storm,
Or hidden sting, or thorny rose,
Or shining stream that darkly flows,
That meet him ev'rywhere he goes.

Oh, keep the cottage windows bright! --
That man may find his way tonight.
Such golden love your heart should hold
That none may lure with glance or gold
In that mad world where souls are sold.

The loose of tongue and low of mind,
The business sharper, he will find,
The painted woman, gambler, cheat,
Who set their traps in ev'ry street,
Your love and kindness can defeat.

Home's not a table; home is more:
A lighthouse on a stormy shore,
An altar and an inner shrine
That God has blessed and made divine,
And you its priestess, love its sign.

Keep then the lamp of love ablaze
To guide him up from darker ways,
Till every tempter he has passed --
Your strength so strong, your love so vast,
You lead him home to God at last.





Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


Other Poems of Interest...
Home: PoetryExplorer.net