Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE MOTHER, by BENJAMIN SLEDD


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE MOTHER, by                    
First Line: Will they not leave me in peace
Last Line: For, though we still are mothers, we may not claim our own.
Subject(s): Mothers


WILL they not leave me in peace?--Yes, dear, I am coming soon.
What need of winter's presence at rose-crowned rites of June?

He brings her home in triumph, the sweet young life he has won;
And I could rejoice in a daughter, had I not lost a son.
Long since God took my others, and now I am left alone;
For though I am still his mother, the wife will claim her own.

How cold to-night was his greeting! He called me simply "mother";
Those old sweet names of endearment so soon he gives to another.

Oh for one hour of the nights when he sat by the hearth and read,
And 'twas to his voice I listened, and not what the dull books said.

And often I'd fall to weeping--and yet I knew not why;
But then we older children must have out meaningless cry.

A moment of silence and weeping, and then my tears have done;
May I, who have wept for nothing, not weep for the loss of a son?

But why is my loss so bitter? 'Tis what all mothers have known;
For, though we still are mothers, we may not claim our own.






Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!


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