The Mother + 

The mother soothes her mantled child + 

With incantation sad and wild; + 

A deep compassion brims her eye + 

And stills upon her lips, the sigh. + 

Her thoughts are leaping down the years, + 

O’er branding bars, through seething tears, + 

Her heart is sandaling his feet + 

Adown the world’s corroding street. + 

Then, with a start she dons a smile + 

His tender yearnings to beguile, + 

And only God will ever know + 

The wordless measure of her woe. + 