By the Sea, and Other Verses

<h2><SPAN name="TO_MOTHER" id="TO_MOTHER">TO MOTHER</SPAN></h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> <span class="i0">O mother, from thy home beyond the stars<br/></span> <span class="i2">Hast thou not known the yearning of thy child<br/></span> <span class="i2">For thy sweet love? Hast thou not heard her wild<br/></span> <span class="i0">And piteous moaning for thy soft caress?<br/></span> <span class="i0">Felt her heart's aching for the tenderness<br/></span> <span class="i2">And the low patience of thy loving voice?<br/></span> <span class="i0">Hast thou not seen her 'mid life's toils and jars,<br/></span> <span class="i0">Pant as a bird behind its prison bars,<br/></span> <span class="i2">For freedom to fly forth and be with thee?<br/></span> <span class="i0">And canst thou not, sweet mother, send reply?<br/></span> <span class="i0">Oh, thro' the depths of glory, thro' the sky,<br/></span><span class="pagenum"><SPAN name="Page_25" id="Page_25">[Pg 25]</SPAN></span> <span class="i2">Look for one moment down and say to me<br/></span> <span class="i2">That all of loss on earth thou findest to be<br/></span> <span class="i4">Great gain in heaven; that thou dost rejoice<br/></span> <span class="i0">In all that was, and is, and shall betide<br/></span> <span class="i0">At last to all; and that, in Him who died,<br/></span> <span class="i2">Yet liveth evermore, I, too, shall see<br/></span> <span class="i2">All discord blended into harmony;<br/></span> <span class="i0">And that I, too, shall be, as thou art, satisfied.<br/></span></div> </div> <hr class="chap" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />