THE MOTHER’S LAMENT

New Zealand Tablet, 4 March 1920, Page 11

THE MOTHER’S LAMENT

My darling, my darling, while silence is on the moor, And lone in the sunshine I sit by our cabin door, When evening falls quiet and calm over land and sea, My darling, my darling, I think of past times and thee! Here, while on this cold shore I wear out my lonely hours, My child in the heavens is spreading my bed with flowers All weary my bosom is grown of this friendless clime, But I long not to leave it — that -were a shame and crime. They bear to the churchyard the youth in their health away— I know where a fruit hangs more ripe for the grave than they But I wish not for death, for my spirit is all resigned, And the hope that stays with me gives peace to my aged mind. My darling, my darling, God gave to my feeble age A prop for my faint heart, a stay in my pilgrimage; My darling, my darling, God takes back His gift again— And my heart may be broken, but ne’er shall my will complain. —Gerald Griffin.