Classic Poem

Ah ! you said too often to your angel,
There are other angels in the sky,
There where nothing suffers, nothing changes,
Sweet it were to enter in on high.
To that dome on marvellous pilasters,
To that tent roof'd o'er with colour'd bars,
That blue garden full of stars like lilies,
And of lilies beautiful as stars.

And you said it was a place most joyous,
All our poor imaginings above,
With the winged cherubims for playmates,
And the good God's everlasting love.
Sweet it were to dwell there in all seasons
Like a taper burning day and night,
Near to the Child Jesus and the Virgin,
In that home so beautiful and bright.

But you should have told him, hapless Mother,
Told your child so frail and gentle too,
That you were his all in life's beginning,
But that also he belong'd to you.
For the mother watches o'er the infant,
He must rise up in her latter days,
She will need the man that was her baby
To stand by her when her strength decays.

Ah! you did not tell enough your darling
That God made us in this lower life,
Woman for the man, and man for woman,
In our griefs, our pleasures, and our strife.
So that one sad day — O loss! O sorrow!
The sweet creature left you all alone,
Ah! your own hand left the cage door open,
Mother; and your pretty bird has flown.