A Mother’s Anniversary.
Not by the seaboard that I love the best,1
Where the great waves come dancing up the bay,2
Round the Black Nab in fearless mirth to play,3
And fling white foam-flakes on his rugged breast ;4
While the soft wind comes sweeping from the west,5
And the lark sings in blue depths far away :6
Not there, my darling, do I keep to-day,7
The day of days to me supremely blest,8
The day that brought our happy life its crown,9
The day God sent his choicest blessing down,10
The day that woke the sense of mother’s love,11
The gift all other gifts of life above ;12
The day, when as all else around me smiled,13
Your father thanked me for his first-born child.14
Ah, blue-eyed angel of our morning prime,15
Glory and gladness of our bright noontide16
Sweet comforter that nestled to my side,17
When life was darkened in its fairest time,18
And the sweet joy-bells, in their fullest chime,19
Were jarred and silenced ; who to hope and pride,20
Woke my half-frozen heart ; soft stay and guide,21
Up the lone path, so steep and hard to climb !22
Here, by the Southern sea, I sit and muse,23
How our first child indeed has “ come of age,”24
And picture all the joys that I would choose,25
Had I the printing of her life’s fresh page ;26
This the best wish to frame, “ her babe to be,27
To her, just all that she has been to me.”28