MATER AMABILIS.
Down the goldenest of streams,
Tide of dreams,
The fair cradled man-child drifts ;
Sways with cadenced motion slow,
To and fro,
As the mother-foot poised lightly, falls and lifts.
He, the firstling, he, the light
Of her sight,
He, the breathing pledge of love,
Neath the holy passion lies,
Of her eyes,
Smiles to feel the warm, life-giving ray above.
She believes that in his vision,
Skies elysian
O er an angel-people shine.
Back to gardens of delight,
Taking flight,
His auroral spirit basks in dreams divine.
But she smiles through anxious tears;
Unborn years
Pressing forward, she perceives.
Shadowy muffled shapes, they come
Deaf and dumb,
Bringing what ? dry chaff and tares, or full-eared sheaves ?
