Poem “Mother’s Loss” by Ella Wheeler Wilcox

Poems of reflection

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American Literature – American Poetry – Ella Wheeler Wilcox – Poems by Ella Wheeler Wilcox – Poems of reflection
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Mother’s Loss

If I could clasp my little babe
  Upon my breast to-night,
I would not mind the blowing wind
  That shrieketh in affright.
Oh, my lost babe! my little babe,
  My babe with dreamful eyes;
Thy bed is cold; and night wind bold
  Shrieks woeful lullabies.

My breast is softer than the sod;
  This room, with lighter hearth,
Is better place for thy sweet face
  Than frozen mother earth.
Oh, my babe! oh, my lost babe!
  Oh, babe with waxen hands.
I want thee so, I need thee so–
  Come from thy mystic lands!

No love that, like a mother’s, fills
  Each corner of the heart;
No loss like hers, that rends, and chills,
  And tears the soul apart.
Oh, babe–my babe, my helpless babe!
  I miss thy little form.
Would I might creep where thou dost sleep,
  And clasp thee through the storm.

I hold thy pillow to my breast,
  To bring a vague relief;
I sing the songs that soothed thy rest
  Ah me! no cheating grief.
My breathing babe! my sobbing babe!
  I miss thy plaintiff moan,
I cannot hear–thou art not near
  My little one, my own.

Thy father sleeps. He mourns thy loss,
  But little fathers know
The pain that makes a mother toss
  Through sleepless nights of woe.
My clinging babe! my nursing babe!
  What knows thy father-man–
How my breasts miss thy lips soft kiss
  None but a mother can.
Worn out, I sleep; I wake–I weep
  I sleep–hush, hush, my dear;
Sweet lamb, fear not–Oh, God! I thought–
  I thought my babe was here.

< < < A New Year’s Greeting to the City of the Lakes
The Women > > >

American Literature – American Poetry – Ella Wheeler Wilcox – Poems by Ella Wheeler Wilcox – Poems of reflection

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Poems of reflection

Mother’s Loss

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