Page:Pocahontas, and Other Poems.djvu/214

 FILIAL CLAIMS.

��WHO bendeth with meek eye, and bloodless cheek, Thus o'er the new-born babe ? content to take, As payment for all agony and pain, Its first soft kiss, its first breath on her brow, The first faint pressure of its tiny hand ? It is not needful that I speak the name Of that one being on this earth whose love Doth never falter.

Answer me, young man,

Thou, who through chance and change of time has trod Thus far; when some with vengeful wrath have mark'd Thy waywardness, or in thy time of woe Deserted thee, or with a rainbow smile Lur'd and forsook, or on thine errors scowl'd With unforgiving memory did she P Thymother?

Child ! in whose rejoicing heart The cradle-scene is fresh, the lulling hymn Still clearly echoed, when the blight of age Withereth that bosom where thine head doth lay, When pain shall paralyze the arm that

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