To My Mother (Pearse)

My gift to you hath been the gift of sorrow, My one return for your rich gifts to me, Your gift of life, your gift of love and pity, Your gift of sanity, your gift of faith (For who hath had such faith as yours Since the old time, and what were my poor faith Without your strong belief to found upon?) For all these precious things my gift to you Is sorrow. I have seen Your dear face line, your face soft to my touch, Familiar to my hands and to my lips Since I was little: I have seen How you have battled with your tears for me, And with a proud glad look, although your heart Was breaking. O Mother (for you know me) You must have known, when I was silent, That some strange thing within me kept me dumb, Some strange deep thing, when I should shout my love? I have sobbed in secret For that reserve which yet I could not master. I would have brought royal gifts, and I have brought you Sorrow and tears: and yet, it may be That I have brought you something else besides— The memory of my deed and of my name A splendid thing which shall not pass away. When men speak of me, in praise or in dispraise, You will not heed, but treasure your own memory Of your first son.