MOTHER mine, why hast thou borne me, | |
| Given me toilsome thorny life? | |
| Was thine own lot clear from sorrow— | |
| Didst thou succumb in the strife? | |
| Was it love that brought me hither, | 5 |
| In men’s varying paths to roam, | |
| Tilling fields, or crossing ocean, | |
| Chasing, fighting for their home? | |
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| Would’st thou I had poet’s glory? | |
| Wore the athlete’s laurel-crown? | 10 |
| Say’st thou, “God shall be thy portion,” | |
| Though earth’s sorrows cast thee down?— | |
| Yet disease and powerless effort | |
| Force the agonising tear; | |
| Joyful might I quit these sufferings, | 15 |
| Mother mine, why am I here! | |
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| Even when to God aspiring, | |
| Words relieve not half my mind; | |
| Sacred glimpses flash upon me, | |
| God the Trinity I find; | 20 |
| Yet how quickly all escapes me, | |
| Like the lightning from the sky, | |
| Shining round us brightly, swiftly, | |
| Vanished ere we fix our eye. | |
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| Could I hold Thee, Lord,—that vision, | 25 |
| TRINAL Good of heaven and earth!— | |
| Then I might rejoice in being, | |
| And no longer blame my birth: | |
| Save, O save me, Word Eternal! | |
| Raise me hence to life above: | 30 |
| There, pure minds shall circle round Thee, | |
| Where no cloud shall hide Thy love. | |
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