TO A MOTHER'S LIKENESS.

Kumara Times, Issue 3058, 21 August 1886, Page 3

TO A MOTHER'S LIKENESS.

Give me the album ! let me look ! I long to scan her face; Her faithful image in that book Old time can not efface. Her hair may lose its glossy hue, The furrows cannot steal, That sweet maternal smile I knew, And still within me feel. The pure, soft flakes of falling snow Symbols of virtue lie, But equal to the life-spring flow Of her meek purity. A well of music from her lips My vital heart-string hoards ; The font invoke when memory dips Strains from its dormant chords. Oh mother, dear ! though Southern skies Spread their pacific rays, The light still in thy pictured eyes The searching sun-beam stays. Thy parting kiss, and last fond gaze Beneath this sun-tann'd skin, Dares bleak adversity erase Its glowing warmth within. The night-breeze waft thy evening prayers O'er Neptune's trackless deep Its powers vanquish all my cares, And guard me in my sleep ! I've watched the mother's fond embrace But for one parting hour, Which banished ailments from the face By its maternal power. Then I on memory's pinions fled Back to those halcyon days, "When on thy knee thy blessings fed Me, with thy choicest lays. Adieu ! and may thy closing hours Be those of calm repose ! And bud afresh in heaven's bowel's Like some rare cherished rose ! John Emery. Dillman's Town, August 20,1886.