ORIGINAL POETRY. TO MY MOTHER.

New Zealander, Volume 8, Issue 608, 11 February 1852, Page 4

ORIGINAL POETRY. TO MY MOTHER.

St. George. Auckland, February 3rd, 1852.

The time is long since last we parted— Since last I felt thy fond embrace, And lingeringly, and weary-hearted Looked last into thy loving face : Sharp was the pang that swept my brow, And yet that pang is sharper now. My little ones play round me gaily, Their lisping lips my lips caress — Mother! how can I ever pay thee For thy enduring tenderness? My children clasp and cling to me, THY only child lives far from thee. I know, too, that I have not been All that I might have been to thee, The cold, hard world has come between — And since I sat upon thy knee, A loving, ardent, hoping child, Those hopes, that love, have been defil'd. And if I thought that wind or wave Would separate us at the last, That I should never see thy grave, Nor thou forgive me for the past, Mother ! my brain would burn and craze Unto the ending of my days. But, Mother, if the good God spare Thy rev'rend years awhile to me, A pious hand shall pay the care So long, so oft delayed, to thee, And thou, much tried, at last find rest Upon a daughter's faithful breast.