The Mother
Nettie Palmer 1885 (Bendigo) – 1964 (Hawthorn)
IN the sorrow and the terror of the nations,
In a world shaken through by lamentations,
Shall I dare know happiness
That I stitch a baby’s dress?
So: for I shall be a mother with the mothers,
I shall know the mother’s anguish like the others,
Present joy must surely start
For the life beneath my heart.
Gods and men, ye know a woman’s glad unreason,
How she cannot bend and weep but in her season,
Let my hours with rapture glow
As the seams and stitches grow.
And I cannot hear the word of fire and slaughter;
Do men die? Then live, my child, my son, my daughter!
Into realms of pain I bring
You for joy’s own offering.
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 36 sec read
- 114 Views
Quick analysis:
Scheme | AAXX BBCC DDEE FFGG |
---|---|
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 711 |
Words | 122 |
Stanzas | 4 |
Stanza Lengths | 4, 4, 4, 4 |
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"The Mother" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 10 Jun 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem/28383/the-mother>.
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