On the Death of His Mother

Ye fabled muses, I your aid disclaim,
Your airy raptures, and your fancied flame :
True genuine woe my throbbing breast inspires,
Love prompts my lays, and filial duty fires ;
The soul springs instant at the warm design,
And the heart dictates every flowing line.
See ! where the kindest, best of mothers lies,
And death has shut her ever weeping eyes ;
Has lodged at last in peace her weary breast,
And lulled her many piercing cares to rest.
No more the orphan train around her stands,
While her full heart upbraids her needy hands !
No more the widow's lonely fate she feels,
The shock severe that modest wants conceals,
The oppressor's scourge, the scorn of wealthy pride,
And poverty's unnumbered ills beside.
For see ! attended by the angelic throng,
Through yonder worlds of light she glides along,
And claims the well-earned raptures of the sky.
Yet fond concern recalls the mother's eye ;
She seeks the helpless orphans left behind —
So hardly left ! so bitterly resigned !
Still, still is she my soul's divinest theme,
The waking vision, and the wailing dream :
Amid the ruddy sun's enlivening blaze
O'er my dark eyes her dewy image plays,
And in the dread dominion of the night
Shines out again the sadly pleasing sight.
Triumphant virtue all around her darts,
And more than volumes every look imparts —
Looks soft, yet awful ; melting, yet serene ;
Where both the mother and the saint are seen.
But ah ! that night, that torturing night remains —
May darkness dye it with its deepest stains,
May joy on it forsake her rosy bowers,
And screaming sorrow blast its baleful hours !
When on the margin of the briny flood,
Chilled with a sad presaging damp I stood,
Took the last look, ne'er to behold her more,
And mixed our murmurs with the wavy roar,
Heard the last words fall from her pious tongue.
Then wild into the bulging vessel flung —
Which soon, too soon, conveyed me from her sight,
Dearer than life, and liberty, and light !
Why was I then, ye powers, reserved for this,
Nor sunk that moment in the vast abyss ?
Devoured at once by the relentless wave,
And whelmed for ever in a watery grave ?
Down, ye wild wishes of unruly woe !
I see her with immortal beauty glow ;
The early wrinkle, care-contracted, gone,
Her tears all wiped, and all her sorrows flown ;
The exalting voice of Heaven I hear her breathe,
To soothe her soul in agonies of death.
I see her through the mansions blest above,
And now she meets her dear expecting love.
Heart-cheering sight ! but yet, alas ! o'erspread
By the damp gloom of grief's uncheerful shade,
Come, then, of reason the reflecting hour,
And let me trust the kind o'erruling power
Who from the night commands the shining day,
The poor man's portion, and the orphan's stay.