Maryland, my Maryland, and other poems/The Only Boy
THE ONLY BOY
Though heaven has gained one angel more,
My heart, dear God, is wondrous sore;
For that bright angel Thou hast won
Was my sweet lamb, my only son.
How shall an earthly mother bear
Such awful anguish and despair?
How shall she live, and living, know
Such depths of overwhelming woe?
Without Thy aid, dear God, my soul
Is shipwrecked in a sea of dole.
Without Thy rescuing hand, I sink
Beyond the world’s absymal brink.
He was my pride, my hope, my joy—
Ah, bitterest thought, my only boy!
And now, while night-winds madly rave
My heart is buried in his grave.
Too much I worshiped him, perchance
Too much I drifted from Thy glance.
Thou art a jealous God, and Thou
Hast put Thy crown upon my brow.
I pass beneath Thy rod; I pray
To find salvation’s thorny way—
I care not boy what pangs beguiled,
So it but lead me to my child.
Ah, blessed thought to know that he
Is safe from sin and misery;
That, in the young May of his life,
He fell unsullied in the strife.
I treasure up his image fair,
I kiss his tress of shining hair,
Thrilling to hope, in heaven, that he
Will be “the first to welcome me.”
Within Thy sheltering arms, I place
My idol, glorified by grace;
And, with the dear ones left, my eyes
Gaze through the gates of Paradise.