Poems (Hardy)/A foster mother's thought
A FOSTER MOTHER'S THOUGHT
MOTHER NATURE took a census, once, to seeIf on the earth there could a mother beWho loved her only child as much as sheLoved Earth, her child, in her entirety,And,—joy to think!—she counted me.
For, when she listened at my heart, she heard,—If prayer it was, or wish, or loving word,Or any daring hope that in it lived and stirred,—Some tender thought for him, the gentle youth,Who is to me a loving son in truth.
And so she counted me, and never knewI had no vested right within the line she drewRound mothers who have title full and true;She counted me, and placed me in that radiant rowOf mothers who her large way of loving know.