Poems (Lewis)/The Mother's Alarm

by Matthew Gregory Lewis

THE MOTHER'S ALARM.

[IMITATED FROM THE GREEK.]

 

With gaudy flowers the cliff was gay;
Thither a Child had crept to play,
And o'er the brink was bending.
The Mother came—she saw her boy,
Her only care, her only joy,
One crag his fall suspending.

He stretched to reach the flowers below———
Ah! should she now to seize him go,
Some start or hasty action
Might plunge him headlong in the flood!
That thought with horror chilled her blood!
'Twas anguish! 'twas distraction!

As none but mothers feel, she felt!———
In trembling silence down she knelt,
And prayed to Heaven for pity;
Then from her breast the gauze removed,
And softly sang the tune He loved,
Some lullabying ditty.

He knew the song, which oft to rest
Had charmed his eyes; He knew the breast,
Which food so oft had brought him;
And still she sang. . . .and still she wept. . . .
And near. . . .and nearer. . . .crept. . . .and crept. . . .
Till to her heart she caught him.