Poems (Odom)/The Head that Sheltered Mine
THE HEAD THAT SHELTERED MINE.
INSCRIBED TO MY FATHER AND MOTHER, MR. AND MRS. HARPER P. HUNT, VICKSBURG, MISS.
"Your hair is still as dark, dear wife. As when we both were young,And scarcely one gray thread I find Amid your tresses strung;Your clear brown eyes look into mine With all their early light;I gaze into their depths and feel I am not old to-night.
"Yet thirty years have laid their leaves In blossom on your brow,Since my young bosom thrilled to hear Your low-toned bridal vow.Thrice ten sweet years for me have borne Their fruitage in your life—A harvest of unfailing love, My noble, dear old wife.
"And here we sit alone to-night, The wind wails through the trees,No little ones are clinging now Nor toddling round our knees.The brown-eyed boy who lies asleep Upon the old hill's brow,Of all our little nurslings, is Our only baby now.
"The others we have lost as well, God knows—perhaps 't is best—They fill their places in the world, We hold the empty nest.I sometimes think, dear wife, that I Would like to turn the tide,And fling it backward till I stood A bridegroom at your side.
"Would tread the early years again On upward day by day,With children's laughter ringing out Once more in joyous play.We were so very happy then, Our little ones were ours:But time has swept them from our arms As fruit must follow flowers.
"Now you and I together stand Beneath life's falling snow,To meet the winter as we met The spring of long ago.My hair is almost white, but yours Is dark and rippling yet,As in the sweet dawn of the year, Sweet wife, when first we met."
The soft brown eyes look up to his, A trembling hand is laidUpon the snowy locks that time And care have caused to fade.A tender smile of perfect love Breaks like a sudden dawnUpon her face, then tear-drops come Before the smile is gone.
"Ah! love, the storms of life have beat On your uncovered browAs fiercely as the wind that sweeps About the old house now;But from the tempest and the snow, With love almost divine,This dear old head has always bent And ever sheltered mine."