Songs from the Southern Seas and Other Poems/My Mother's Memory

by John Boyle O'Reilly

MY MOTHER'S MEMORY.

THERE is one bright star in heaven
Ever shining in my night;
God to me one guide has given,
Like the sailor's beacon-light,
Set on every shoal and danger,
Sending out its warning ray
To the home-bound weary stranger
Looking for the land-locked bay.

In my farthest, wildest wanderings
I have turned me to that love,
As a diver, 'neath the water,
Turns to watch the light above.