Poems (Cary)/The Broken Household

​
THE BROKEN HOUSEHOLD.
Vainly, vainly memory seeks, Round our father's knee,Laughing eyes and rosy cheeks Where they used to be:Of the circle once so wide,Three are wanderers, three have died.
Golden-haired and dewy-eyed, Prattling all the day,Was the baby, first that died; Oh, 'twas hard to layDimpled hand and cheek of snowIn the grave so dark and low.
Smiling back on all who smiled, Ne'er by sorrow thralled,Half a woman, half a child, Was the next one called:Then a grave more deep and wideMade they by the baby's side.
​
When or where. the other died Only Heaven can tell;Treading manhood's path of pride Was he when he fell;Haply thistles, blue and red,Bloom about his lonely bed.
I am for the living three Only left to pray;Two are on the stormy sea; Farther still than they,Wanders one, his young heart dim—Oftenest, most I pray for him.
Whatsoe'er they do or dare, Wheresoe'er they roam,Have them, Father, in Thy care, Guide them safely home;Home, oh, Father, in the sky,Where none wander and none die.
This article is issued from Wikisource. The text is available under Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 unless otherwise noted. Additional terms may apply for the media files.