A Celebration of Women Writers

"Mother and Child" by Ethelwyn Wetherald (1857-1940)
In Garvin, John William, ed. Canadian Poets. Toronto, Canada: McClelland, Goodchild & Stewart, Publishers, 1916. pp. 175-176.

Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom

Mother and Child

I SAW a mother holding
  Her play-worn baby son,
Her pliant arms enfolding
  The drooping little one.

Her lips were made of sweetness,
  And sweet the eyes above;
With infantile completeness
  He yielded to her love.

[Page 176]

And I who saw the heaving
  Of breast to dimpling cheek,
Have felt, within, the weaving
  Of thoughts I cannot speak;

Have felt myself the nestling,
  All strengthless, love-enisled;
Have felt myself the mother
  Abrood above her child.

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Editor: Mary Mark Ockerbloom