I
OUR dreams create the babes we bear;
Our beauty goes to make them fair.
We give them all we have of good,
Our blood to drink, our hearts for food;
And in our souls they lie and rest
Until upon their mother’s breast,
So innocent and sweet they lie.
They live to curse us; then they die.
When he was born, it seemed the spring
Had come again with birds to sing
And blossoms dancing in the sun
Where streams released from winter run.
His sunlit hair was all my gold,
His loving eyes my wealth untold;
All heaven was hid within my breast
Whereon my child was laid to rest.
He grew to manhood. Then one came
False-hearted as Hell’s blackest shame,
To steal my child from me, and thrust
The soul I loved down to the dust.
Her hungry, wicked lips were red
As that dark blood my son’s hand shed.
Her eyes were black as Hell’s own night,
Her ice-cold breast was winter-white.
I had put by a little gold
To bury me when I was cold.
Her fangèd, wanton kiss to buy
My son’s love willed that I should die.
The gold was hid beneath my bed;
So little, and my weary head
Was all the guard it had. They lie
So quiet and still who soon must die.
He stole to kill me while I slept—
The little son, who never wept
But that I kissed his tears away
So fast, his weeping seemed but play.
So light his footfall, yet I heard
Its echo in my heart, and stirred
From out my weary sleep to see
My child’s face bending over me.
The wicked knife flashed serpent-wise.—
Yet I saw nothing but his eyes,
And heard one little word he said
Go echoing down among the Dead.