With anxious fondness to my breast,

My heart’s sole comfort I behold,

More dear than life, when life was blest;

I saw her pining, fainting, cold,

I begg’d - but vain was my request.

I saw the tempting food, and seized -

My infant-sufferer found relief;

And in the pilfer’d treasure pleased,

Smiled on my guilt, and hush’d my grief.

But I have griefs of other kind,