And seems in patience striving with her pains;

Pinch’d are her looks, as one who pines for bread,

Whose cares are growing - and whose hopes are fled;

Pale her parch’d lips, her heavy eyes sunk low,

And tears unnoticed from their channels flow;

Serene her manner, till some sudden pain

Frets the meek soul, and then she’s calm again; -

Her broken pitcher to the pool she takes,

And every step with cautious terror makes;

For not alone that infant in her arms,