For God, who lives above the skies,
Would look with vengeance in His eyes,
If I should ever dare despise
My Mother.
The Athenæum of May 12, 1866, contained a note speaking favorably of the general tone of the poem “My Mother,” but stating that it was spoilt by the last verse, in which the only reason given why a child should not despise its mother is the fear of God’s vengeance. The writer proposed that Mr. Tennyson should be asked to compose a final verse more in accordance with the sentiments contained in the preceding lines.
In the following number of The Athenæum (May 19, 1866), appeared a reply from the authoress of “My Mother,” then a very old lady:—
College Hill, Nottingham,
May 15, 1866.
“Allow me to thank your Correspondent of last Saturday for both his praise and blame; I am grateful for one and confess to the other, in his notice of a little poem—‘My Mother,’ of which I was the author, it may be something more than sixty years ago. I see now, so much as he does, though not in all its implications, that, should another edition pass through the press, I will take care that the offending verse shall be omitted; or, as I may hope (without troubling the Laureate), replaced. I have regarded our good old theologian, Dr. Watts, as nearly our only predecessor in verses for children; and his name—a name I revere—I may perhaps plead in part, though not so far as to accept now, what did not strike me as objectionable then. There has been an illustrated edition of our ‘Original Poems’ recently published by Mr. Virtue, and I am sorry to see it retained there; but, as still the living author, I have sufficient right to expunge it.
“Possibly you may have heard the names of Ann and Jane Taylor, of whom I am the Ann; and remain, yours, &c.,
Ann Gilbert.”