Empty are the Mother's Arms.

Ah, empty are the mother's arms
    Which clasp a vanished form;
A darling spared from life's alarms,
    And safe from earthly storm.

In absent reverie, she hears
    That voice, nor can forget;
The fond illusion disappears,--
    Her arms are empty, yet.

Alfred Castner King

Alfred Castner King was an American poet. He is recognized for his significant contributions to American poetry. Despite battling with blindness, his disability did not deter him from crafting poetry that captivated many readers. King often wrote about nature and personal experiences, reflecting a deep appreciation for the world around him and the nuances of human emotion.

Alfred Castner King

Nature's Child.

Alfred Castner King, Simple Poetry

An Answer.

Alfred Castner King, Simple Poetry

The Darker Side.

Alfred Castner King, Simple Poetry

The Legend of St. Regimund.

Alfred Castner King, Simple Poetry

English

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A Reverie.

O, tomb of the past
Where buried hopes lie,
In my visions I see
Thy phantoms pass by!
A form, long departed,
    Before me appears;
A sweet voice, long silent,
    Again greets my ears.

Fond memory dwells
    On the things that have been;
And my eyes calmly gaze
    On a long vanished scene;
A scene such as memory
    Stores deep in the breast,
Which only appears
    In a season of rest.

Once more we wander,
    Her fair hand in mine;
Once more her promise,
    "I'll ever be thine";
Once more the parting,
    The shroud, and the pall,
The sods' hollow thump
    As they coffinward fall.

The reverie ends--
    All the fancies have flown;
And my sad, lonely heart,
    Now seems doubly alone;...

Alfred Castner King

Missed.

Pity the child who never feels
    A mother's fond caress;
That childish smile a void conceals
    Of aching loneliness.

Pity the heart which loves in vain,
    What balm or mystic spell
Can soothe that bosom's secret pain,
    The pain it may not tell?

Pity those missed by Cupid's darts,
    For 'twas ordained for such,
Who love at random, but whose hearts
    Feel no responsive touch.

Alfred Castner King

Despair.

Ill fares the heart, when hope has fled;
    When vanishes each prospect fair,
When the last flickering ray has sped,
    And naught remains but mute despair;
When inky blackness doth enshroud
    The hopes the heart once held in store,
As some tall pine, by great winds bowed,
    Doth snap, and when the tempest's o'er,
Its noble form, magnificent and proud,
    Doth prostrate lie, nor ever riseth more;
    Thus breaks the heart, which sees no hope before.

Ill fares the heart, when hope has fled;
    That heart is as some ruin old,
With ancient arch and wall, o'erspread
    With moss, and desolating mold;
Whose banquet halls, where once the sound
    Of revelry rang unconfined,
Now, with the hoot of owls resound,
    Or echo back the mournful w...

Alfred Castner King

Mother. - Alpha and Omega.

Mother! Mother!
    The startled cry of childish fright
    Rang through the silence of the night,
    As but the mother's fond caress
    Could soothe its infantile distress;
    And the mother answered, with loving stroke
    Of her gentle hand, as she softly spoke:
    "Hush, hush, my child, that troubled cry;
    What evil can harm thee, with mother nigh?"

Mother! Mother!
    Long years have passed, and the fevered brow
    Of a bearded man, she is stroking now,
    As through delirium and pain
    He cries as a little child, again.
    And the mother answered, with loving stroke
    Of her careworn hand, as she softly spoke:
    "Hush, hush, my child, that troubled cry;
    What evil can harm thee, with mother nigh?"

Mother! Mother!<...

Alfred Castner King

The Forsaken.

The dead are in their silent graves,
And the dew is cold above,
And the living weep and sigh,
Over dust that once was love.

Once I only wept the dead,
But now the living cause my pain:
How couldst thou steal me from my tears,
To leave me to my tears again?

My Mother rests beneath the sod, -
Her rest is calm and very deep:
I wish'd that she could see our loves, -
But now I gladden in her sleep.

Last night unbound my raven locks,
The morning saw them turned to gray,
Once they were black and well beloved,
But thou art changed, - and so are they!

The useless lock I gave thee once,
To gaze upon and think of me,
Was ta'en with smiles, - but this was torn
In sorrow that I send to thee!

Thomas Hood

Rhymes And Rhythms - XVIII

(To M. E. H.)


When you wake in your crib,
You, an inch of experience,
Vaulted about
With the wonder of darkness;
Wailing and striving
To reach from your feebleness
Something you feel
Will be good to and cherish you,
Something you know
And can rest upon blindly:
O then a hand
(Your mother's, your mother's!)
By the fall of its fingers
All knowledge, all power to you,
Out of the dreary,
Discouraging strangenesses
Comes to and masters you,
Takes you, and lovingly
Woos you and soothes you
Back, as you cling to it,
Back to some comforting
Corner of sleep.

So you wake in your bed,
Having lived, having loved:
But the shadows are there,
And the world and its kingdoms
Incredibly faded;
And you...

William Ernest Henley