Heard you that shriek? It rose <br />So wildly on the air, <br />It seemed as if a burden'd heart <br />Was breaking in despair. <br /> <br />Saw you those hands so sadly clasped -- <br />The bowed and feeble hand -- <br />The shuddering of that fragile form -- <br />That look of grief and dread? <br /> <br />Saw you the sad, imploring eye? <br />Its every glance was pain, <br />As if a storm of agony <br />Were sweeping through the brain. <br /> <br />She is a mother, pale with fear, <br />Her boy clings to her side, <br />And in her kirtle vainly tries <br />His trembling form to hide. <br /> <br />He is not hers, although she bore <br />For him a mother's pains; <br />He is not hers, although her blood <br />Is coursing through his veins! <br /> <br />He is not hers, for cruel hands <br />May rudely tear apart <br />The only wreath of household love <br />That binds her breaking heart. <br /> <br />His love has been a joyous light <br />That o'er her pathway smiled, <br />A fountain gushing ever new, <br />Amid life's desert wild. <br /> <br />His lightest word has been a tone <br />Of music round her heart, <br />Their lives a streamlet blent in one -- <br />Oh, Father! must they part? <br /> <br />They tear him from her circling arms, <br />Her last and fond embrace. <br />Oh! never more may her sad eyes <br />Gaze on his mournful face. <br /> <br />No marvel, then, these bitter shrieks <br />Disturb the listening air; <br />She is a mother, and her heart <br />Is breaking in despair.<br /><br />Frances Ellen Watkins Harper<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/the-slave-mother-2/
