| BLESSED with a joy that only she | |
| Of all alive shall ever know, | |
| She wears a proud humility | |
| For what it was that willed it so,— | |
| That her degree should be so great | 5 |
| Among the favored of the Lord | |
| That she may scarcely bear the weight | |
| Of her bewildering reward. | |
| |
| As one apart, immune, alone, | |
| Or featured for the shining ones, | 10 |
| And like to none that she has known | |
| Of other women’s other sons,— | |
| The firm fruition of her need, | |
| He shines anointed; and he blurs | |
| Her vision, till it seems indeed | 15 |
| A sacrilege to call him hers. | |
| |
| She fears a little for so much | |
| Of what is best, and hardly dares | |
| To think of him as one to touch | |
| With aches, indignities, and cares; | 20 |
| She sees him rather at the goal, | |
| Still shining; and her dream foretells | |
| The proper shining of a soul | |
| Where nothing ordinary dwells. | |
| |
| Perchance a canvass of the town | 25 |
| Would find him far from flags and shouts, | |
| And leave him only the renown | |
| Of many smiles and many doubts; | |
| Perchance the crude and common tongue | |
| Would havoc strangely with his worth; | 30 |
| But she, with innocence unwrung, | |
| Would read his name around the earth. | |
| |
| And others, knowing how this youth | |
| Would shine, if love could make him great, | |
| When caught and tortured for the truth | 35 |
| Would only writhe and hesitate; | |
| While she, arranging for his days | |
| What centuries could not fulfill, | |
| Transmutes him with her faith and praise, | |
| And has him shining where she will. | 40 |
| |
| She crowns him with her gratefulness, | |
| And says again that life is good; | |
| And should the gift of God be less | |
| In him than in her motherhood, | |
| His fame, though vague, will not be small, | 45 |
| As upward through her dream he fares, | |
| Half clouded with a crimson fall | |
| Of roses thrown on marble stairs. | |
