| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). An American Anthology, 1787–1900. 1900. |
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| 43. The Watcher |
| | | By Sarah Josepha Hale |
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| THE NIGHT was dark and fearful, | |
| The blast swept wailing by; | |
| A watcher, pale and tearful, | |
| Looked forth with anxious eye: | |
| How wistfully she gazes— | 5 |
| No gleam of morn is there! | |
| And then her heart upraises | |
| Its agony of prayer. | |
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| Within that dwelling lonely, | |
| Where want and darkness reign, | 10 |
| Her precious child, her only, | |
| Lay moaning in his pain; | |
| And death alone can free him— | |
| She feels that this must be: | |
| “But oh! for morn to see him | 15 |
| Smile once again on me!” | |
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| A hundred lights are glancing | |
| In yonder mansion fair, | |
| And merry feet are dancing— | |
| They heed not morning there: | 20 |
| Oh, young and lovely creatures, | |
| One lamp, from out your store, | |
| Would give that poor boy’s features | |
| To her fond gaze once more! | |
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| The morning sun is shining— | 25 |
| She heedeth not its ray; | |
| Beside her dead reclining, | |
| That pale, dead mother lay! | |
| A smile her lip was wreathing, | |
| A smile of hope and love, | 30 |
| As though she still were breathing— | |
| “There ’s light for us above!” | |
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