| Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922. | | | | The Mother | | By Sara Coleridge (1802–1852) |
| | | FULL oft beside some gorgeous fane | |
| The youngling heifer bleeds and dies; | |
| Her life-blood issuing forth amain, | |
| While wreaths of incense climb the skies. | |
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| The mother wanders all around, | 5 |
| Thro’ shadowy grove and lightsome glade; | |
| Her footmarks on the yielding ground | |
| Will prove what anxious quest she made. | |
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| The stall where late her darling lay | |
| She visits oft with eager look; | 10 |
| In restless movements wastes the day, | |
| And fills with cries each neighb’ring nook. | |
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| She roams along the willowy copse, | |
| Where purest waters softly gleam; | |
| But ne’er a leaf or blade she crops, | 15 |
| Nor couches by the gliding stream. | |
| |
| No youthful kine, tho’ fresh and fair, | |
| Her vainly searching eyes engage; | |
| No pleasant fields relieve her care, | |
| No murmuring streams her grief assuage. | 20 | | | |
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