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!         Still time rolls on, and an old man stands         Trembling on life's declining sands;         As memory bridges the flood of years         He cries as a child, with childish tears;         And memory answers, with loving stroke         Of a vanished hand, and an echo spoke:         "Hush, hush, my child, that troubled cry;         What evil can harm thee, with mother nigh?"