Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition

The Mother (Author: Pádraic H. Pearse)

p.333

1. 1] I do not grudge them: Lord, I do not grudge
   2] My two strong sons that I have seen go out
   3] To break their strength and die, they and a few,
   4] In bloody protest for a glorious thing,
   5] They shall be spoken of among their people,
   6] The generations shall remember them,
   7] And call them blessed;
   8] But I will speak their names to my own heart
   9] In the long nights;
   10] The little names that were familiar once
   11] Round my dead hearth.
   12] Lord, thou art hard on mothers:
   13] We suffer in their coming and their going;
   14] And tho' I grudge them not, I weary, weary
   15] Of the long sorrow—And yet I have my joy:
   16] My sons were faithful, and they fought.