text:  'Tis a fair fair face in sooth-- Larger eyes and redder mouth Than mine were in my first youth! "Thou art younger by seven years-- Ah!--so bashful at my gaze That the lashes hung with tears Grow too heavy to upraise? I would wound thee by no touch Which thy shyness feels as such-- Dost thou mind me dear so much? "Have I not been nigh a mother To thy sweetness--tell me dear? Have we not loved one another Tenderly from year to year; Since our dying mother mild Said _with accents undefiled_ [32] 'Child be mother to this child!' "Mother mother up in heaven Stand up on the jasper sea And be witness I have given All the gifts required of me;-- Hope that bless'd me bliss that crown'd Love that left me with a wound Life itself that turneth round! "Mother mother thou art kind Thou art standing in the room -- In a molten glory shrined That rays off into the gloom! But thy smile is bright and bleak Like cold waves--I cannot speak; I sob in it and grow weak