Asking in Vain

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Still his little grave she seeketh
 In her mother-sorrow wild,
Hush! While in her heart she speaketh
 To the spirit of her child:
“Were we not to one another
 Once the sum of all sweet gain?
Say then—say unto thy mother,
 Shall we ever meet again?
 Darling, shall we meet again,
Knowing, loving one another?
“Ah! What weary, weary sorrows
 Have I known through loss of thee,
And what comfortless to-morrows
 Wait me in this misery!
Were we not to one another
 Once the sum of all sweet gain?
Say then—say unto thy mother,
 Shall we ever meet again?
 Darling, shall we meet again,
Knowing, loving one another?”

But the wind alone is heard
 Sighing in reply,
Where the long grave-grass is stirred
 As it floweth by.

© Charles Harpur