Would all the memory of that time were fled,
And all those horrors, with my child, were dead! 
Before the world seduced him, what a grace
And smile of gladness shone upon his face! 
Then, he had knowledge; finely would he write;
Study to him was pleasure and delight;
Great was his courage, and but few could stand
Against the sleight and vigour of his hand;
The maidens loved him;—­when he came to die,
No, not the coldest could suppress a sigh: 
Here I must cease—­how can I say, my child
Was by the bad of either sex beguiled? 
Worst of the bad—­they taught him that the laws
Made wrong and right; there was no other cause,
That all religion was the trade of priests,
And men, when dead, must perish like the beasts:  —
And he, so lively and so gay, before —
Ah; spare a mother—­I can tell no more. 
   “Int’rest was made that they should not destroy
The comely form of my deluded boy —
But pardon came not; damp the place and deep
Where he was kept, as they’d a tiger keep;
For he, unhappy! had before them all
Vow’d he’d escape, whatever might befall. 
He’d means of dress, and dress’d beyond his means,
And so to see him in such dismal scenes,
I cannot speak it—­cannot bear to tell
Of that sad hour—­I heard the passing bell! 
   “Slowly they went; he smiled, and look’d so smart,
Yet sure he shudder’d when he saw the cart,
And gave a look—­until my dying day,
That look will never from my mind away: 
Oft as I sit, and ever in my dreams,
I see that look, and they have heard my screams. 
   “Now let me speak no more—­yet all declared
That one so young, in pity, should be spared. 
And one so manly;—­on his graceful neck,
That chains of jewels may be proud to deck,
To a small mole a mother’s lips have press’d —
And there the cord—­my breath is sore oppress’d. 
   “I now can speak again:  —­my elder boy
Was that year drown’d,—­a seaman in a hoy: 
He left a numerous race; of these would some
In their young troubles to my cottage come,
And these I taught—­an humble teacher I —
Upon their heavenly Parent to rely. 
   “Alas!  I needed such reliance more: 
My idiot-girl, so simply gay before,
Now wept in pain:  some wretch had found a time,
Depraved and wicked, for that coward crime;
I had indeed my doubt, but I suppress’d
The thought that day and night disturb’d my rest;
She and that sick-pale brother—­but why strive
To keep the terrors of that time alive? 
   “The hour arrived, the new, th’ undreaded pain,
That came with violence, and yet came in vain. 
I saw her die:  her brother too is dead;
Nor own’d such crime—­what is it that I dread? 
   “The parish aid withdrawn, I look’d around,
And in my school a bless’d subsistence found —
My winter-calm of life:  to be of use
Would pleasant thoughts and heavenly hopes produce;