{
 "id": "mary-weston-fordham/to-my-mother",
 "title": "To My Mother",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "Mary Weston Fordham",
 "poet_slug": "mary-weston-fordham",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Magnolia Leaves",
 "book_slug": "magnolia-leaves",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 18,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1897,
  "venue": "Magnolia Leaves (1897)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/magnolialeavespo00ford"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/mary-weston-fordham_magnolia-leaves",
  "file": "magnolia-leaves.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://scalar.lehigh.edu/african-american-poetry-a-digital-anthology/mary-weston-fordham-magnolia-leaves-full-text-1897-preface-by-booker-t-washington",
   "https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/006775637"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-20"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 40,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 47,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "I took up the burden of life anew",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "When she, the pure-hearted, died;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "When the golden cord was rent in twain,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And she faded from my side.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "When the eyes grew dim that were wont to glow",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With the holy light of love,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And the spirit, freed from earthly care,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Sped to its rest above.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Oh, the dreary days! Oh, the weary nights!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Oh, the anguish, who can tell?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "When the light of my life went swiftly out,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the shadow athwart me fell.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For the wound was deep, and the woe was great,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And its poignancy will blight",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "All the onward course of my future years,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till my faith be turned to sight.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "I muse me now of the beautiful days,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The halcyon days of yore;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And wonder if e’er on life’s stormy sea",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Such days I shall ever see more.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The sky is as blue-tinted now as then,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the sunlight just as bright;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But they gladden me not as in other days",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ere she faded from my sight.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "The clouds with their purple and amber hues⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Their gossamer robes of snow⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And the stars at the quiet twilight hour",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "In calm, clear beauty glow.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And music sweet as Aeolian harp",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Is echoing far and wide⁠—",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "But, sure, naught gladdens my heart as before",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "She faded away from my side.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O, Mother! in anguish I peer through the mists",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Of a future, so dark without thee;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The desert of life hath truly been blessed",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With an oasis sacred to thee.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And oft to this green spot of beauty I turn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "My shrine of affection, my pride;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "For, surely, naught gladdens my heart as before",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Thou fadedst away from my side.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}