
Take me up in thine arms, oh some mothe
Take me up in thine arms, make me a chil
An endless lack of joy every joy doth smother
That rises in me, sudden or great or mil
Take me up in thine arms, rock me to slee
Rock me to sleep in a great meaningless wa
And may I hear, like one who sleeps in a house by a bay,
A great loud wind rise like a life from the deep
And cease as I fall asleep like a life that passes awa
I
All I have wished to do, mother, I have not don
Even what I wish to feel makes mistakes within m
I grow tired, dimly tired, of the calm and constant sun,
And restless beside the happier restlessness of the se
Oh for a boat to believe I might sail in it and go,
Beyond the walls of my sensations' world and become
A floating absence from my worn self, a discarded woe
Trailing behind me likes a ship's trail, shining through
My consciousness of having dropt my life like a lamp in a hom
II
Mother, my cheeks grow thin with cares I forget to kno
With things I forget to feel, nor know how to think, I pin
Mine envy, mother, is with the figure of the sturdy man at the wheel,
That does his duty in storms and is salt at soul with good brin
My heart is lost to a perillous life full of achievement and breat
My thoughts are given like gifts to a life I could never liv
Teach me how to myself my own life I can forgiv
Teach me how to love life, at least how not to fear death,
And be all that you teach in the sense of a mute kiss you giv