"Yes; that I fixed it firm up there I am proud,
Facing the hail and snow and sun and cloud,
And to stand storms for ages, beating round
When I lie underground."



THE SAILOR'S MOTHER



"O whence do you come,
Figure in the night-fog that chills me numb?"

"I come to you across from my house up there,
And I don't mind the brine-mist clinging to me
That blows from the quay,
For I heard him in my chamber, and thought you unaware."

"But what did you hear,
That brought you blindly knocking in this middle-watch so drear?"

"My sailor son's voice as 'twere calling at your door,
And I don't mind my bare feet clammy on the stones,
And the blight to my bones,
For he only knows of THIS house I lived in before."

"Nobody's nigh,
Woman like a skeleton, with socket-sunk eye."