FOREWORD SCATTERED throughout the works of the great poets, there are many beautiful tributes to mothers and subtle interpretations of motherhood; also, in old as well as in very new poems, there are illuminating suggestions to mothers regarding both their opportunities and their responsibilities. This valuable body of "mother literature" has but one drawback - the fact that it is so diffused. The aim of this book has been to gather together in one volume the very best poems from these various sources, for the use and also for the enjoyment of present. day mothers, both young and old. E. McC. CAMBRIDGE, April, 1917. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS THANKS are due the following publishers, and individual owners of copyrights, for their kind permission to include the selections enumerated below: To American Motherhood, for "My Mother," by Frederic Hentz Adams. To the Century Company, for "An English Mother," from Saint-Gaudens, and Other Poems, by Robert Underwood Johnson. To B. W. Huebsch, for "Mother to Son," and "One Mother," by Irene Rutherford McLeod. To Little, Brown & Co., for "Seven Times Four," by Jean Ingelow; and "To My First Love, My Mother," by Christina G. Rossetti. To Charles Scribner's Sons, for "A Christmas Carol," and "Cradle Song," by Josiah Gilbert Holland; "Child and Mother," "Japanese Lullaby," and "Wynken, Blynken, and Nod," by Eugene Field; and "Matres Dolorosa," by Robert Bridges. To Sherman, French & Co., for "Motherhood," from The Border of the Lake, by Agnes Lee. To Small, Maynard & Co., for "Christ the Mendicant," "At Bethlehem," and "To His Mother," by John Banister Tabb. To Anna Hempstead Branch, for "Songs for My Mother." To Robert Underwood Johnson, for "An English Mother," from Saint-Gaudens, and Other Poems, copyright, 1908, by Robert Underwood Johnson. To Rudyard Kipling, for "Mother o' Mine," from The Light that Failed, copyright, 1899, by Rudyard Kipling. To Agnes Lee, for " Motherhood," from The Border of the Lake. To Irene Rutherford McLeod, for "Mother to Son," and "One Mother." Special thanks are due also to Mr. Frank H. Chase, Reference Librarian, Boston Public Library, for much kind help in locating poems and copyrights. |