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Yerka, Jacek and May Herschel-Clarke - The Mother
Identifier
014761
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
May Herschel-Clarke (1850-1950)
May Herschel-Clarke was an English poet. She is chiefly known today for her anti-war poems Nothing to Report and The Mother, the latter of which was published in 1917 as a direct response to Rupert Brooke's famous poem The Soldier.
A description of the experience
The Mother
(Written after reading Rupert Brooke’s sonnet ‘The Soldier’)
If you should die, think only this of me
In that still quietness where is space for thought,
Where parting, loss and bloodshed shall not be,
And men may rest themselves and dream of nought:
That in some place a mystic mile away
One Whom you loved has drained the bitter cup
Till there is nought to drink; has faced the day
Once more, and now, has raised the standard up.
And think, my son, with eyes grown clear and dry
She lives as though for ever in your sight,
Loving the things you loved, with heart aglow
For country, honour, truth, traditions high,
- Proud that you paid their price. (And if some night
Her heart should break - Well, lad, you will not know.)