[[v]]

BECAUSE the angels in the Heavens above,

[[v]]

Devoutly singing unto one another,

[[v]]

Can find, amid their burning terms of love,

None so devotional as that of “mother,”

[[v]]

Therefore by that sweet name I long have called you;

You who are more than mother unto me,

[[v]]

Filling my heart of hearts, where God installed you,

In setting my Virginia's spirit free.

[[v]]

My mother — my own mother, who died early,

Was but the mother of myself; but you

[[v]]

Are mother to the dead I loved so dearly,

[[v]]

Are thus more precious than the one I knew,

By that infinity with which my wife

Was dearer to my soul than its soul-life.