Mother — Sister — are ye near me?
I awake with closed eyes;
Eyes still dark — but let me hear ye —
Bless the blind boy, ere he dies!
Is the snow-drop come? dear mother,
Oh! I thought at its last birth
I should never hold another
Snow-drop in my hand on earth!

Something ever in its springing
Seemed my very heart to touch;
June, with all its roses bringing,
Never made me weep so much!
'Twas a sympathy, a feeling
I could scarcely understand;
When I've felt the tear-drop stealing
O'er the snow-drop in my hand.

So, when I am dead, dear Mother,
When your poor blind boy is gone;
Let the snow-drop, and no other,
Rest his little shroud upon.
It shall go with me to heaven —
It shall bloom at Jesu's feet —
And, when God my sight hath given,
It my vision first shall meet.

Weep not, mother! — Though I'm weeping,
There's no sorrow in my tears.
Should I mourn to wake from sleeping
In those sight-restoring spheres?
Yet I love — so love — that blindness,
Sweet is here, as sight above!
Seraphs cannot show thy kindness,
Angels cannot match thy love.

No: there is but one — one mother;
Earth but one such heart can find;
And I know thou'lt love no other
As thou lov'st thine own — thy blind!
And I know each Sabbath morning
Thou my grave wilt bend before,
With some flower its stone adorning,
Though I ne'er can thank thee more.

Oft the sunlight will be stealing
O'er my dark, cold, burial home,
Like a glance of God revealing
Tidings of a world to come.
Oft the summer birds will warble,
Warble sweetly as of yore;
Whilst these lips lie mute as marble —
All their sighs and sufferings o'er!

Oh, sometimes, I shiver, mother —
Shudder at the thought of death,
But I strive and strive to smother
That which trembles on my breath:
God will keep me, God will aid me,
He will calm this timorous mood;
For in all I have obeyed thee,
Sought, dear mother, to be good.

Clasp me closer, — closer, — nearer;
Lift my throbbing head more high;
Oh! I love you dearer, dearer,
Every moment that I die!
When in Heaven my God hath given
Sight, where blindness now hath place,
It will be a second Heaven
There to see my Mother's face.