Mother of Five

She Mothered Five!Night after night she watched a little bed,
Night after night she cooled a fevered head,
Day after day she guarded little feet,
Taught little minds the dangers of the street;
Taught little lips to utter simple prayers,
Whispered of strength that some day would be theirs
And tranied them all to use it as they should.
She gave her babies to the nation's good.

She Mothered five!
She gave her beauty- from her cheeks let fade
the roses' blush-to her mother trade.
She saw the wrinkles furrowing  her brow,
Yet smiling said, "My boy grows stronger now."
When pleasures called she turned away and said:
"I dare not leave my babies to be fed
By strangers' hands; besides they are so small,
I must be near to hear them when they call."

She Mothered five!
Night after night they sat about her knee
And heard her tell of what some day would be.
From her they learned that in the world outside
Are cruelty and vice and selfishness and pride;
From her they learned the wrongs they out to shun,
What things to love, what work must still be done.
She led them through the labyrinth of youth
And brought five men and women up to Truth.

She mothered five!
her name be unknown save to the few,
Of her the outside world but little knew;
But somewhere five are treading Virtue's ways,
Serving the world and brightening its days;
Somewhere are five, who, tempted stand upright,
Clinging to honor, keeping her memory bright;
Somewhere this mother toils and is alive
No more as one, but in the breats of five.

-Edgar Guest

Last year, I was leaving my MOPS group and one of the mentor moms stopped me and handed me this poem. It wasn't long after the twins were born and I was in that exhausted phase. She'd printed it out and then used some of those fancy scissors to give the paper some fancy edging. I thanked her and stuffed the poem in my purse. Somehow that poem ended up on the fridge for the next year. Every now and then, I'd stop and read part of the poem. I don't really care about the part about the wrinkles much. I eventually took the poem off the fridge, but I couldn't throw it away. So, I decided to put the poem here and be that mother of five!