My Baby
By Joseph L. Townsend
My heart beat with a throbbing pain
When my baby passed away!
Within my throat, in a refrain
That choked me o’er and o’er again
Were words that never could be said
About my wee one, too soon dead –
Yet Hope’s bright star shone overhead
When my baby passed away!
What could a mother’s love foresee
When my baby passed away?
All that a fervent love could be
Was bound up in this gift to me!
Alas! a mother’s heart must feel
Realities of woe and weal –
Shall not a future yet reveal
Why my baby passed away?
Some purpose, I had faith to learn
When my baby passed away,
Is cause for early life return;
We may not yet the cause discern,
But this much faith to me is given,
Thought heart be sad, with sorrow riven,
A part of me went up to Heaven
When my baby passed away!
(1925)
Oh my. Interesting that the author was male with the references to a mother.
I recognized the poet from the hymnal, where he is one of the more prolific lyricists, enough that the Tabernacle Choir could do an entire album of his “greatest hits” including Reverently and Meekly Now, Let Us Oft Speak Kind Words To Each Other, Choose the Right, Hope of Israel, To Nephi Seer of Olden Time, and several others. But not this poem.
I suppose poems like this were more popular back in the day when infant/child mortality rates were high enough that losing a child was quite common. My 1884 hymnal has several on this topic; I imagine they were reserved for funerals!
The Other Clark, Townsend was a prolific poet, and his story is quite interesting. He was a convert who joined the Church after coming to Utah to improve his health. He served an LDS mission in the Southern States, then owned and ran a drugstore in Payson for 15 years before becoming at teacher at the Brigham Young Academy and the Salt Lake City High School.
I really like his poem “My Friends and I”:
http://timesandseasons.org/index.php/2014/07/literary-otgd-31-my-friends-and-i-by-j-l-townsend/
I think my favorite Townsend factoid is that he vigorously supported a Sunday School for the deaf — he had a daughter, who couldn’t hear his poetry as it was sung by the Saints.
@2,
Indeed. The death of an infant is a relatively uncommon thing nowadays in the developed world, while in many past times and places it was around 50%. That has to have some profound effects on how we view both death and babies.