ILLUSTRATIONS

SISTINE MADONNA (Raphael) .

REPOSE IN EGYPT (Van Dyck)

MADAME LEBRUN AND DAUGHTER (Lebrun)

QUEEN LOUISE AND HER SONS (Steffeck)

PIETÀ (Michael Angelo).

REPOSE IN EGYPT (Merson)

FEEDING HER BIRDS (Millet)

AMERSFOORT: THE TOWER OF OUR LADY

WHISTLER'S MOTHER (Whistler)
REMBRANDT'S MOTHER (Rembrandt)

NIOBE (Attributed to Praxiteles)

MOTHERHOOD

AN ENGLISH MOTHER

BY ROBERT UNDERWOOD JOHNSON *

Every week of every season out of English ports go forth,

White of sail or white of trail, East, or West, or

South, or North,

Scattering like a flight of pigeons, half a hundred home-sick ships,

Bearing half a hundred striplings- each with kisses on his lips

Of some silent mother, fearful lest she shows herself

too fond,

Giving him to bush or desert as one pays a sacred bond,

-Tell us, you who hide your heartbreak, which is sadder, when all's done,

To repine an English mother, or to roam, an English son?

You who shared your babe's first sorrow when his cheek no longer pressed

On the perfect, snow-and-roseleaf beauty of your mother-breast,

In the rigor of his nurture was your woman's mercy mute,

Knowing he was doomed to exile with the savage and

the brute?