Beside a cupboard bare of food
A trembling woman feebly stood,
With languid eyes in wasted face
She looked around her cheerless place;
But "God is good," she softly said,
As hopefully she raised her head.
The soft wind frolicked with the gress;
The young leaves shone like burnished brass;
The flowers that grew around her door
Cast their sweet petals on the floor,
The sparrows twittered overhead:
"Yes, God is good," she slowly said.
"But oh! my poor heart, can it be
That He has ceased to care for me?
Sometimes I think it must be so,
For I have had such pain and woe,
And I not more than they," she said,
"The sparrows -- and -- He gives them bread.
"Too weak to work, too old, too old!
And now my poor things met be sold;
The cradle and the little chair,
The toy box, ah! that God would spare!
I thought if I had faith He would;
But I am starving now for food."
A whistle, loud and sharp and shrill,
Set her weak pulses all thrill;
"Please sign it here, the postman said,
"'Tis from the west, and registered."
"My boy," she cried, "I thought him dead.
Aye! God is good," the woman said.
First published in The Sydney Mail, 23 December 1908;
and later in
Louisa Lawson: Collected Poems with Selected Critical Commentaries edited by L.M. Rutherford, M.E. Roughley and Nigel Spence, 1996.
Author reference sites: Austlit, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Australian Poetry Library
See also.
Author reference sites: Austlit, Australian Dictionary of Biography, Australian Poetry Library
See also.
