Explore "His Mother. (down Around the River Poems)" by James Whitcomb Riley on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
DEAD! my wayward boy -- _my own_ -- / Not _the Law's! _ but _mine_ -- the good / God's free gift to me alone, / Sanctified by motherhood.
"Bad," you say: Well, who is not? / "Brutal" -- "with a heart of stone" -- / And "red-handed. " -- Ah! the hot / Blood upon your own!
I come not, with downward eyes, / To plead for him shamedly, -- / God did not apologize / When He gave the boy to me.
Simply, I make ready now / For _His_ verdict. -- _You_ prepare -- / You have killed us both -- and how / Will you face us There!