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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
BRIGHT BEADS, by MINNIE FAEGRE KNOX Poet's Biography First Line: Sleep well, my child, and rest those baby feet Last Line: A fan-shaped group of little bones ... Bright beads. Subject(s): Babies; Death - Children; Fingers; Funerals; Infants; Death - Babies; Burials | |||
("In the Mound Builders' burials, the child's fingers were placed in the jar, so that the baby might have food if it became hungry.") Sleep well, my child, and rest those baby feet That soon must bear you to your star-set goal; This time your yearning mother may not cheat The rocks and thorns that take malicious toll On lonely trails. My useless breasts I beat,— So still you lie within your fur-bound roll. But lest you hunger, here are corn and meat: I place your little fingers in the bowl. Long ages and a day are past. A mound Beside a river's brim yields up its art. Within its crumbling burial walls is found Mute tribute to the unchanging mother-heart: A sun-baked shard that holds dry shrivelled seeds ... A fan-shaped group of little bones ... bright beads. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...THE FUNERAL SERMON by ANDREW HUDGINS RETURN FROM DELHI by JOSEPHINE JACOBSEN THE SCATTERING OF EVAN JONES'S ASHES by GALWAY KINNELL BROWNING'S FUNERAL by H. T. MACKENZIE BELL FALLING ASLEEP OVER THE AENEID by ROBERT LOWELL MY FATHER'S BODY by WILLIAM MATTHEWS CINQUAIN by MINNIE FAEGRE KNOX |
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