The Poetry Corner

The Demeter Of Praxiteles.

By Margaret Steele Anderson

Demeter? 'Tis a name! For in thy face A myriad women find their mourning-place! Thou, sitting lonely on the wayside stone, O pagan mother, thou art not alone! Though Hellas now, thy grief so calmly worn! Yet art thou Egypt, reft of thy first-born; And now lamenting Rama, that fair head With ashes strewn, and all uncomforted! And Mary thou, and many women more! This very day I see thee at my door; Thine was the voice, an hour ago, that cried From the next house, wherein a child has died!