A Picture of Holiness, Poem by Charles Cros

Poem by Charles Cros Collection The Collar of ClawsPeriod 19th century

The mother and child, eternal subject
Of every philosopher and every artist!
To banish your thought, whether fierce or sad,
Without the mother and without the child, who can do it?

A hat too large, a glass of milk,
That’s the contented child. And the mother insists
On making him drink. Oh! grace exists
In the midst of crime, in the midst of the ugly.

The red and fresh tone of the darling lips
Makes us forget our unhealthy fevers.
Oh! the little words that no one understands.

The mother, charming, hesitates to smile,
She knows the love that cannot be spoken
Holding her son gently in her arms.

Charles Cros

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