Ballad · Poems About Mom
My Mother
by Ann Taylor · 1807
1Who fed me from her gentle breast,
2And hush'd me in her arms to rest,
3And on my cheek sweet kisses prest?
4My Mother.
5When sleep forsook my open eye,
6Who was it sung sweet hushaby,
7And rock'd me that I should not cry?
8My Mother.
9Who sat and watch'd my infant head,
10When sleeping on my cradle bed,
11And tears of sweet affection shed?
12My Mother.
13When pain and sickness made me cry,
14Who gaz'd upon my heavy eye,
15And wept, for fear that I should die?
16My Mother.
17Who drest my doll in clothes so gay,
18And taught me pretty how to play,
19And minded all I'd got to say?
20My Mother.
21Who ran to help me when I fell,
22And would some pretty story tell,
23Or kiss the place to make it well?
24My Mother.
25Who taught my infant lips to pray,
26And love God's holy book and day,
27And walk in wisdom's pleasant way?
28My Mother.
29And can I ever cease to be
30Affectionate and kind to thee,
31Who wast so very kind to me?
32My Mother?
33Ah! no, the thought I cannot bear,
34And if God please my life to spare,
35I hope I shall reward thy care.
36My Mother.
37When thou art feeble, old, and grey,
38My healthy arm shall be thy stay,
39And I will sooth thy pains away,
40My Mother
Full-text availability follows the United States display decision recorded below; status can differ elsewhere.
“My Mother” by Ann Taylor — quilloak.com/poems/my-mother-ann-taylor
Quick facts
- Poem
- My Mother
- Poet
- Ann Taylor
- Published
- 1807
- Length
- 48 lines
- Form
- Ballad, Rhyming Poems
- Themes
- Poems About Mom, Family, Childhood
Craft notes
How this poem works
Measured from the text on this page, not copied from a summary. Counts are approximate: syllables and rhymes come from the CMU Pronouncing Dictionary, which models General American English, so dialect, older pronunciation, and performance can all change what you hear.
- Shape
- 48 lines · 12 quatrains
- End rhyme
- AAAB in 75% of the stanzas. The remaining stanzas vary, often through slant rhyme.
- Line length
- Mostly 8-syllable lines (tetrameter length).
- Refrains
- “And tears of sweet affection shed?”“And tears of sweet affection shed,”Repeated lines act as the poem's hinge or drumbeat.
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Text, source & rights
A traceable edition
First published before 1929 and checked line by line against the cited copy. Full-text display is based on a United States term-expiry review; status can differ elsewhere.
- Author record
- Ann Taylor1782–1866
- Source record
- Representative Poetry Online (University of Toronto)My Mother; Printed by 1807 in Original Poems, for Infant Minds, vol. I (Philadelphia: Kimber and Conrad, 1807), pp. 82–84
- Display decision
- Full text · United States · reviewed 2026-10-29
- Publication record
- Printed by 1807 in Original Poems, for Infant Minds, vol. I (Philadelphia: Kimber and Conrad, 1807), pp. 82–84
- Text fingerprint
- SHA-256 f81f8ae44333870e…
- Editorial handling
- Whitespace normalized for web display; removed the stray spaces the 1807 printing has before an apostrophe (“God 's”) and a comma (“God ,”). Spelling and punctuation are otherwise as in the source.