I gave you birth,

Gave from my body what your body claimed

Of flesh and bone;

In joyous mating passed you on

The heritage of two clean lives

And, with them, all the lives of those

Who went before.

I gave you birth,

And now from day to day I trace in you

Myself and him;

In form and feature recognise

A line, a colour, from the past,

A weakness that was mine alone

Revealed in you.

In giving birth

I gave but part of this bewildering whole

The smallest part.

The powers beyond my knowledge chose

This trait and that from out the past

Blended it to the perfect whole

That is yourself.

What did I give?

Before the miracle of dawning mind

I stand abashed

And claim so little part in this

That is much more than mine and his,

More than an echo of the past,

That is - yourself