Gurney imagines the earth as a mother who absorbs everything human beings do to her. The opening line admits that we scar her with “dreadful engin’ry,” a phrase suggesting both industrial damage and the machinery of war. Yet the earth does not scold. She takes us back “to her bosom at the last” — in death — and hides our hate with love. She is blind to her children’s faults, holding us fast even after all our violence. The final line is especially quiet: “We’ll wait in quiet till our passion’s past.” It can sound like the mother’s voice or the voice of exhausted people, promising stillness after conflict. The mood is somber but tender, mixing guilt over human destruction with a deep sense of consolation and forgiveness.
The Mother — Summary
We scar the earth with dreadful engin’ry; She takes us to her bosom at the last; Hiding our hate with love, who cannot see Of any child the faults; and holds us fast. We’ll wait in quiet till our passion’s past.