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authorRoger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org>2025-10-15 04:53:07 -0700
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+Project Gutenberg's A Woman's Love Letters, by Sophie M. Almon-Hensley
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or
+re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included
+with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org
+
+
+Title: A Woman's Love Letters
+
+Author: Sophie M. Almon-Hensley
+
+Release Date: May 8, 2006 [EBook #18351]
+
+Language: English
+
+Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
+
+*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A WOMAN'S LOVE LETTERS ***
+
+
+
+
+Produced by Thierry Alberto, Christine D. and the Online
+Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
+file was produced from images generously made available
+by the Canadian Institute for Historical Microreproductions
+(www.canadiana.org))
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+The Fleur de Lis Poets.
+
+A WOMAN'S
+
+LOVE LETTERS.
+
+BY SOPHIE M. ALMON-HENSLEY
+
+
+
+ NEW YORK. J. SELWIN TAIT
+ AND SONS, NUMBER SIXTY-FIVE
+ FIFTH AVENUE.
+
+
+
+
+COPYRIGHT, 1895
+
+ BY
+ J. SELWIN TAIT & SONS
+ NEW YORK
+
+
+
+CONTENTS.
+
+ A Dream, 1
+ Dream-Song, 8
+ Doubt, 9
+ Song, 13
+ Anticipation, 14
+ Song, 18
+ Misunderstanding, 19
+ Shadow-Song, 23
+ Revulsion, 24
+ A Song of Dawn, 27
+ Weariness, 28
+ A Song of Rest, 31
+ Death, 33
+ Battle-Song, 38
+ Content, 39
+ Sea-Song, 42
+ Gratitude, 44
+ Song, 48
+ Prayer, 49
+ Song, 53
+ Loneliness, 54
+ Sea-Song, 57
+ Incompleteness, 59
+ Song, 65
+ Life's Joys, 65
+ Song, 70
+ Barter, 72
+ Song, 76
+ To-morrow, 78
+ Song, 82
+
+
+
+
+A Dream.
+
+ I stood far off above the haunts of men
+ Somewhere, I know not, when the sky was dim
+ From some worn glory, and the morning hymn
+ Of the gay oriole echoed from the glen.
+ Wandering, I felt earth's peace, nor knew I sought
+ A visioned face, a voice the wind had caught.
+
+ I passed the waking things that stirred and gazed,
+ Thought-bound, and heeded not; the waking flowers
+ Drank in the morning mist, dawn's tender showers,
+ And looked forth for the Day-god who had blazed
+ His heart away and died at sundown. Far
+ In the gray west faded a loitering star.
+
+ It seemed that I had wandered through long years,
+ A life of years, still seeking gropingly
+ A thing I dared not name; now I could see
+ In the still dawn a hope, in the soft tears
+ Of the deep-hearted violets a breath
+ Of kinship, like the herald voice of Death.
+
+ Slow moved the morning; where the hill was bare
+ Woke a reluctant breeze. Dimly I knew
+ My Day was come. The wind-blown blossoms threw
+ Their breath about me, and the pine-swept air
+ Grew to a shape, a mighty, formless thing,
+ A phantom of the wood's imagining.
+
+ And as I gazed, spell-bound, it seemed to move
+ Its tendril limbs, still swaying tremulously
+ As if in spirit-doubt; then glad and free
+ Crystalled the being won from waiting grove
+ Into a human likeness. There he stood,
+ The vine-browed shape of Nature's mortal mood.
+
+ "Now have I found thee, Vision I have sought
+ These years, unknowing; surely thou art fair
+ And inly wise, and on thy tasselled hair
+ Glows Heaven's own light. Passion and fame are naught
+ To thy clear eyes, O Prince of many lands,--
+ Grant me thy joy," I cried, and stretched my hands.
+
+ No answer but the flourish of the breeze
+ Through the black pines. Then, slowly, as the wind
+ Parts the dense cloud-forms, leaving naught behind
+ But shapeless vapor, through the budding trees
+ Drifted some force unseen, and from my sight
+ Faded my god into the morning light.
+
+ Again alone. With wistful, straining eyes
+ I waited, and the sunshine flecked the bank
+ Happy with arbutus and violets where I sank
+ Hearing, near by, a host of melodies,
+ The rapture of the woodthrush; soft her mood
+ The love-mate, with such golden numbers woo'd.
+
+ He ceased; the fresh moss-odors filled the grove
+ With a strange sweetness, the dark hemlock boughs
+ Moved soft, as though they heard the brooklet rouse
+ To its spring soul, and whisper low of love.
+ The white-robed birches stood unbendingly
+ Like royal maids, in proud expectancy.
+
+ Athwart the ramage where the young leaves press
+ It came to me, ah, call it what you will
+ Vision or waking dream, I see it still!
+ Again a form born of the woodland stress
+ Grew to my gaze, and by some secret sign
+ Though shadow-hid, I knew the form was thine.
+
+ The glancing sunlight made thy ruddy hair
+ A crown of gold, but on thy spirit-face
+ There was no smile, only a tender grace
+ Of love half doubt. Upon thy hand a rare
+ Wild bird of Paradise perched fearlessly
+ With radiant plumage and still, lustrous eye.
+
+ And as I gazed I saw what I had deemed
+ A shadow near thy hand, a dusky wing,
+ A bird like last year's leaves, so dull a thing
+ Beside its fellow; as the sunshine gleamed
+ Each breast showed letters bright as crystalled rain,
+ The fair bird bore "Delight," the other "Pain."
+
+ Then came thy voice: "O Love, wilt have my gift?"
+ I stretched my glad hands eagerly to grasp
+ The heaven-blown bird, gold-hued, and longed to clasp
+ It close and know it mine. Ere I might lift
+ The shining thing and hold it to my breast
+ Again I heard thy voice with vague unrest.
+
+ "These are twin birds and may not parted be."
+ Full in thine eyes I gazed, and read therein
+ The paradox of life, of love, of sin,
+ As on a night of cloud and mystery
+ One darting flash makes bright the hidden ways,
+ And feet tread knowingly though thick the haze.
+
+ Thy gift, if so I chose,--no other hand
+ Save thine.--I reached and gathered to my heart
+ The quivering, sentient things.--Sometimes I start
+ To know them hidden there.--If I should stand
+ Idly, some day, and _one_,--God help me!--breast
+ A homing breeze,--my _brown_ bird knows _its_ nest.
+
+
+
+
+Dream-Song.
+
+ Cam'st thou not nigh to me
+ In that one glimpse of thee
+ When thy lips, tremblingly,
+ Said: "My Beloved."
+ 'Twas but a moment's space,
+ And in that crowded place
+ I dared not scan thy face
+ O! my Beloved.
+
+ Yet there may come a time
+ (Though loving be a crime
+ Only allowed in rhyme
+ To us, Beloved),
+ When safe 'neath sheltering arm
+ I may, without alarm,
+ Hear thy lips, close and warm,
+ Murmur: "Beloved!"
+
+
+
+
+Doubt.
+
+ I do not know if all the fault be mine,
+ Or why I may not think of thee and be
+ At peace with mine own heart. Unceasingly
+ Grim doubts beset me, bygone words of thine
+ Take subtle meaning, and I cannot rest
+ Till all my fears and follies are confessed.
+
+ Perhaps the wild wind's questioning has brought
+ My heart its melancholy, for, alone
+ In the night stillness, I can hear him moan
+ In sobbing gusts, as though he vainly sought
+ Some bygone bliss. Against the dripping pane
+ In storm-blown torrents beats the driving rain.
+
+ Nay I will tell thee all, I will not hide
+ One thought from thee, and if I do thee wrong
+ So much the more must I be brave and strong
+ To show my fault. And if thou then shouldst chide
+ I will accept reproof most willingly
+ So it but bringeth peace to thee and me.
+
+ I dread thy past. Phantoms of other days
+ Pursue my vision. There are other hands
+ Which thou hast held, perchance some slender bands
+ That draw thee still to other woodland ways
+ Than those which _we_ have known, some blissful hours
+ I do not share, of love, and June, and flowers.
+
+ I dread her most, that woman whom thou knewest
+ Those years ago,--I cannot bear to think
+ That she can say: "My lover praised the pink
+ Of palm, or ear," "The violets were bluest
+ In that dear copse," and dream of some fair day
+ When thou didst while her summer hours away.
+
+ I dread them too, those light loves and desires
+ That lie in the dim shadow of the years;
+ I fain would cheat myself of all my fears
+ And, as a child watching warm winter fires,
+ Dream not of yesterday's black embers, nor
+ To-morrow's ashes that may strew the floor.
+
+ I did not dream of this while thou wert near,
+ But now the thought that haunts me day by day
+ Is that the things I love, the tender way
+ Of mastery, the kisses that are dear
+ As Heaven's best gifts, to other lips and arms
+ Owe half their blessedness and all their charms.
+
+ Tell me that I am wrong, O! Man of men,
+ Surely it is not hard to comfort me,
+ Laugh at my fears with dear persistency,
+ Nay, if thou must, lie to me! There, again,
+ I hear the rain, and the wind's wailing cry
+ Stirs with wild life the night's monotony.
+
+
+
+
+Song.
+
+ If I had known
+ That when the morrow dawned the roses would be dead
+ I would have filled my hands with blossoms white and red.
+ If I had known!
+
+ If I had known
+ That I should be to-day deaf to all happy birds
+ I would have lain for hours to listen to your words.
+ If I had known!
+
+ If I had known
+ That with the morning light you would be gone for aye
+ I would have been more kind;--sweet Love had won his way
+ If I had known.
+
+
+
+
+Anticipation.
+
+ Let us peer forward through the dusk of years
+ And force the silent future to reveal
+ Her store of garnered joys; we may not kneel
+ For ever, and entreat our bliss with tears.
+ Somewhere on this drear earth the sunshine lies,
+ Somewhere the air breathes Heaven-blown harmonies.
+
+ Some day when you and I have fully learned
+ Our waiting-lesson, wondering, hand in hand
+ We shall gaze out upon an unknown land,
+ Our thoughts and our desires forever turned
+ From our old griefs, as swallows, home warding,
+ Sweep ever southward with unwearied wing.
+
+ We shall fare forth, comrades for evermore.
+ Though the ill-omened bird Time loves to bear
+ Has brushed this cheek and left an impress there
+ I shall be fierce and dauntless as of yore,
+ Free as a bird o'er the wide world to rove,
+ And strong and fearless, O my Love, to love.
+
+ What have we now? The haunting, vague unrest
+ Of incompleted measures; and we dream
+ Vainly, of the Musician and His theme,
+ How the great Master in a day most blest
+ Shall strike some mighty chords in harmony,
+ And make an end, and set the music free!
+
+ We snatch from Fate our moments of delight,
+ Few as, in April hours, the wooing calls
+ Of orioles, or when the twilight falls
+ First o'er the forest ere the approach of night
+ The eyes of evening;--and Love's song is sung
+ But once, Dear Heart, but once, and we are young.
+
+ Over the seas together, you and I,
+ 'Neath blue Italian skies, or on the hills
+ Of storied Greece,--where the warm sunlight fills
+ Spain's mellow vineyards,--wandering reverently
+ O'er the green plains of Palestine,--our days
+ A golden holiday in Old World ways.
+
+ Yet would we linger not by southern shores;
+ The bracing breath of Scandinavian snows
+ Would draw us from our dreams. The North wind blows
+ Upon thy cheek, my Norseman, and the roars
+ Of the wild Baltic sound within my ears
+ When to my dreams thy stalwart form appears.
+
+ This will the future bring. See! Thou hast given
+ From out the fulness of thy strength and will
+ This courage to me. Though the rugged hill
+ Looms high, and fronts our vision, yet our heaven
+ (I see it when I sleep) with portals wide
+ And shining towers, gleams on the farther side.
+
+
+
+
+Song.
+
+ "Tshirr!" scolds the oriole
+ Where the elms stir,
+ Flaunting her gourd-like nest
+ On the tree's swaying crest:
+ "May's here, I cannot rest,
+ Go away; tshirr!"
+
+ "Tshirr!" scolds the oriole
+ Where the leaves blur,
+ Giving her threads a jerk,
+ Spying where rivals lurk,
+ "May's here, and I'm at work.
+ Go away, tshirr!"
+
+
+
+
+Misunderstanding.
+
+ Spring's face is wreathed in smiles. She had been driven
+ Hither and thither at the surly will
+ Of treacherous winds till her sweet heart was chill.
+ Into her grasp the sceptre has been given
+ And now she touches with a proud young hand
+ The earth, and turns to blossoms all the land.
+
+ We catch the smile, the joyousness, the pride,
+ And share them with her. Surely winter gloom
+ Is for the old, and frost is for the tomb.
+ Youth must have pleasure, and the tremulous tide
+ Of sun-kissed waves, and all the golden fire
+ Of Summer's noontide splendor of desire.
+
+ I have forgotten,--for the breath of buds
+ Is on my temples, if in former days
+ I have known sorrow; I remember praise,
+ And calm content, and joy's great ocean-floods,
+ And many dreams so sweet that, in their place,
+ We would not welcome even Truth's fair face.
+
+ O Man to whom my heart hast leaned, dost know
+ Aught of my life? Sometimes a strong despair
+ Enters my soul and finds a lodging there;
+ Thou dost not know me, and the years will go
+ As these last months have gone, and I shall be
+ Still far, still a strange woman unto thee.
+
+ I do not blame thee. If there is a fault
+ Let it be mine, for surely had I tried
+ The door of my heart's home to open wide
+ No need had been for even Love's assault.
+ And yet, methinks, somewhere there is a key
+ Thou mightest have found, and entered happily.
+
+ I am no saint niched in a hallowed wall
+ For men to worship, but I would compel
+ A level gaze. You teachers who would tell
+ A woman's place I do defy you all!
+ While justice lives, and love with joy is crowned
+ Woman and man must meet on equal ground.
+
+ The deepest wrong is falsehood. She who sells
+ Her soul and body for a little gain
+ In ease, or the world's notice, has a stain
+ Upon her soul no lighter for the bells
+ Of marriage rites, and purer far is she
+ Who gives her all for love's sad ecstasy.
+
+ Canst thou not understand a nature strong
+ And passionate, with impulses that sway,
+ With yearning tenderness that must have way,
+ Yet knows no ill desire, no touch of wrong?
+ If thou canst not then in God's name I pray
+ See me no more forever from this day.
+
+
+
+
+Shadow Song.
+
+ The night is long
+ And there are no stars,--
+ Let me but dream
+ That the long fields gleam
+ With sunlight and song,
+ Then I shall not long
+ For the light of stars.
+
+ Let me but dream,--
+ For there are no stars,--
+ Dream that the ache
+ And the wild heart-break
+ Are but things that seem.
+ Ah! let me dream
+ For there are no stars.
+
+
+
+
+Revulsion.
+
+ I see the starting buds, I catch the gleam
+ In the near distance of a sun-kissed pool,
+ The blessed April air blows soft and cool,
+ Small wonder if all sorrow grows a dream,
+ And we forget that close around us lie
+ A city's poor, a city's misery.
+
+ Of every outward vision there is some
+ Internal counterpart. To-day I know
+ The blessedness of living, and the glow
+ Of life's dear spring-tide. I can bid thee come
+ In thought and wander where the fields are fair
+ With bursting life, and I, rejoicing, there.
+
+ Yet have I passed, Beloved, through the vale
+ Of dark dismay, and felt the dews of death
+ Upon my brow, have measured out my breath
+ Counting my hours of joy, as misers quail
+ At every footfall in the quiet night
+ And clutch their gold and count it in affright.
+
+ I learned new lessons in that school of fear,
+ Life took a fresh perspective; sad and brave
+ The view is from the threshold of the grave.
+ In that long, backward glance I saw her clear
+ From fogs of gathering night, and all the show
+ Of small things that seemed great a while ago.
+
+ Our dreams of fame, the stubborn power we call
+ Our self-respect, our hopes of worldly good,
+ Our jealousies and fears, how in the flood
+ Of this new light they faded, poor and small;
+ Showing our pettiness beside God's truth,
+ Besides His age our poor, unlearned youth.
+
+ The earth yearns forth, impatient for the days
+ Of its maturity, the ample sweets
+ Of Summer's fulness; and its great heart beats
+ With a fierce restlessness, for Spring delays
+ Seeing her giddy reign end all too soon,
+ Her bud-crown ravished by the hand of June.
+
+ And I,--I shall be happy,--promise me
+ This one small thing, Beloved, for I long
+ For happiness as the caged bird for song.
+ Not where four walls close in the melody
+ I want the fresh, sweet air, the water's gush,
+ The strong, sane life with thee, the summer hush.
+
+
+
+
+A Song of Dawn.
+
+ In the east a lightening;
+ Where the woods are chill
+ Moves an unseen finger,
+ Wakes a sudden thrill;
+
+ In my soul a glimmer,
+ Hush! no words are heard!
+ In heart-ambush hidden
+ Chirrup of a bird;
+
+ Tremble heart and forest
+ Like a frightened fawn,
+ Gleam the distant tree-tops,
+ Hither comes the dawn!
+
+
+
+
+Weariness.
+
+ This April sun has wakened into cheer
+ The wintry paths of thought, and tinged with gold
+ These threadbare leaves of fancy brown and old.
+ This is for us the wakening of the year
+ And May's sweet breath will draw the waiting soul
+ To where in distance lies the longed-for goal.
+
+ The summer life will still all questioning,
+ The leaves will whisper peace, and calm will be
+ The wild, vast, blue, illimitable sea.
+ And we shall hush our murmurings, and bring
+ To Nature, green below and blue above,
+ A whole life's worshipping, a whole life's love.
+
+ We will not speak of sometime fretting fears,
+ We will not think of aught that may arise
+ In future hours to cloud our golden skies.
+ Some souls there are who love their woes and tears,
+ Gaining their joy by contrast, but for thee
+ And me, Beloved, peace is ecstasy.
+
+ It was not always so, there was a time
+ When I would choose the rocky mountain way,
+ And climb the hills of doubt to find the day.
+ Fresh effort brought fresh zest, and winter's rime
+ Chilled not but crowned endeavor, and the heat
+ Of summer thrilled, and made the pulses beat.
+
+ But now I am so weary that I turn
+ From labor with a shudder, and from pain
+ As from an enemy; I see no gain
+ In suffering, and cleansing fires must burn
+ As keenly as desire, so let me know
+ Quiet with thee, and twilight's afterglow.
+
+ I, who have boasted of my strength and will,
+ And ventured daring flights, and stood alone
+ In fearless, flushed defiance, I have grown
+ Humble, and seek another hand to fill
+ Life's cup, and other eyes to pierce the skies
+ Of Wisdom's dear, sad, mighty mysteries.
+
+ Ah! I will lie so quiet in thine arms
+ I will not stir thee; and thy whisperings
+ Shall teach me patience, and so many things
+ I have not learned as yet. And all alarms
+ Will melt in peace when, safe from tempest's rage
+ My wind-tossed ship has found its anchorage.
+
+
+
+
+A Song of Rest.
+
+ The world may rage without,
+ Quiet is here;
+ Statesmen may toil and shout,
+ Cynics may sneer;
+ The great world--let it go--
+ June warmth be March's snow,
+ I care not--be it so
+ Since I am here.
+
+ Time was when war's alarm
+ Called for a fear,
+ When sorrow's seeming harm
+ Hastened a tear;
+ Naught care I now what foe
+ Threatens, for scarce I know
+ How the year's seasons go
+ Since I am here.
+
+ This is my resting-place
+ Holy and dear,
+ Where Pain's dejected face
+ May not appear.
+ This is the world to me,
+ Earth's woes I will not see
+ But rest contentedly
+ Since I am here.
+
+ Is't your voice chiding, Love,
+ My mild career?
+ My meek abiding, Love,
+ Daily so near?
+ "Danger and loss" to me?
+ Ah, Sweet, I fear to see
+ No loss but loss of _Thee_
+ And I am here.
+
+
+
+
+Death.
+
+ If days should pass without a written word
+ To tell me of thy welfare, and if days
+ Should lengthen out to weeks, until the maze
+ Of questioning fears confused me, and I heard.
+ Life-sounds as echoes; and one came and said
+ After these weeks of waiting: "He is dead!"
+
+ Though the quick sword had found the vital part,
+ And the life-blood must mingle with the tears,
+ I think that, as the dying soldier hears
+ The cries of victory, and feels his heart
+ Surge with his country's triumph-hour, I could
+ Hope bravely on, and feel that God was good.
+
+ I could take up my thread of life again
+ And weave my pattern though the colors were
+ Faded forever. Though I might not dare
+ Dream often of thee, I should know that when
+ Death came to thee upon thy lips my name
+ Lingered, and lingers ever without blame.
+
+ Aye, lingers ever. Though we may not know
+ Much that our spirits crave, yet is it given
+ To us to feel that in the waiting Heaven
+ Great souls are greater, and if God bestow
+ A mighty love He will not let it die
+ Through the vast ages of eternity.
+
+ But if some day the bitter knowledge swept
+ Down on my life,--bearing my treasured freight
+ To founder on the shoals of scorn,--what Fate
+ Smiling with awful irony had kept
+ Till life grew sweeter,--that my god was clay,
+ That 'neath thy strength a lurking weakness lay;
+
+ That thou, whom I had deemed a man of men
+ Faulty, as great men are, but with no taint
+ Of baseness,--with those faults that shew the saint
+ Of after days, perhaps,--wert even then
+ When first I loved thee but a spreading tree
+ Whose leaves shewed not its roots' deformity;
+
+ I should not weep, for there are wounds that lie
+ Too deep for tears,--and Death is but a friend
+ Who loves too dearly, and the parting end
+ Of Love's joy-day a paltry pain, a cry
+ To God, then peace,--beside the torturing grief
+ When honor dies, and trust, and soul's belief.
+
+ Travellers have told that in the Java isles
+ The upas-tree breathes its dread vapor out
+ Into the air; there needs no hand about
+ Its branches for the poison's deadly wiles
+ To work a strong man's hurt, for there is death
+ Envenomed, noisome, in his every breath.
+
+ So would I breathe thy poison in my soul,
+ Till all that had been wholesome, pure, and true
+ Shewed its decay, and stained and wasted grew.
+ Though sundered as the distant Northern Pole
+ From his far sister, I should bear thy blight
+ Upon me as I passed into the night.
+
+ Didst dream thy truth and honor meant so much
+ To me, Dear Heart? Oh! I am full of tears
+ To-night, of longing, love and foolish fears.
+ Would I might see thee, know thy tender touch,
+ For Time is long, and though I may not will
+ To question Fate, I am a woman still.
+
+
+
+
+Battle Song.
+
+ Clear sounds the call on high:
+ "To arms and victory!"
+ Brave hearts that win or die,
+ Dying, may win;
+ Proudly the banners wave,
+ What though the goal's the grave?
+ Death cannot harm the brave,--
+ Through death they win.
+
+ Softly the evening hush
+ Stilling strife's maddened rush
+ Cools the fierce battle flush,--
+ See the day die;
+ A thousand faces white
+ Mirror the cold moonlight
+ And glassy eyes are bright
+ With Victory.
+
+
+
+
+Content.
+
+ I have been wandering where the daisies grow,
+ Great fields of tall, white daisies, and I saw
+ Them bend reluctantly, and seem to draw
+ Away in pride when the fresh breeze would blow
+ From timothy and yellow buttercup,
+ So by their fearless beauty lifted up.
+
+ Yet must they bend at the strong breeze's will,
+ Bright, flawless things, whether in wrath he sweep
+ Or, as oftimes, in mood caressing, creep
+ Over the meadows and adown the hill.
+ So Love in sport or truth, as Fates allow,
+ Blows over proud young hearts, and bids them bow.
+
+ So beautiful is it to live, so sweet
+ To hear the ripple of the bobolink,
+ To smell the clover blossoms white and pink,
+ To feel oneself far from the dusty street,
+ From dusty souls, from all the flare and fret
+ Of living, and the fever of regret.
+
+ I have grown younger; I can scarce believe
+ It is the same sad woman full of dreams
+ Of seven short weeks ago, for now it seems
+ I am a child again, and can deceive
+ My soul with daisies, plucking one by one
+ The petals dazzling in the noonday sun.
+
+ Almost with old-time eagerness I try
+ My fate, and say: "un peu," a soft "beaucoup,"
+ Then, lower, "passionément, pas du tout;"
+ Quick the white petals fall, and lovingly
+ I pluck the last, and drop with tender touch
+ The knowing daisy, for he loves me "much."
+
+ I can remember how, in childish days,
+ I deemed that he who held my heart in thrall
+ Must love me "passionately" or "not at all."
+ Poor little wilful ignorant heart that prays
+ It knows not what, and heedlessly demands
+ The best that life can give with out-stretched hands!
+
+ Now I am wiser, and have learned to prize
+ Peace above passion, and the summer life
+ Here with the flowers above the ceaseless strife
+ Of armed ambitions. They alone are wise
+ Who know the daisy-secrets, and can hold
+ Fast in their eager hands her heart of gold.
+
+
+
+
+Sea-Song.
+
+ A dash of spray,
+ A weed-browned way,--
+ My ship's in the bay,
+ In the glad blue bay,--
+ The wind's from the west
+ And the waves have a crest,
+ But my bird's in the nest
+ And my ship's in the bay!
+
+ At dawn to stand
+ Soft hand to hand,
+ Bare feet on the sand,--
+ On the hard brown sand,--
+ To wait, dew-crowned,
+ For the tarrying sound
+ Of a keel that will ground
+ On the scraping sand.
+
+ A glad surprise
+ In the wind-swept skies
+ Of my wee one's eyes,--
+ Those wondering eyes.
+ He will come, my sweet,
+ And will haste to meet
+ Those hurrying feet
+ And those sea-blue eyes.
+
+ I know the day
+ Must weary away,
+ And my ship's in the bay,--
+ In the clear, blue bay,--
+ Ah! there's wind in the west,
+ For the waves have a crest,
+ But my bird's in the nest
+ And my ship's in the bay!
+
+
+
+
+Gratitude.
+
+ There are some things, dear Friend, are easier far
+ To say in written words than when we sit
+ Eye answering eye, or hand to hand close knit.
+ Not that there is between us any bar
+ Of shyness or reserve; the day is past
+ For that, and utter trust has come at last.
+
+ Only, when shut alone and safe inside
+ These four white walls,--hearing no sound except
+ Our own heart-beatings, silences have crept
+ Stealthily round us,--as the incoming tide
+ Quiet and unperceived creeps ever on
+ Till mound and pebble, rock and reef are gone.
+
+ Or out on the green hillside, even there
+ There is a hush, and words and thoughts are still.
+ For the trees speak, and myriad voices fill
+ With wondrous echoes all the waiting air.
+ We listen, and in listening must forget
+ Our own hearts' murmur, and our spirits' fret;
+
+ Even our joys,--thou knowest;--when the air
+ Is full to overflowing with the sense
+ Of hope fulfilled and passion's vehemence.
+ There is no place for words; we do not dare
+ To break Love's stillness, even though the power
+ Were ours by speech to lengthen out the hour.
+
+ But here in quietness I can recall
+ All I would tell thee, how thou art to me
+ Impulse and inspiration, and with thee
+ I can but smile though all my idols fall.
+ I wait my meed as others who have known
+ Patience till to their utmost stature grown.
+
+ As when the heavens are draped in gloomy gray
+ And earth is tremulous with a vague unrest
+ A glory fills the tender, troubled West
+ That glads the closing of November's day,
+ So breaks in sun-smiles my beclouded sky
+ When day is over and I know thee nigh.
+
+ Thou art so much, all this and more, to me,
+ And what am I to thee? Can I repay
+ These many gifts? Is there no royal way
+ Of recompense, so I may proudly see
+ The man my heart delights to praise renowned
+ For wealth and honor, and with rapture crowned?
+
+ Ah! though there is no recompense in love
+ Yet have I paid thee, given these gifts to thee,
+ Joy, riches, worship. Thou hast joy in me,
+ Is it not so, Beloved? Who shall prove
+ No worship of thee by my soul confessed?
+ And riches? Ah! a wealth of love is best.
+
+
+
+
+Song.
+
+ I have known a thousand pleasures,--
+ Love is best--
+ Ocean's songs and forest treasures,
+ Work and rest,
+ Jewelled joys of dear existence,
+ Triumph over Fate's resistance,
+ But to prove, through Time's wide distance,
+ Love is best.
+
+
+
+
+Prayer.
+
+ I stood upon a hill, and watched the death
+ Of the day's turmoil. Still the glory spread
+ Cloud-top to cloud-top, and each rearing head
+ Trembled to crimson. So a mighty breath
+ From some wild Titan in a rising ire
+ Might kindle flame in voicing his desire.
+
+ Soft stirred the evening air; the pine-crowned hills
+ Glowed in an answering rapture where the flush
+ Grew to a blood-drop, and the vesper hush
+ Moved in my soul, while from my life all ills
+ Faded and passed away. God's voice was there
+ And in my heart the silence was a prayer.
+
+ There was a day when to my fearfulness
+ Was born a joy, when doubt was swept afar
+ A shadow and a memory, and a star
+ Gleamed in my sky more bright for the distress.
+ The stillness breathed thanksgiving, and the air
+ Wafted, methought, the incense of a prayer.
+
+ Heaven sets no bounds of bead-roll or appeal;
+ And when the fiery heart with mute embrace
+ Bends, tremblingly, but for a moment's space
+ It needs no words that cry, no limbs that kneel.
+ As meteors flash, so, in a moment's light,
+ Life, darting forth, touches the Infinite.
+
+ All my prayers wordless? Nay, I can recall
+ A night not so long past but that each thought
+ Lives at this hour, and throbs again unsought
+ When Silence broods, and Night's chill shadows fall;
+ Then Darkness' thousand pulses thrilled and stirred
+ With the dear grace of a remembered word;
+
+ And I was still, thy voice enshrouding me.
+ Like the strong sweep of ocean-breath the power
+ Of one resistless thought transformed my hour
+ Of love-dreams to a fear. All hopelessly
+ I knew love's impotence, and my despair
+ Stretched soul-hands forth, and quivered to a prayer.
+
+ My passionate heart cried out: "If his dear life
+ Through stress of keen temptation merits aught
+ Of penance or requital, be it wrought
+ Upon _my_ life. If only through the strife
+ Is won the peace, through drudgery the gain,
+ Give him the issue, and to me the pain!"
+
+ Some day, in our soul's course o'er trackless lands,
+ Swayed oft by adverse winds, or swept along
+ In Fate's wild current with the fluttering throng
+ Towards Sin's engulfing maelstrom, spirit hands
+ Will brace our trembling wings, and through the night
+ Point and upbear in our last trembling flight.
+
+
+
+
+Song.
+
+ Red gleams the mountain ridge,
+ Slow the stream creeps
+ Under the old bent bridge,
+ And labor sleeps.
+
+ There are no restless birds,
+ No leaves that stir,
+ Dusk her gray mantle girds,
+ Night's harbinger.
+
+ The storm-soul's change and start
+ Pause, lull, and cease;
+ In my unquiet heart
+ Is born a peace.
+
+
+
+
+Loneliness.
+
+ Dear, I am lonely, for the bay is still
+ As any hill-girt lake; the long brown beach
+ Lies bare and wet. As far as eye can reach
+ There is no motion. Even on the hill
+ Where the breeze loves to wander I can see
+ No stir of leaves, nor any waving tree.
+
+ There is a great red cliff that fronts my view
+ A bare, unsightly thing; it angers me
+ With its unswerving-grim monotony.
+ The mackerel weir, with branching boughs askew
+ Stands like a fire-swept forest, while the sea
+ Laps it, with soothing sighs, continually.
+
+ There are no tempests in this sheltered bay,
+ The stillness frets me, and I long to be
+ Where winds sweep strong and blow tempestuously,
+ To stand upon some hill-top far away
+ And face a gathering gale, and let the stress
+ Of Nature's mood subdue my restlessness.
+
+ An impulse seizes me, a mad desire
+ To tear away that red-browed cliff, to sweep
+ Its crest of trees and huts into the deep;
+ To force a gap by axe, or storm, or fire,
+ And let rush in with motion glad and free
+ The rolling waves of the wild wondrous sea.
+
+ Sometimes I wonder if I am the child
+ Of calm, law-loving parents, or a stray
+ From some wild gypsy camp. I cannot stay
+ Quiet among my fellows; when this wild
+ Longing for freedom takes me I must fly
+ To my dear woods and know my liberty.
+
+ It is this cringing to a social law
+ That I despise, these changing, senseless forms
+ Of fashion! And until a thousand storms
+ Of God's impatience shall reveal the flaw
+ In man's pet system, he will weave the spell
+ About his heart and dream that all is well.
+
+ Ah! Life is hard, Dear Heart, for I am left
+ To battle with my old-time fears alone
+ I must live calmly on, and make no moan
+ Though of my hoped-for happiness bereft.
+ Thou wilt not come, and still the red cliff lies
+ Hiding my ocean from these longing eyes.
+
+
+
+
+Sea-Song.
+
+ It sings to me, it sings to me,
+ The shore-blown voice of the blithesome sea!
+ Of its world of gladness all untold,
+ Of its heart of green, and its mines of gold,
+ And desires that leap and flee.
+
+ It moans to me, it moans to me!
+ The storm-stirred voice of the restive sea!
+ Of the vain dismay and the yearning pain
+ For hopes that will never be born again
+ From the womb of the wavering sea.
+
+ It calls to me, it calls to me,
+ The luring voice of the rebel sea!
+ And I long with a love that is born of tears
+ For the wild fresh life, and the glorying fears,
+ For the quest and the mystery.
+
+ It wails to me, it wails to me,
+ Of the deep dark graves in the yawning sea;
+ And I hear the voice of a boy that is gone.
+ But the lad sleeps sound till the judgment-dawn
+ In the heart of the wind-swept sea.
+
+
+
+
+Incompleteness.
+
+ Since first I met thee, Dear, and long before
+ I knew myself beloved, save by the sense
+ All women have, a shadowy confidence
+ Half-fear, that _feels_ its bliss nor asks for more,
+ I have learned new desires, known Love's distress
+ Sounded the deepest depths of loneliness.
+
+ I was a child at heart, and lived alone,
+ Dreaming my dreams, as children may, at whiles,
+ Between their hours of play, and Earth's broad smiles
+ Allured my heart, and ocean's marvellous tone
+ Woke no strange echoes, and the woods' complain
+ Made chants sonorous, stirred no thoughts of pain.
+
+ And if, sometimes, dear Nature spoke to me
+ In tones mysterious, I had learned so much
+ Dwelling beside her daily, that her touch
+ Made me discerning. Though I might not see
+ Her purpose nor her meaning, I had part
+ In the proud throbbing of that mighty heart.
+
+ But now the earth has put a tiring-cloth
+ About her face; even in the mountains' cheer
+ There is a lack, and in the sea a fear,
+ The glad, rash sea, whose every mood, if wroth
+ Or soothing mild, is dear to me as are
+ Joy's new-born kisses on the lips of Care.
+
+ Since I have known thee, Dear, all life has grown
+ An expectation. As the swelling grain
+ Trembles to harvesting, and earth in pain
+ Travails till Spring is born, so felt alone
+ Is the dumb reaching out of things unborn,
+ The night's gray promise of the amber morn.
+
+ I long to taste my pleasures through thy lips,
+ To sail with thee o'er foaming waves and feel
+ Our spirits rise together with the reel
+ Of waters and the wavering land's eclipse;
+ To see thy fair hair damp with salt sea-spray
+ And in thine eyes the wildness of the way.
+
+ I long to share my woods with thee, to fly
+ To some black-hearted forest where the trail
+ Of mortals lingers not,--to hear the gale.
+ Sweep round us with a shuddering ecstasy,
+ To feel, night's tumult passed, the cool soft hand
+ Of the untroubled dawn move o'er the land.
+
+ To swim with thee far out into the bay,
+ A trembling glitter on the waves, the shore
+ Glowing with noontide fervor, nevermore
+ To fear the treacherous depths, though long the way.
+ Sweet beyond words the sighs that breathe and blow,
+ The moist salt kisses, and the glad warm glow.
+
+ And when the unrest, the vague desires that rush
+ Over our lives and may not be denied,--
+ Gone in the tasting,--lure us where the tide
+ Of men sweeps on, let us forget the hush
+ Together, and in city madness drain
+ Our cup of pleasure to its dregs of pain.
+
+ Ever I need thee. Incomplete and poor
+ This life of mine. Yet never dream my soul
+ Craves the old peace. Till I may have the whole
+ My joy is my abiding, and what more
+ Of dreams and waking bliss the Fates allow
+ Comes as a gift of Love's great overflow.
+
+
+
+
+Song.
+
+ Deep in the green bracken lying,
+ Close by the welcoming sea,
+ Dream I, and let all my dreaming
+ Drift as it will, Love, to thee.
+
+ Sated with splendid caresses
+ Showered by the sun in his pride,
+ Scorched by his passionate kisses
+ Languidly ebbs the tide.
+
+
+
+
+Life's Joys.
+
+ I have been pondering what our teachers call
+ The mystery of Pain; and lo! my thought
+ After it's half-blind reaching out has caught
+ This truth and held it fast. We may not fall
+ Beyond our mounting; stung by life's annoy,
+ Deeper we feel the mystery of Joy.
+
+ Sometimes they steal across us like a breath
+ Of Eastern perfume in a darkened room,
+ These joys of ours; we grope on through the gloom
+ Seeking some common thing, and from its sheath
+ Unloose, unknowing, some bewildering scent
+ Of spice-thronged memories of the Orient.
+
+ Sometimes they dart across our turbid sky
+ Like a quick flash after a heated day.
+ A moment, where the sombrous shadows lay
+ We see a glory. Though it passed us by
+ No earthly power can filch that dazzling glow
+ From memory's eye, that instant's shine and show.
+
+ Life is so full of joys. The alluring sea,
+ This morning clear and placid, may, ere night,
+ Toss like a petulant child, and when the light
+ Of a new morning dawns sweep grand and free
+ A mighty power. If fierce, or mild, or bright,
+ With every tide flows in a fresh delight.
+
+ I can remember well when first I knew
+ The fragrance of white clover. There I lay
+ On the warm July grass and heard the play
+ Of sun-browned insects, and the breezes blew
+ To my drowsed sense the scent the blossoms had;
+ The subtle sweetness stayed, and I was glad.
+
+ Nor passed the gladness. Though the years have gone
+ (A many years, Beloved, since that day,)
+ Whenever by the roadside or away
+ In radiant summer fields, wandering alone
+ Or with glad children, to my restless sight
+ Shows that pale head, comes back the old delight.
+
+ Oh! the dark water, and the filling sail!
+ The scudding like a sea-mew, with the hand
+ Firm on the tiller! See, the red-shored land
+ Receding, as we brave the hastening gale!
+ White gleam the wave-tops, and the breakers' roar
+ Sounds thunderingly on the far distant shore.
+
+ This mad hair flying in the breeze blows wild
+ Across my face. See, there, the gathering squall,
+ That dark line to the eastward, watch it crawl
+ Stealthily towards us o'er the snow-wreaths piled
+ Close on each other! Ah! what joy to be
+ Drunk with salt air, in battle with the sea!
+
+ So many joys, and yet I have but told
+ Of simple things, the joys of air and sea!
+ Not all these things are worth one hour with thee,
+ One moment, when thy daring arms enfold
+ My body, and all other, meaner joys,
+ Fade from me like a child's forgotten toys.
+
+ One thought is ever with me, glorying all
+ Life's common aims. Surely will dawn a day
+ Bright with an unknown rapture, when thy way
+ Will be _my_ journey-road, and I can call
+ These joys _our_ joys, for thou wilt walk with me
+ Down budding pathways to the abounding sea.
+
+
+
+
+Song.
+
+ Low laughed the Columbine,
+ Trembled her petals fine
+ As the breeze blew;
+ In her dove-heart there stirred
+ Murmurs the dull bee heard,
+ And Love, Life's wild white bird,
+ Straightway she knew.
+
+ Resting her lilac cheek
+ Gently, in aspect meek,
+ On the gray stone,
+ The morning-glory, free,
+ Welcomed the yellow bee,
+ Heard the near-rolling sea
+ Murmur and moan.
+
+ Calm lay the tawny sand
+ Stretching a long wet hand
+ To the far wave.
+ Swift to her warm waiting breast
+ Longing to be possessed
+ Leaps 'neath his billowy crest
+ Her Lover brave.
+
+
+
+
+Barter
+
+ There is a long thin line of fading gold
+ In the far West, and the transfigured leaves
+ On some slight, topmost bough that sways and heaves
+ Hang limp and tremulous. Nor warm, nor cold
+ The pungent air, and, 'neath the yellow haze,
+ Show flushed and glad the wild, October ways.
+
+ There is a soft enchantment in the air,
+ A mystery the Summer knows not, nor
+ The sturdy, frost-crowned Winter. Nature wore
+ Her blandest smile to-day, as here and there
+ I wandered, elf-beset, through wood and field
+ And gleaned the glories of the autumn yield.
+
+ A bunch of purple aster, golden-rod
+ Darkened by the first frost, a drooping spray
+ Of scarlet barberry, and tall and gray
+ The silk-cored cotton with its bursting pod,
+ Some tarnished maple-boughs, and, like a flash
+ Of sudden flame, a branch of mountain ash.
+
+ She smiled, but it was not the welcoming smile
+ Of frank surrender. As a witching maid
+ In gorgeous garments cunningly arrayed
+ Might smile and draw them closer, hers the guile
+ To let men hope, pray, labor in love's stress
+ Ere they her hidden beauties may possess.
+
+ Deep in the heart of earth where the springs rise,
+ Down with the sweet linnæa and the moss,
+ In the brown thrush's throat, where the pines toss
+ In Winter's harrying storms her secret lies.
+ Ours the chill night-dews and the waiting pain
+ Ere we her fairy wealth may hope to gain.
+
+ 'Tis so with knowledge. Eagerly we turn
+ Great Wisdom's page, and when our clear eyes grow
+ Dim in the dusk of years, and heads bend low
+ Weary at last, the truth we strove to learn
+ Is ours forever. But its joy of sight
+ Is dearly bought, methinks, with Youth's delight.
+
+ Fate, too, with chaffering voice and beckoning hand
+ Doles out our happiness; we snatch at wealth
+ And pay with anxious care and fading health.
+ We call for Love, and dream that we shall stand
+ On ground enchanted, but, though sweet the way,
+ The rocks are sharp, and grief comes with the Day.
+
+ Even in love, Dear Heart, there is exchange
+ Of gifts and griefs, and so I render thee
+ Vows for thy vows, and pay unfalteringly
+ What love demands, nor ever deem it strange.
+ And when the snow drifts fast, and north-winds sting
+ I make no murmur, but await the Spring.
+
+
+
+
+Song.
+
+ Joy came in youth as a humming-bird,
+ (Sing hey! for the honey and bloom of life!)
+ And it made a home in my summer bower
+ With the honeysuckle and the sweet-pea flower.
+ (Sing hey! for the blossoms and sweets of life!)
+
+ Joy came as a lark when the years had gone,
+ (Ah! hush, hush still, for the dream is short!)
+ And I gazed far up to the melting blue
+ Where the rare song dropped like a golden dew.
+ (Ah! sweet is the song tho' the dream be short!)
+
+ Joy hovers now in a far-off mist,
+ (The night draws on and the air breathes snow!)
+ And I reach, sometimes, with a trembling hand
+ To the red-tipped cloud of the joy-bird's land.
+ (Alas! for the days of the storm and the snow!)
+
+
+
+
+To-Morrow.
+
+ But one short night between my Love and me!
+ I watch the soft-shod dusk creep wistfully
+ Through the slow-moving curtains, pausing by
+ And shrouding with its spirit-fingers free
+ Each well-known chair. There is a growing grace
+ Of tender magic in this little place.
+
+ Comes through half-opened windows, soft and cool
+ As Spring's young breath, the vagrant evening air,
+ My day-worn soul is hushed. I fain would bear
+ No burdens on my brain to-night, no rule
+ Of anxious thought; the world has had my tears,
+ My thoughts, my hopes, my aims these many years;
+
+ This is Thy hour, and I shall sink to sleep
+ With a glad weariness, to know that when
+ The new day dawns I shall lay by my pen
+ Needed no more. If I, perchance, should weep
+ A few quick tears, so doing, who would guess
+ 'Twas the last throb of my soul's loneliness?
+
+ Not even thou, Dear Heart, canst ever know
+ How I have yearned these many months, these years
+ For love, for thee. As the calm boatman steers
+ His slender shallop where he fain would go,
+ Tempests and rocks before, so through the dark
+ To this dim, far-off day has set my bark.
+
+ To-morrow! I can hear the quick-closed door,
+ The approaching steps, my pained heart's fluttering,
+ Thy voice, then Thee! And all the storm and sting
+ Of bygone griefs are passed forevermore,
+ Swept from my life as the resistless wind
+ Scatters the chaff, nor leaves a mote behind.
+
+ As long-imprisoned captives reach the light,
+ And gaze with greedy eyes on field and tree,
+ Drinking the beauties of the sky and sea
+ Half fearful of their bliss; so from the night
+ Of dreams and shades, half doubting, we awake
+ And grasp the joy we almost fear to take.
+
+ Thou hidest in thy warm ones my cold hand,
+ Reading my soul in these unwavering eyes.
+ Nay, thou hast known my hopes, my agonies
+ Through written words, and thou canst understand.
+ I have kept nothing back of all the streams
+ Of my heart-flowings--doubts, nor fears, nor dreams.
+
+ So long my life has followed no control
+ But mine own impulse; now, I pray thee, bend
+ My will to thine, and so, unhindered, tend
+ My soul's wild garden. I have laid the whole
+ Bare to thy sowing; and life's precious wine
+ Is of thy pouring, and thy way is mine.
+
+
+
+
+Song
+
+ Where is the waiting-time?
+ Where are the fears?
+ Gone with the winter's rime,
+ The bygone years.
+
+ O'er life's plain, lone and vast,
+ Slow treads the morn,
+ Night shades have moved and passed,
+ Joy's day is born.
+
+
+
+THE END.
+
+
+
+
+
+
+End of Project Gutenberg's A Woman's Love Letters, by Sophie M. Almon-Hensley
+
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