Sweet-breathed and young,
The people’s daughter,
No nerves unstrung,
Going to slaughter!
“Good morning, friends,
You ’ll love us better,—
Make us amends:
We ’ve burst your fetter!
“How the sun gleams!
(Women are snarling):
Give me your beams,
Liberty’s darling!
“Marie ’s my name;...
I fear no power a woman wields
While I can have the woods and fields,
With comradeship alone of gun,
Gray marsh-wastes and the burning sun.
For aye the heart’s most poignant pain
Will wear away ’neath hail and rain,
And rush of winds through branches bare
With something still to do and dare,
The lonely watch beside the shore,...
I Will not look for him, I will not hear
My heart’s loud beating, as I strain to see
Across the rain forlorn and hopelessly,
Nor, starting, think ’t is he that draws so near.
I will forget how tenderly and dear
He might in coming hold his arms to me,
For I will prove what woman’s pride can be
When faint love lingers in the darkness drear...
From Elizabeth A. Sharp’s “Lyra Celtica”
TELL us some of the charms of the stars:
Close and well set were her ivory teeth;
White as the canna upon the moor
Was her bosom the tartan bright beneath.
Her well-rounded forehead shone
Soft and fair as the mountain snow;
Her two breasts were heaving full;
To them did the hearts...
From “Love’s Labor ’s Lost,” Act IV. Sc. 3.
KING.—But what of this? are we not all in love?
BIRON.—Nothing so sure; and thereby all forsworn.
KING.—Then leave this chat; and, good Biron, now prove
Our loving lawful, and our faith not torn.
DUMAIN.—Ay, marry, there; some flattery for this evil.
LONGAVILLE.—O, some authority how to proceed...
Let not woman e’er complain
Of inconstancy in love;
Let not woman e’er complain
Fickle man is apt to rove;
Look abroad through Nature’s range,
Nature’s mighty law is change;
Ladies, would it not be strange
Man should then a monster prove?
Mark the winds, and mark the skies;
Ocean’s ebb and ocean’s flow;
...
I Will not let you say a woman’s part
Must be to give exclusive love alone;
Dearest, although I love you so, my heart
Answers a thousand claims besides your own.
I love,—what do I not love? Earth and air
Find space within my heart, and myriad things
You would not deign to heed are cherished there,
And vibrate on its very inmost...
Before I trust my fate to thee,
Or place my hand in thine,
Before I let thy future give
Color and form to mine,
Before I peril all for thee, question thy soul to-night for me.
I break all slighter bonds, nor feel
A shadow of regret:
Is there one link within the past
That holds thy spirit yet?
Or is thy faith as...
I Know that deep within your heart of hearts
You hold me shrined apart from common things,
And that my step, my voice, can bring to you
A gladness that no other presence brings.
And yet, dear love, through all the weary days
You never speak one word of tenderness,
Nor stroke my hair, nor softly clasp my hand
Within your own in...
An Epigram
MEN, dying, make their wills, but wives
Escape a work so sad;
Why should they make what all their lives
The gentle dames have had?
