Stedman and Hutchinson, comps. A Library of American Literature:
An Anthology in Eleven Volumes. 1891.
Vols. IX–XI: Literature of the Republic, Part IV., 1861–1889
Mariette
By Dora Read Goodale (18661953)T
Love dares not claim her:
I can but say, “’Tis Mariette,”
Nor more than name her!
With light derision;
Yet who would choose the softer speech,
The graver vision?
Repays you, after;
A voice to make all satire sweet—
Delicious laughter!
How could she use it?
Another’s pain no passion stirs,
Nor would you choose it.
That dares discover?
Pride, mirth, ambition, thirst for praise—
They’re hers—you love her!
That will not fear it,
Or mar by one subduing pain
So rare a spirit.
Born of the minute,
Nor thought the world a prettier place
That she was in it?
No nearer honor,—
It is enough for happiness
To look upon her.
In careless measure,
The wilful, bright, ethereal head,
Alive with pleasure:
That long has waited,
For soul and body, rightly made,
Are fitly mated.
To offer to her?
A woman’s passion, Mariette,
There is no truer.
The Century Magazine, 1883.