John Greenleaf Whittier (1807–1892). The Poetical Works in Four Volumes. 1892.
Narrative and Legendary PoemsThe Wishing Bridge
A
Along our rocky shore,
The Wishing Bridge of Marblehead
May well be sung once more.
The old-time story) all
Good wishes said above its span
Would, soon or late, befall.
The prayers of man or maid
For him who on the deep sea sailed,
For her at home who stayed.
And wished in childish glee:
And one would be a queen and rule,
And one the world would see.
And in the self-same place,
Two women, gray with middle years,
Stood, wondering, face to face.
They queried what had been:
“A poor man’s wife am I, am yet,”
Said one, “I am a queen.
Where, lacking crown and throne,
I rule by loving services
And patient toil alone.”
Beyond me as it lay;
O’er love’s and duty’s boundaries
My feet may never stray.
Its common sounds I hear,
My widowed mother’s sick-bed room
Sufficeth for my sphere.
Of travel far and wide,
And in a dreamy pilgrimage
We wander side by side.
My book becomes to me
A magic glass: my watch I keep,
But all the world I see.
While fancy’s privilege
Is mine to walk the earth at will,
Thanks to the Wishing Bridge.”
The other cried, “and say
God gives the wishes of our youth,
But in His own best way!”