Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Alfred H. Miles, ed. Women Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.

By A Palace of Dreams, and Other Verse (1901). III. Under the Sun

Ada Bartrick Baker (1854– )

LIFE is a Battle. And those that fight

Clash in the thick of a cloudy night;

And Wrong has its sword through the heart of Right.

Life is a Loom. And the threads that feed

Are drawn out of hearts and brains that bleed,

To fashion a cloak for the rich man’s greed.

Life is a Mart. And the sellers buy

Lies for truth, and truth with a lie,

While honour and justice stand hand-cuff’d by.

Life is a Play. But the actors wear

Vainly their masks; for the sins they share

Out of their hollow eyelids stare.

Life is a Journey. And those that ride

Trample the weak as they trudge beside,

While the red blood crimsons the hoof of pride.

Life is a Dream! And the soul, perplext,

Feels through a fog of problems vext.

Sudden ’twill wake, and—light comes next!