Alfred H. Miles, ed. Women Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.
By Poems. III. Semper FidelisDinah Maria Craik (18261887)
T
With this book upon my lap here, come and overshadow it?
Hide with spectral mists the pages, under each familiar leaf
Lurk, and clutch my hand that turns it with the icy clutch of grief?
That the world calls separation, but we smile at, better taught,
That I should not feel the dropping of each link you did untwine
Clear as if you sat before me with your true eyes fixed on mine?
To the dust of broken idols, know it without sight of you,
By some shadow darkening daylight in the fickle skies of spring,
By foul fears from household corners crawling over everything?
Parted more than we were parted, dwelt we in each hemisphere,—
Could I sit here, smiling quiet on this book within my hand,
And while earth was cloven beneath me, feel no shock nor understand?
Rock-like; though the winds and waves howl, its foundation still endures:
By a man’s will—“See, I hold thee: mine thou art, and mine shalt be.”
By a woman’s patience—“Sooner doubt I my own soul than thee.”
Though this hand of mine drops empty, that blank wall my blank eyes meet:
Life may flow on: men be faithless,—ay, forsooth, and women too!
O