Alfred H. Miles, ed. Women Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.
By Twilight Hours. II. The Life of a LeafSarah Williams (Sadie) (18411868)
Here at rest I lie,
Half awake and half in slumber
While the storms go by.
Stir my life within;
Hopes of being something worthy,
Longing to begin.
Broodeth o’er my state;
When the time comes I am ready,
Until then I wait.
The sweet soft breezes playing round our rest,
The summer fragrance growing everywhere,
The happy birds low cooing in their nest.
It is all good, and hope comes after joy;
Come anything in this delightsome strife,
Storms cannot daunt us, sunshine cannot cloy.
Till I glow with crimson light,
Till along my veins shall run
Liquid lustre glistening bright.
Hold me close and thrill me through,
Till I faint with languid heat,
Till for rest from thee I sue;
Hear me not, O king of light!
Let me die within thy sight.
It was so bright a little while ago;
And now we leaves upon the branches curled
Hang wearily, just swaying to and fro.
He will not veil one smile to ease our pain;
What matter that, so his great course is run?
The subjects suffer, but the king must reign
We are too weary even to complain.
Grows looser and looser and looser;
The dizzying leap into depths untold
Comes closer and closer and closer.
Drawn from below,
Where shall we vanish to?
How shall we go?
Heaviness everywhere,
Fallen on dull despair,
Here we lie low.
All of sweetness that remaineth still;
Swift the drenching rains and frosts of winter
Rid the earth of worn-out things of ill.
May survive this discipline of pain;
May not die but change its outward substance
May revive in other leaves again.