Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

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

By Twilight Hours. VIII. Growth

Sarah Williams (“Sadie”) (1841–1868)

A LONELY rock uprose above the sea,

The coral insects fretting at its base;

And no man came unto its loneliness,

The very storm-birds shunned its evil case.

Only the ocean beat upon its breast,

Only the ocean gave it close embrace.

An island was upheaved towards the skies,

A central fire within its heart had burst;

The rock became a mountain, stern and strong,

Only the desolation shewed at first;

A stray bird dropped a seed that fructified,

No longer reigned the barrenness accursed.

A little world stood out among the seas,

With singing brooks and many a fragrant wood,

Where lovers heard again their story sweet,

And truth grew fair, more fully understood.

The tender flowers o’ergrew the chasms deep,

And God looked down, and saw that it was good.