Page:Poems Craik.djvu/248

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230
ONLY A WOMAN.
And when that heart grew colder—colder still,
I, ignorant, tried all duties to fulfil,
Blaming my foolish pain, exacting will,

All—anything but him. It was to be:
The full draught others drink up carelessly
Was made this bitter Tantalus-cup for me.

I say again—he gives me all I claimed,
I and my children never shall be shamed:
He is a just man—he will live unblamed.

Only—God, God, to cry for bread,
And get a stone! Daily to lay my head
Upon a bosom where the old love 's dead!

Dead?—Fool! It never lived. It only stirred
Galvanic, like an hour-cold corpse. None heard:
So let me bury it without a word.

He '11 keep that other woman from my sight.
I know not if her face be foul or bright;
I only know that it was his delight—

As his was mine: I only know he stands
Pale, at the touch of their long-severed hands,
Then to a flickering smile his lips commands,