Poems (Griffin)/Lines to a Friend (She sat amid the crowd, a timid child)

by Alice McClure Griffin

For works with similar titles, see Lines to a Friend.

 

LINES TO A FRIEND. BY MUNI TELL.

SHE sat amid the crowd, a timid child,
 Unseen by one to whom all eyes were turned,
While through her heart emotions strangely wild
 In struggling agony for utterance burned.

She knew him not; she ne'er had seen before
 The noble form of that proud, manly youth,
Nor heard, till then, his voice; yet, evermore,
 She felt to him belonged her spirit's truth.

And she, though unappreciated there,
 An unpretending school-girl, caught those signs
Of moral greatness, gems of worth, that were
 To her aspiring nature wealth divine.

And though, since then, devoted hearts have bowed,
 And wealth and love been offered at her shrine,
No other image e'er hath been allowed
 A place within her young heart's pure confine.