Poems (Truesdell)/The Neglected Wife

by Helen Truesdell

THE NEGLECTED WIFE.

"Is it he? is it he?—do I hear his step?"
And with trembling haste to the window she crept;
"No, 'twas but the rustling of the breeze
'Mid the autumn woods, as they cast their leaves.

"I have waited long, I have looked in vain—
O God! will he never return again?"
Long, long had she stood by the casement there,
With her settled look of deep despair;

Ever her cheek would flush and pale
As she heard the rude winds of the early gale:
"He is gone!" once more she murmured in pain,
"He is gone, and I dare not even complain.

"Just, just is thy sentence, O God I and I bow
With a broken spirit before thee now,
Had I heeded the words by my father spoken,
Or a mother's prayer ere her heart had broken;

"Not turned a deaf ear to a brother brave,
Nor slighted the warning he kindly gave;
I should not have wept, and wept in vain,
For that faithless one to return again."