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303
A VISIT TO C. H.
Let us sit with you, sister, before the low fire,
The scanty rag-carpet sufficing our feet:
You cannot command, and we need not require,
The window well shaded and soft-cushioned seat.
The scanty rag-carpet sufficing our feet:
You cannot command, and we need not require,
The window well shaded and soft-cushioned seat.
The children of pride scarcely come to your door,
And we who have entered walk not in their ways;
But experience brings to the rich and the poor
One value abiding in life's changeful days.
And we who have entered walk not in their ways;
But experience brings to the rich and the poor
One value abiding in life's changeful days.
You are homely in breeding? Some one of your race
Had a spark of high blood, to immortals akin:
You are loath to be seen in this desolate place?
What honor may lack where the Muse is within?
Had a spark of high blood, to immortals akin:
You are loath to be seen in this desolate place?
What honor may lack where the Muse is within?
304
A presence I feel in the God-lightened air,
The spell of the art I have followed so long:
In your calico garment and rough-twisted hair
Let us speak of your queendom, poor sister of song.
The spell of the art I have followed so long:
In your calico garment and rough-twisted hair
Let us speak of your queendom, poor sister of song.
For, well may we know it, the tap that you hear,
When you lay down the needle, and take up the pen,
Is the summons august that the highest revere,
The greatest that visits the children of men.
When you lay down the needle, and take up the pen,
Is the summons august that the highest revere,
The greatest that visits the children of men.
The fountain of song in your bosom arose
When the small baby pillow was tenantless left?
You share with all mortals life's burthen of woes;
But all have not music, when grieved and bereft.
When the small baby pillow was tenantless left?
You share with all mortals life's burthen of woes;
But all have not music, when grieved and bereft.
You dream o er the wash-tub, strive vainly to fix
Your thought on the small household matter in hand?
Some spices, no doubt, in your condiments mix,
Some flavors your neighbors can scarcely command.
Your thought on the small household matter in hand?
Some spices, no doubt, in your condiments mix,
Some flavors your neighbors can scarcely command.
305
The world is so hard, and the world is so cold?
And the dear-bought deliverance comes scanty and slow?
Say, whether is better,—its frosts to behold,
Or to share its heart winter, and shed no more glow?
And the dear-bought deliverance comes scanty and slow?
Say, whether is better,—its frosts to behold,
Or to share its heart winter, and shed no more glow?
I have found a rich blossom astray on the heath;
In sordid surroundings, an altar of love;
Or lashed in a cart, beyond beauty and breath,
The steed that should carry the bidding of Jove.
In sordid surroundings, an altar of love;
Or lashed in a cart, beyond beauty and breath,
The steed that should carry the bidding of Jove.
The town that hums near us has rich folk, besure,—
Its man of the Congress, its Mayor with his state,
Its lords of the spindle who pillage the poor,
Its pampered young people who quarrel and mate.
Its man of the Congress, its Mayor with his state,
Its lords of the spindle who pillage the poor,
Its pampered young people who quarrel and mate.
But not for their scanning I come here to-day;
The rich and the proud are forever the same:
My feet, poet sister, have found out this way,
Unsought and unsummoned, your kinship to claim.
The rich and the proud are forever the same:
My feet, poet sister, have found out this way,
Unsought and unsummoned, your kinship to claim.
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