Life and Phantasy by William Allingham: With frontispiece by Sir John E. Millais: A design by Arthur H. Hughes and a song for voice and piano forte |
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A WIFE. |
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 | Life and Phantasy |  |
13
A WIFE.
The wife sat thoughtfully turning over
A book inscribed with the school-girl's name;
A tear, one tear, fell hot on the cover
So quickly closed when her husband came.
A book inscribed with the school-girl's name;
A tear, one tear, fell hot on the cover
So quickly closed when her husband came.
He came, and he went away,—it was nothing;
With commonplace words upon either side;
But, just with the sound of the room-door shutting,
A dreadful door in her soul stood wide.
With commonplace words upon either side;
But, just with the sound of the room-door shutting,
A dreadful door in her soul stood wide.
Love she had read of in sweet romances,
Love that could sorrow, but never fail;
Built her own palace of noble fancies,
All the wide world like a fairy-tale.
Love that could sorrow, but never fail;
Built her own palace of noble fancies,
All the wide world like a fairy-tale.
Bleak and bitter, and utterly doleful
Spread to this woman her map of life:
Hour after hour she look'd in her soul, full
Of deep dismay and turbulent strife.
Spread to this woman her map of life:
Hour after hour she look'd in her soul, full
Of deep dismay and turbulent strife.
Face in hands, she knelt on the carpet;
The cloud was loosen'd, the storm-rain fell.
Oh! life has so much to wilder and warp it,
One poor heart's day what poet could tell?
The cloud was loosen'd, the storm-rain fell.
Oh! life has so much to wilder and warp it,
One poor heart's day what poet could tell?
| Life and Phantasy | |