University of Virginia Library

V.Age—Nineteen.

In a neat suburban room
Songs of pleasant liberty
Sang careless Maryanne.
Who would dream that such a change
Could fall in one short year!
And Joan was also there,
Busily laughing, laughing loud.
But Maryanne sat still and sang;
Or with head askance at the window pane
She looked for Archer along the road;
And every morn, and noon, and night,
She would dance acrosss the room for joy.
O would it were not so intense!
She was happier than a wife could be,
Thought careless Maryanne.
Her mother told her not to look
Towards strangers, nor to speak too loud
To her sister-semstresses, until
She knew them well,—to rise betimes,
To dress quite plain, to lace her shoes
As she had learnt of old,—a long
Unmentionable creed she taught
Of best advices: Maryanne
Believed some punishment would follow
If in aught she disobeyed:—
Yet had she dared! the bond was burst!
No lightning flashed, but all at once
A new sun seemed to smile on her,
And a new moon, more earnest than the old,
And stars more numerous; and kindly lips
Seemed ever smiling on her from that day,
And merry voices sounded merrier.
For the first time free will seemed hers:—
While her mother like a prophetess,
Whose oracle by adverse fate
Had been annulled, sank from her trust
Altogether,—altogether!
Who would dream that such a change
Could come in a year like leaves in spring!