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Woman's Love Letters

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<h2>To-Morrow.</h2> <div class="poem"><div class="stanza"> But one short night between my Love and me! I watch the soft-shod dusk creep wistfully Through the slow-moving curtains, pausing by And shrouding with its spirit-fingers free Each well-known chair. There is a growing grace Of tender magic in this little place. </div> <div class="stanza"> Comes through half-opened windows, soft and cool As Spring's young breath, the vagrant evening air, My day-worn soul is hushed. I fain would bear No burdens on my brain to-night, no rule [Pg 79] Of anxious thought; the world has had my tears, My thoughts, my hopes, my aims these many years; </div> <div class="stanza"> This is Thy hour, and I shall sink to sleep With a glad weariness, to know that when The new day dawns I shall lay by my pen Needed no more. If I, perchance, should weep A few quick tears, so doing, who would guess 'Twas the last throb of my soul's loneliness? </div> <div class="stanza"> Not even thou, Dear Heart, canst ever know How I have yearned these many months, these years For love, for thee. As the calm boatman steers His slender shallop where he fain would go, Tempests and rocks before, so through the dark To this dim, far-off day has set my bark. [Pg 80]</div> <div class="stanza"> To-morrow! I can hear the quick-closed door, The approaching steps, my pained heart's fluttering, Thy voice, then Thee! And all the storm and sting Of bygone griefs are passed forevermore, Swept from my life as the resistless wind Scatters the chaff, nor leaves a mote behind. </div> <div class="stanza"> As long-imprisoned captives reach the light, And gaze with greedy eyes on field and tree, Drinking the beauties of the sky and sea Half fearful of their bliss; so from the night Of dreams and shades, half doubting, we awake And grasp the joy we almost fear to take. </div> <div class="stanza"> Thou hidest in thy warm ones my cold hand, [Pg 81] Reading my soul in these unwavering eyes. Nay, thou hast known my hopes, my agonies Through written words, and thou canst understand. I have kept nothing back of all the streams Of my heart-flowings—doubts, nor fears, nor dreams. </div> <div class="stanza"> So long my life has followed no control But mine own impulse; now, I pray thee, bend My will to thine, and so, unhindered, tend My soul's wild garden. I have laid the whole Bare to thy sowing; and life's precious wine Is of thy pouring, and thy way is mine. [Pg 82]</div> </div> <hr style="width: 35%;" /> <div style="break-after:column;"></div>

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