| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
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| The Requital |
| | | Adelaide Anne Procter (1825–64) |
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| LOUD roared the tempest, | |
| Fast fell the sleet; | |
| A little Child Angel | |
| Passed down the street, | |
| With trailing pinions | 5 |
| And weary feet. | |
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| The moon was hidden; | |
| No stars were bright; | |
| So she could not shelter | |
| In heaven that night, | 10 |
| For the Angels’ ladders | |
| Are rays of light. | |
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| She beat her wings | |
| At each windowpane, | |
| And pleaded for shelter, | 15 |
| But all in vain;— | |
| “Listen,” they said, | |
| “To the pelting rain!” | |
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| She sobb’d, as the laughter | |
| And mirth grew higher, | 20 |
| “Give me rest and shelter | |
| Beside your fire, | |
| And I will give you | |
| Your heart’s desire.” | |
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| The dreamer sat watching | 25 |
| His embers gleam, | |
| While his heart was floating | |
| Down hope’s bright stream; | |
| …So he wove her wailing | |
| Into his dream. | 30 |
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| The worker toil’d on, | |
| For his time was brief; | |
| The mourner was nursing | |
| Her own pale grief; | |
| They heard not the promise | 35 |
| That brought relief. | |
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| But fiercer the tempest | |
| Rose than before, | |
| When the Angel paus’d | |
| At a humble door, | 40 |
| And ask’d for shelter | |
| And help once more. | |
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| A weary woman, | |
| Pale, worn, and thin, | |
| With the brand upon her | 45 |
| Of want and sin, | |
| Heard the Child Angel | |
| And took her in: | |
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| Took her in gently, | |
| And did her best | 50 |
| To dry her pinions; | |
| And made her rest | |
| With tender pity | |
| Upon her breast. | |
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| When the eastern morning | 55 |
| Grew bright and red, | |
| Up the first sunbeam | |
| The Angel fled; | |
| Having kiss’d the woman | |
| And left her—dead. | 60 |
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