Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Alfred H. Miles, ed. Women Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.

By Twilight Hours. I. Sospiri Volate (Selection)

Sarah Williams (“Sadie”) (1841–1868)

IS the world so very sad a place?

Looking out here through geranium leaves,

We can see the sky all rosy grace,

And can feel, what one of us believes,

That He giveth His belovèd sleep—

Not in death alone we cease to weep.

Softly, shining cloudlets come and go,

While the blue shows deeper in between,

And the very sunset leaves a glow

Lovelier than all rays the day has seen:

Flecks of light make blossoms on the floor.

Silent music wraps us o’er and o’er.

Still and quiet, with intensest calm,

As the centre of all motion rests;

So we breathe away those hours of balm,

Rise with strengthened hearts within our breasts.

Go, dear, but remember, through all weather,

We are friends—we were in Heaven together.

LIKE a drop of water is my heart

Laid upon her soft and rosy palm,

Turned whichever way her hand doth turn,

Trembling in an ecstasy of calm.

Like a broken rose-leaf is my heart,

Held within her close and burning clasp,

Breathing only dying sweetness out,

Withering beneath the fatal grasp.

Like a vapoury cloudlet is my heart

Growing into beauty near the sun,

Gaining rainbow hues in her embrace,

Melting into tears when it is done.

Like mine own dear harp is this my heart,

Dumb, without the hand that sweeps its strings;

Though the hand be careless or be cruel,

When it comes, my heart breaks forth and sings.