Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

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

By Key Notes (1879). I. Morning

Louisa S. Guggenberger (1845–1895)

WHAT’S the text to-day for reading

Nature and its being by?

There is effort all the morning

Thro’ the windy sea and sky.

All, intent in earnest grapple

That the All may let it be:

Force, in unity, at variance

With its own diversity.

Force, prevailing into action,

Force, persistent to restrain,

In a twofold, one-souled wrestle

Forging Being’s freedom-chain.

Frolic! say you—when the billow

Tosses back a mane of spray?

No; but haste of earnest effort;

Nature works in guise of play.

Till the balance shall be even

Swings the to and fro of strife;

Till an awful equilibrium

Stills it, beats the Heart of Life.

What’s the text to-day for reading

Nature and its being by?

Effort, effort all the morning,

Thro’ the sea and windy sky.