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| I AM the Woman, ark of the law and its breaker, | |
| Who chastened her steps and taught her knees to be meek, | |
| Bridled and bitted her heart and humbled her cheek, | |
| Parcelled her will, and cried “Take more!” to the taker, | |
| Shunned what they told her to shun, sought what they bade her seek, | 5 |
| Locked up her mouth from scornful speaking: now it is open to speak. | |
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| I am she that is terribly fashioned, the creature | |
| Wrought in God’s perilous mood, in His unsafe hour. | |
| The morning star was mute, beholding my feature, | |
| Seeing the rapture I was, the shame, and the power, | 10 |
| Scared at my manifold meaning; he heard me call | |
| “O fairest among ten thousand, acceptable brother!” | |
| And he answered not, for doubt; till he saw me crawl | |
| And whisper down to the secret worm, “O mother | |
| Be not wroth in the ancient house; thy daughter forgets not at all!” | 15 |
I am the Woman, fle r away, | |
| Soft withdrawer back from the maddened mate, | |
| Lurer inward and down to the gates of day | |
| And crier there in the gate, | |
| “What shall I give for thee, wild one, say! | 20 |
| The long, slow rapture and patient anguish of life, | |
| Or art thou minded a swifter way? | |
| Ask if thou canst, the gold, but oh if thou must, | |
| Good is the shining dross, lovely the dust! | |
| Look at me, I am the Woman, harlot and heavenly wife; | 25 |
| Tell me thy price, be unashamed; I will assuredly pay!” | |
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| I am also the Mother: of two that I bore | |
| I comfort and feed the slayer, feed and comfort the slain. | |
| Did they number my daughters and sons? I am mother of more! | |
| Many a head they marked not, here in my bosom has lain, | 30 |
| Babbling with unborn lips in a tongue to be, | |
| Far, incredible matters, all familiar to me. | |
| Still would the man come whispering, “Wife!” but many a time my breast | |
| Took him not as a husband: I soothed him and laid him to rest | |
| Even as the babe of my body, and knew him for such. | 35 |
| My mouth is open to speak, that was dumb too much! | |
| I say to you I am the Mother; and under the sword | |
| Which flamed each way to harry us forth from the Lord, | |
| I saw Him young at the portal, weeping and staying the rod, | |
| And I, even I was His mother, and I yearned as the mother of God. | 40 |
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| I am also the Spirit. The Sisters laughed | |
| When I sat with them dumb in the portals, over my lamp, | |
| Half asleep in the doors: for my gown was raught | |
| Off at the shoulder to shield from the wind and the rain | |
| The wick I tended against the mysterious hour | 45 |
| When the Silent City of Being should ring with song, | |
| As the Lord came in with Life to the marriage bower. | |
| “Look!” laughed the elder Sisters; and crimson with shame | |
| I hid my breast away from the rosy flame. | |
| “Ah!” cried the leaning Sisters, pointing, doing me wrong, | 50 |
| “Do you see?” laughed the wanton Sisters, “She will get her lover ere long!” | |
| And it was but a little while till unto my need | |
| He was given indeed, | |
| And we walked where waxing world after world went by; | |
| And I said to my lover, “Let us begone, | 55 |
| “Oh, let us begone, and try | |
| “Which of them all the fairest to dwell in is, | |
| “Which is the place for us, our desirable clime!” | |
| But he said, “They are only the huts and the little villages, | |
| Pleasant to go and lodge in rudely over the vintage-time!” | 60 |
| Scornfully spake he, being unwise, | |
| Being flushed at heart because of our walking together. | |
| But I was mute with passionate prophecies; | |
| My heart went veiled and faint in the golden weather, | |
| While universe drifted by after still universe. | 65 |
| Then I cried, “Alas, we must hasten and lodge therein, | |
| One after one, and in every star that they shed! | |
| A dark and a weary thing is come on our head— | |
| To search obedience out in the bosom of sin, | |
| To listen deep for love when thunders the curse; | 70 |
| For O my love, behold where the Lord hath planted | |
| In every star in the midst His dangerous Tree! | |
| Still I must pluck thereof and bring unto thee, | |
| Saying, “The coolness for which all night we have panted; | |
| Taste of the goodly thing, I have tasted first!” | 75 |
| Bringing us noway coolness, but burning thirst, | |
| Giving us noway peace, but implacable strife, | |
| Loosing upon us the wounding joy and the wasting sorrow of life! | |
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| I am the Woman, ark of the Law and sacred arm to upbear it, | |
| Heathen trumpet to overthrow and idolatrous sword to shear it: | 80 |
| Yea, she whose arm was round the neck of the morning star at song, | |
| Is she who kneeleth now in the dust and cries at the secret door, | |
| “Open to me, O sleeping mother! The gate is heavy and strong. | |
| “Open to me, I am come at last; be wroth with thy child no more. | |
| “Let me lie down with thee there in the dark, and be slothful with thee as before!” | 85 |
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