An Epic of Women and Other Poems

Arthur William Edgar O'Shaughnessy

• Publisher: Library of Alexandria
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9781465659989
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Literature General
• Index: Literature

A COMMON folk I walk among; I speak dull things in their own tongue: But all the while within I hear A song I do not sing for fear— How sweet, how different a thing! And when I come where none are near I open all my heart and sing. I am made one with these indeed, And give them all the love they need— Such love as they would have of me: But in my heart—ah, let it be!— I think of it when none is nigh— There is a love they shall not see; For it I live—for it will die. And oft-times, though I share their joys, And seem to praise them with my voice, Do I not celebrate my own, Ay, down in some far inward zone Of thoughts in which they have no part? Do I not feel—ah, quite alone With all the secret of my heart? O when the shroud of night is spread On these, as Death is on the dead, So that no sight of them shall mar The blessèd rapture of a star— Then I draw forth those thoughts at will; And like the stars those bright thoughts are; And boundless seems the heart they fill: For every one is as a link; And I enchain them as I think; Till present, and remembered bliss, And better, worlds on after this, I have—led on from each to each Athwart the limitless abyss— In some surpassing sphere I reach. I draw a veil across my face Before I come back to the place And dull obscurity of these; I hide my face, and no man sees; I learn to smile a lighter smile, And change, and look just what they please. It is but for a little while.

Table of contents

• AN EPIC OF WOMEN