The Woman SpeaksAs duty bids me go, Would queen it in a cottage home Would bake and brew and sew. Childish tongues that music make To this, my hungry heart, Would play within my kingdom small A sweet, absorbing part. Homely things like linen white Spread out beneath the sun And bleaching on the fragrant grass Were weighty tasks well done. Matter grave___full worthy thought Were casement curtains new, And I should surely loop them back With dainty bands of blue. I who finger tirelessly Wee, lettered keys all day, Should like to press the wrinkles out And fold the wash away. I who watch the columns grow Of profit or of loss, Would till my roses where the winds A honeyed garden cross. Mine the stranger's vapid fare And mine to dwell alone, Who dream of winters glad and long Beside my own hearthstone. Days like jewels on a string Unfold through shining years And all the while my homing soul A secret summons hears. __Maude DeVerse Newton. |
Contemporary Kansas Poetry
Helen Rhoda Hoopes
Page 96
(Kansas City: Joseph D. Havens Company. 1927)
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