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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
TEMPERAMENT, by FRANCES BARBER
First Line: A quiet little person lived
Last Line: Thrown bluntly at his feet.
Subject(s): Wellesley College
First Line: A quiet little person lived
Last Line: Thrown bluntly at his feet.
Subject(s): Wellesley College
A QUIET little person lived
And went her quiet way
Through the unchanging tediousness
Of common every day.
She tended to the many things
That make a house a home
Instead of an abiding place
Nor cared if one should come
Or if she sat each night alone
By her brightly burning fire
If but upon her mantelpiece
Some flower matched desire.
And though on summer nights she roamed
Beyond her garden gate,
It needed no more than a star
To stir her and elate.
Until the shifting years passed by,
Nor changed her in the least,
Nor ever took away from her
The imaginary feast.
For her two eyes were glowing lamps
And back of them there was
A certain kind of temperament
Which only that one has
Who in his own soul finds enough
To make his life complete,
Nor wants his joy in packages
Thrown bluntly at his feet.
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