Women have no wilderness in them, They are provident instead, Content in the tight hot cell of their hearts To eat dusty bread. They do not see cattle cropping red winter grass, They do not hear Snow water going down under culverts Shallow and clear. They wait, when they should turn to journeys, They stiffen, when they should bend. They use against themselves that benevolence To which no man is friend. They cannot think of so many crops to a field Or of clean wood cleft by an axe. Their love is an eager meaninglessness Too tense or too lax. They hear in any whisper that speaks to them A shout and a cry. As like as not, when they take life over their door-sill They should let it go by. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...DEATH (1) by MAXWELL BODENHEIM SONNETS FROM THE PORTUGUESE: 26 by ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING THE POET AND HIS SONG by PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR TORTOISE SHELL by DAVID HERBERT LAWRENCE THE DARK HILLS by EDWIN ARLINGTON ROBINSON INDIFFERENCE by GEOFFREY ANKETELL STUDDERT-KENNEDY |