What issued from that schooling? That I'll write Brief as the dot-and-dash that spells "He's dead" Upon the wire for one who waits in dread -- Brief -- for at best I shall not sleep tonight: My watchfulness, too anxious, alert, and sly, Became suspicion of every act and word, And many a motion, as natural as a bird, I tortured to a hint of brain awry. My lessoning, even where my judgment kept Its finger on her perilous part, became, In its long, sad futility, a flame That chafed, that gnawed me when I waked or slept. Thus sometimes (name me by the brutal name!) I chided, I rebuked her -- and she wept. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...A CHILD'S EVENING PRAYER by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE TO JOHN KEATS; SONNET by AMY LOWELL A DEAD HARVEST (IN KENSINGTON GARDENS) by ALICE MEYNELL SONG OF MYSELF by WALT WHITMAN BOTHWELL: PART 2 by WILLIAM EDMONSTOUNE AYTOUN VERSES ON MRS. ROWE by ANNA LETITIA BARBAULD |