"Striving so piteously": she hung a slate Once near the closet (where her kimonos were And green felt slippers). That she might not err From the best conduct of true wife and mate, That she might grow in strength from date to date As mistress of the wildness harrying her, She wrote thereon (for discipline and spur) Sundry reminders. But these too showed fate: In their brief pathos, changed from day to day, Loving resolves, O often so bizarre, And self-set tasks of homely 'yea and nay,' 'Thuswise and thus' (which she forgot alway), They too showed fate and fate not very far, -- And the handwriting on the wall were they. |