AURORA LEIGH.
‘Than even for harder service.’ So I read
Your book, Aurora, for an hour, that day:
I kept its pauses, marked its emphasis;
My voice, empaled upon rhyme’s golden hooks,
Not once would writhe, nor quiver, nor revolt;
I read on calmly,—calmly shut it up,
Observing, ‘There’s some merit in the book.
‘And yet the merit in’t is thrown away
‘As chances still with women, if we write
‘Or write not: we want string to tie our flowers,
‘So drop them as we walk, which serves to show
‘The way we went. Good morning, Mister Leigh;
‘You’ll find another reader the next time.
‘A woman who does better than to love,
‘I hate; she will do nothing very well:
‘Male poets are preferable, tiring less
‘And teaching more.’ I triumphed o’er you both,
And left him.
‘When I saw him afterward,
I had read your shameful letter, and my heart.
He came with health recovered, strong though pale,
Lord Howe and he, a courteous pair of friends,
To say what men dare say to women, when
Their debtors. But I stopped them with a word;
And proved I had never trodden such a road,
To carry so much dirt upon my shoe.
Then, putting into it something of disdain,
I asked forsooth his pardon, and my own,
For having done no better than to love,
And that, not wisely,—though ’twas long ago,
Your book, Aurora, for an hour, that day:
I kept its pauses, marked its emphasis;
My voice, empaled upon rhyme’s golden hooks,
Not once would writhe, nor quiver, nor revolt;
I read on calmly,—calmly shut it up,
Observing, ‘There’s some merit in the book.
‘And yet the merit in’t is thrown away
‘As chances still with women, if we write
‘Or write not: we want string to tie our flowers,
‘So drop them as we walk, which serves to show
‘The way we went. Good morning, Mister Leigh;
‘You’ll find another reader the next time.
‘A woman who does better than to love,
‘I hate; she will do nothing very well:
‘Male poets are preferable, tiring less
‘And teaching more.’ I triumphed o’er you both,
And left him.
‘When I saw him afterward,
I had read your shameful letter, and my heart.
He came with health recovered, strong though pale,
Lord Howe and he, a courteous pair of friends,
To say what men dare say to women, when
Their debtors. But I stopped them with a word;
And proved I had never trodden such a road,
To carry so much dirt upon my shoe.
Then, putting into it something of disdain,
I asked forsooth his pardon, and my own,
For having done no better than to love,
And that, not wisely,—though ’twas long ago,
