Poems (Dickinson)/The Wife
For works with similar titles, see The Wife.
For other versions of this work, see She rose to His Requirement—dropt.
XVII.
THE WIFE.
She rose to his requirement, dropped
The playthings of her life
To take the honorable work
Of woman and of wife.
If aught she missed in her new day
Of amplitude, or awe,
Or first prospective, or the gold
In using wore away,
It lay unmentioned, as the sea
Develops pearl and weed,
But only to himself is known
The fathoms they abide.