Poems (Rossetti, 1901)/A Fisher-Wife

by Christina Georgina Rossetti

A FISHER-WIFE.

THE soonest mended, nothing said;
 And help may rise from east or west
But my two hands are lumps of lead,
 My heart sits leaden in my breast.

O north wind swoop not from the north,
 O south wind linger in the south,
Oh come not raving raging forth,
 To bring my heart into my mouth;

For I've a husband out at sea,
 Afloat on feeble planks of wood;
He does not know what fear may be;
 I would have told him if I could.

I would have locked him in my arms,
 I would have hid him in my heart;
For oh! the waves are fraught with harms.
 And he and I so far apart.