SS(Her Word) One ought not to have to
So much as you and
Care when the birds come round the
To seem to say good-bye;
Or care so much when they come
With whatever it is they sing;
The truth being we are as
Too glad for the one
As we are too sad for the other here —With birds that fill their
But with each other and
And their built or driven nests.
SE
Always — I tell you this they learned—Always at night when they
To the lonely house from far
To lamps unlighted and fire gone gray,
They learned to rattle the lock and
To give whatever might chance to
Warning and time to be off in flight:
And preferring the out- to the in-door night,
They. learned to leave the house-door
Until they had lit the lamp inside.
HE
LE(Her Word)I didn't like the way he went away.
That smile!
It never came of being gay.
Still he smiled- did you see him?- I was sure!
Perhaps because we gave him only
And the wretch knew from that that we were poor.
Perhaps because he let us give
Of seizing from us as he might have seized.
Perhaps he mocked at us for being wed,
Or being very young (and he was
To have a vision of us old and dead).
I wonder how far down the road he's got.
He's watching from the woods as like as not.
HE
ED
She had no saying dark
For the dark pine that
Forever trying the
Of the room where they slept.
The tireless but ineffectual
That with every futile
Made the great tree seem as a little
Before the mystery of glass!
It never had been inside the room,
And only one of the
Was afraid in an oft-repeated
Of what the tree might do.
HE
It was too lonely for her there,
And too wild,
And since there were but two of them,
And no child,
And work was little in the house,
She was free,
And followed where he furrowed field,
Or felled tree.
She rested on a log and
The fresh chips,
With a song only to
On her lips.
And once she went to break a
Of black alder.
She strayed so far she scarcely heard.
When he called her—And didn't answer — didn't speak —Or return.
She stood, and then she ran and
In the fern.
He never found her, though he
Everywhere,
And he asked at her mother's
Was she there.
Sudden and swift and light as
The ties gave,
And he learned of
Besides the grave.
