Part 1

THE ANSWERING VOICE

ONE HUNDRED LOVE LYRICS BY WOMEN

THE ANSWERING VOICE

ONE HUNDRED LOVE LYRICS BY WOMEN

SELECTED BY SARA TEASDALE

AUTHOR OF “RIVERS TO THE SEA,” “HELEN OF TROY, AND OTHER POEMS,” ETC.

BOSTON NEW YORK CHICAGO HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY The Riverside Press Cambridge 1917

COPYRIGHT, 1917, BY SARA TEASDALE FILSINGER

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

_Published September 1917_

THE HAPPY LABOR

OF SELECTING THESE POEMS

I DEDICATE TO

MY SISTER

Ἔρος δαὔτέ μ᾽ ὀ λυσιμέλης δόνει γλυκύπικρον ἀμάχανον ὄρπετον.

“_Ο gods, what love, what yearnings contributed to this._”

PREFATORY NOTE

I have tried to bring together in this book the most beautiful love-lyrics written in English by women since the middle of the last century. During this period, for the first time in the history of English literature, the work of women has compared favorably with that of men; and in no other field have they done such noteworthy work as in poetry. Before this period, for reasons well known to the student of feminism, sincere love poems by women were very rare in England and America. With the exception of Lady Barnard’s “Auld Robin Gray” and a poem by Susanna Blamire, I have found nothing that seemed worthy of inclusion.

In most cases the finest utterance of women poets has been on love, so that this book is, I venture to hope, a golden treasury of lyrics by women.

I have included no long poems, and no translations, and I have avoided poems in which the poet dramatized a man’s feelings rather than her own.

I want to acknowledge very gratefully my indebtedness for counsel and suggestions to Harriet Monroe, Jessie B. Rittenhouse, Louis Untermeyer, Henry L. Mencken, William Stanley Braithwaite, Thomas S. Jones, Jr., John Hall Wheelock, and Thomas B. Mosher. From my husband, Ernst B. Filsinger, I have received unfailing aid and encouragement.

SARA TEASDALE

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks are due the following publishers and authors for permission to include selections from the volumes enumerated below:--

To Mr. Richard G. Badger (Boston) for poems from “April Twilights,” by Willa Sibert Cather, and “The Dancers,” by Edith M. Thomas.

To Messrs. Benziger Brothers (New York) for a poem from “Irish Poems,” by Katharine Tynan.

To Messrs. William Blackwood & Sons (Edinburgh) for a poem from “Songs of the Glens of Antrim,” by Moira O’Neill.

To Mr. Edmund D. Brooks (Minneapolis) for a poem from “A Lark Went Singing,” by Ruth Guthrie Harding.

To Messrs. Burns & Oates (London) for a poem from “Poems,” by Alice Meynell.

To Messrs. Chatto & Windus (London) for poems from “Songs to Save a Soul,” by Irene Rutherford McLeod.

To Messrs. W. B. Conkey Company (Chicago) for a poem from “Poems of Passion,” by Ella Wheeler Wilcox.

To _Country Life_ (London) for a poem from “The Country Life Anthology,” by Margaret Sackville.

To Messrs. George H. Doran Company (New York) for poems from “In Deep Places,” by Amelia Josephine Burr.

To Messrs. Doubleday, Page & Co. (New York) for a poem from “The Far Country,” by Florence Wilkinson.

To Messrs. Duffield & Co. (New York) for poems from “The Book of Love,” by Elsa Barker, and “Gypsy Verses,” by Helen Hay Whitney.

To Messrs. Funk & Wagnalls Company (New York) for a poem from “The Four Winds of Eirinn,” by Ethna Carbery.

To Messrs. Gay & Hancock, Limited (London), for a poem from “Poems of Passion,” by Ella Wheeler Wilcox.

To Mr. S. B. Grundy (Toronto) for a poem from “The Lamp of Poor Souls,” by Marjorie L. C. Pickthall.

To Messrs. Harper & Brothers (New York) for a poem from “Flower o’ the Grass,” by Ada Foster Murray.

To Mr. William Heinemann (London) for poems from “The Golden Threshold,” by Sarojini Naidu, and “India’s Love Lyrics,” by Laurence Hope.

To Messrs. Houghton Mifflin Company (Boston and New York) for poems from “The Sister of the Wind” and “Little Gray Songs from St. Joseph’s,” by Grace Fallow Norton; “The Singing Leaves,” by Josephine Preston Peabody; “Collected Poems,” by Florence Earle Coates; “Happy Ending,” by Louise Imogen Guiney; “A Handful of Lavender,” and “A Quiet Road,” by Lizette Woodworth Reese; “Afternoons of April,” by Grace Hazard Conkling; “The Shoes that Danced,” by Anna Hempstead Branch, and “A Marriage Cycle,” by Alice Freeman Palmer.

To Mr. B. W. Huebsch (New York) for poems from “Songs to Save a Soul,” by Irene Rutherford McLeod.

To Mr. Mitchell Kennerley (New York) for poems from “The Joy o’ Life,” by Theodosia Garrison, and “Interpretations,” by Zoë Akins.

To Messrs. John Lane Company (New York) for poems from “The Lamp of Poor Souls,” by Marjorie L. C. Pickthall; “The Golden Threshold,” by Sarojini Naidu; “India’s Love Lyrics,” by Laurence Hope, and “Poems,” by Rosamund Marriott Watson.

To Mr. John Lane, The Bodley Head (London) for poems from “The Lamp of Poor Souls,” by Marjorie L. Pickthall, and “Poems,” by Rosamund Marriott Watson.

To Messrs. Little, Brown & Co. (Boston) for poems from “Poems” (Second and Third Series), by Emily Dickinson.

To The Macmillan Company (New York) for poems from “Poems,” by Christina Rossetti; “Sword Blades and Poppy Seed,” by Amy Lowell; “Myself and I,” and “Crack o’ Dawn,” by Fannie Stearns Davis; “You and I,” by Harriet Monroe, and “Songs of the Glens of Antrim,” by Moira O’Neill.

To Messrs. Macmillan & Co., Limited (London), for poems from “Poems,” by Christina Rossetti, and “Artemis to Actæon and Other Verse,” by Edith Wharton.

To Mr. Thomas B. Mosher (Portland, Maine) for poems from “An Italian Garden,” by A. Mary F. Robinson; “The Flower from the Ashes and Other Verse,” by Edith M. Thomas, and “A Wayside Lute,” by Lizette Woodworth Reese.

To Grant Richards, Limited (London), for poems from “The Man with a Hammer,” by Anna Wickham, and “Interpretations,” by Zoë Akins.

To Alston Rivers, Limited (London), for a poem from “Selected Poems,” by Nora Chesson.

To Messrs. Charles Scribner’s Sons (New York) for poems from “Artemis to Actæon and Other Verse,” by Edith Wharton; “Poems,” by Alice Meynell; “Songs about Life, Love and Death,” by Anne Reeve Aldrich; “Beyond the Sunset,” by Julia C. R. Dorr; “The Cycle’s Rim,” by Olive Tilford Dargan, and “The Call of Brotherhood,” by Corinne Roosevelt Robinson.

To The Strange Company (San Francisco) for poems from “Poems,” by Nora May French.

To T. Fisher Unwin, Limited (London), for poems from “An Italian Garden,” by A. Mary F. Robinson, and “A London Plane Tree,” by Amy Levy.

To The John C. Winston Company (Philadelphia) for poems from “Factories with Other Lyrics,” by Margaret Widdemer.

And to the editors of _Poetry_ for permission to reprint poems by Helen Dudley, Alice Corbin, and Jean Starr Untermeyer; to _The Independent_ for a poem by Helen Hoyt; to _The Trimmed Lamp_ for a poem by Marguerite Wilkinson; to _McClure’s Magazine_ for a poem by Jessie B. Rittenhouse; to _The Smart Set_ for a poem by Muna Lee; to _The Century_ for poems by Mary Carolyn Davies and Eunice Tietjens; to _The Forum_ for a poem by Edna St. Vincent Millay; to _Much Ado_ for poems by Zoë Akins; and to The Manas Press (Rochester, New York) for a poem by Adelaide Crapsey.

CONTENTS

APOLOGY. _Amy Lowell_ 27

APRIL GHOST, AN. _Lizette Woodworth Reese_ 102

ASHES OF LIFE. _Edna St. Vincent Millay_ 70

AULD ROBIN GRAY. _Anne Barnard_ 104

“BELOVÈD, MY BELOVÈD, WHEN I THINK.” _Elizabeth Barrett Browning_ 26

BIRCH TREE AT LOSCHWITZ, THE. _Amy Levy_ 2

BIRTHDAY, A. _Christina Rossetti_ 17

CARNATIONS. _Margaret Widdemer_ 97

CHOICE. _Emily Dickinson_ 19

“COME BACK TO ME.” _Christina Rossetti_ 69

COMRADES. _Fannie Stearns Davis_ 49

CONNAUGHT LAMENT, A. _Nora Chesson_ 10

“CUTTIN’ RUSHES.” _Moira O’Neill_ 94

CYNIC, THE. _Theodosia Garrison_ 72

DEBTS. _Jessie B. Rittenhouse_ 46

DEEP-SEA PEARL, THE. _Edith M. Thomas_ 103

DIRGE. _Adelaide Crapsey_ 100

“DOUGLAS, DOUGLAS, TENDER AND TRUE.” _Dinah Mulock Craik_ 114

ECSTASY. _Sarojini Naidu_ 35

ENCHANTED SHEEP-FOLD, THE. _Josephine Preston Peabody_ 15

FAREWELL, A. _Harriet Monroe_ 66

FINIS. _Rosamund Marriott Watson_ 107

FOUND. _Josephine Preston Peabody_ 18

FRIENDSHIP AFTER LOVE. _Ella Wheeler Wilcox_ 84

FROM A CAR-WINDOW. _Ruth Guthrie Harding_ 91

GIFTS. _Juliana Horatia Ewing_ 57

“GO FROM ME.” _Elizabeth Barrett Browning_ 64

“GRANDMITHER, THINK NOT I FORGET.” _Willa Sibert Cather_ 108

GREAT MAN, THE. _Eunice Tietjens_ 37

HAWTHORN TREE, THE. _Willa Sibert Cather_ 34

HEART’S COUNTRY, THE. _Florence Wilkinson_ 23

“HOW DO I LOVE THEE?” _Elizabeth Barrett Browning_ 43

I AM THE WIND. _Zoë Akins_ 80

“I HAVE WANDERED TO A SPRING.” _Edna Wahlert McCourt_ 5

I KNOW. _Elsa Barker_ 39

“I LEANED OUT MY WINDOW.” _Jean Ingelow_ 31

“I MUST NOT YIELD.” _Nora May French_ 63

“I SAT AMONG THE GREEN LEAVES.” _Marjorie L. C. Pickthall_ 13

“I WILL NOT GIVE THEE ALL MY HEART.” _Grace Hazard Conkling_ 56

“IF THOU MUST LOVE ME, LET IT BE FOR NOUGHT.” _Elizabeth Barrett Browning_ 41

IN DEEP PLACES. _Amelia Josephine Burr_ 51

IN THE PARK. _Helen Hoyt_ 14

INCANTATION, AN. _Marguerite Wilkinson_ 21

INSUFFICIENCY. _Elizabeth Barrett Browning_ 62

LATE COMER, TO A. _Julia C. R. Dorr_ 96

“LESS THAN THE DUST.” _Laurence Hope_ 119

“LOVE CAME BACK AT FALL O’ DEW.” _Lizette Woodworth Reese_ 90

LOVE IS A TERRIBLE THING. _Grace Fallow Norton_ 8

LOVE ME AT LAST. _Alice Corbin_ 6

LOVE SONG. _Mary Carolyn Davies_ 22

LOVE SONG. _Harriet Monroe_ 59

LOVE’S CHANGE. _Anne Reeve Aldrich_ 67

LYNMOUTH WIDOW, A. _Amelia Josephine Burr_ 118

MAN, THE. _Helen Hay Whitney_ 121

MAN WITH A HAMMER, THE. _Anna Wickham_ 36

“MANY IN AFTERTIMES WILL SAY.” _Christina Rossetti_ 78

MENACE. _Katharine Tynan_ 58

MESSAGE, THE. _Margaret Sackville_ 85

NAME, THE. _Williamina Parrish_ 30

NORAH. _Zoë Akins_ 120

“OH, THE BURDEN, THE BURDEN OF LOVE UNGIVEN.” _Grace Fallow Norton_ 12

OLD SONG, AN. _Fannie Stearns Davis_ 54

OTHER, THE. _Ethna Carbery_ 86

PARTING. _Emily Dickinson_ 53

PARTING. _Alice Freeman Palmer_ 83

PASSER-BY, THE. _Edith M. Thomas_ 111

POSSESSION. _Jean Starr Untermeyer_ 60

RAIN. _Jean Starr Untermeyer_ 29

RAIN, RAIN! _Zoë Akins_ 33

RAINBOW, THE. _Vine Colby_ 88

RED MAY. _A. Mary F. Robinson_ 7

REMINISCENCE, A. _Amy Levy_ 99

RENOUNCEMENT. _Alice Meynell_ 65

REQUIESCAT. _Rosamund Marriott Watson_ 113

REST. _Irene Rutherford McLeod_ 40

RHAPSODY. _Florence Earle Coates_ 24

RISPETTO, I, II, III. _A. Mary F. Robinson_ 75, 76, 77

SEA SONG. _Laurence Hope_ 73

SERVICE. _Anna Hempstead Branch_ 81

SILLER CROWN, THE. _Susanna Blamire_ 92

“SO BEAUTIFUL YOU ARE, INDEED.” _Irene Rutherford McLeod_ 20

SOMEWHERE OR OTHER. _Christina Rossetti_ 1

TAXI, THE. _Amy Lowell_ 44

THAT DAY YOU CAME. _Lizette Woodworth Reese_ 52

TIRED WOMAN, THE. _Anna Wickham_ 42

TO A LATE COMER. _Julia C. R. Dorr_ 96

TO ONE UNKNOWN. _Helen Dudley_ 3

“TO-DAY I WENT AMONG THE MOUNTAIN FOLK.” _Olive Tilford Dargan_ 101

“UNDER DUSKY LAUREL LEAF.” _Margaret Widdemer_ 122

UNFULFILLED. _Corinne Roosevelt Robinson_ 117

UNWEDDED. _Ada Foster Murray_ 116

VOS NON VOBIS. _Edith M. Thomas_ 11

“WHEN I AM DEAD.” _Christina Rossetti_ 112

“WHEN ON THE MARGE OF EVENING.” _Louise Imogen Guiney_ 25

WHEN PLAINTIVELY AND NEAR THE CRICKET SINGS. _Nora May French_ 68

“WHEN WE SHALL BE DUST.” _Muna Lee_ 79

WOMAN’S QUESTION, A. _Adelaide Anne Procter_ 47

“YET FOR ONE ROUNDED MOMENT.” _Edith Wharton_ 61

“YOU SAY THERE IS NO LOVE.” _Grace Fallow Norton_ 45

THE ANSWERING VOICE

SOMEWHERE OR OTHER

Somewhere or other there must surely be The face not seen, the voice not heard, The heart that not yet--never yet--ah, me! Made answer to my word.

Somewhere or other, maybe near or far; Past land and sea, clean out of sight; Beyond the wandering moon, beyond the star That tracks her night by night.

Somewhere or other, maybe far or near; With just a wall, a hedge, between; With just the last leaves of the dying year Fallen on a turf grown green.

_Christina Rossetti_

THE BIRCH TREE AT LOSCHWITZ

At Loschwitz above the city The air is sunny and chill; The birch trees and the pine trees Grow thick upon the hill.

Lone and tall, with silver stem, A birch tree stands apart; The passionate wind of spring-time Stirs in its leafy heart.

I lean against the birch tree, My arms around it twine; It pulses, and leaps, and quivers, Like a human heart to mine.

One moment I stand, then sudden Let loose mine arms that cling: O God! the lonely hillside, The passionate wind of spring!

_Amy Levy_

TO ONE UNKNOWN

I have seen the proudest stars That wander on through space, Even the sun and moon, But not your face.

I have heard the violin, The winds and waves rejoice In endless minstrelsy; Yet not your voice.

I have touched the trillium, Pale flower of the land, Coral, anemone, And not your hand.

I have kissed the shining feet Of Twilight lover-wise, Opened the gates of Dawn-- Oh, not your eyes!

I have dreamed unwonted things, Visions that witches brew, Spoken with images, Never with you.

_Helen Dudley_

“I HAVE WANDERED TO A SPRING”

I have wandered to a spring in the forest green and dim, The sweet quiet stirs about me-- The water twinkles at me, As I stoop to dip my cup, As I stoop to drink--to him.

True, I’m only half in earnest--I touch the cool, wet brim-- He’d laugh if he could see me-- I’m glad he doesn’t see me, As alone with my queer gladness, I stoop to drink--to him.

_Edna Wahlert McCourt_

LOVE ME AT LAST

Love me at last, or if you will not, Leave me; Hard words could never, as these half-words, Grieve me: Love me at last--or leave me.

Love me at last, or let the last word uttered Be but your own; Love me, or leave me--as a cloud, a vapor, Or a bird flown. Love me at last--I am but sliding water Over a stone.

_Alice Corbin_

RED MAY

Out of the window the trees in the Square Are covered with crimson May-- You, that were all of my love and my care, Have broken my heart to-day.

But though I have lost you and though I despair Till even the past looks gray-- Out of the window the trees in the Square Are covered with crimson May.

_A. Mary F. Robinson_

LOVE IS A TERRIBLE THING

I went out to the farthest meadow, I lay down in the deepest shadow;

And I said unto the earth, “Hold me,” And unto the night, “O enfold me,”

And unto the wind petulantly I cried, “You know not for you are free!”

And I begged the little leaves to lean Low and together for a safe screen;

Then to the stars I told my tale: “That is my home-light, there in the vale,

“And Ο, I know that I shall return, But let me lie first mid the unfeeling fern.

“For there is a flame that has blown too near, And there is a name that has grown too dear, And there is a fear....”

And to the still hills and cool earth and far sky I made moan, “The heart in my bosom is not my own!

“O would I were free as the wind on wing; Love is a terrible thing!”

_Grace Fallow Norton_

A CONNAUGHT LAMENT

I will arise and go hence to the west, And dig me a grave where the hill-winds call; But oh, were I dead, were I dust, the fall Of my own love’s footstep would break my rest!

My heart in my bosom is black as a sloe! I heed not cuckoo, nor wren, nor swallow: Like a flying leaf in the sky’s blue hollow The heart in my breast is, that beats so low.

Because of the words your lips have spoken, (O dear black head that I must not follow) My heart is a grave that is stripped and hollow, As ice on the water my heart is broken.

O lips forgetful and kindness fickle, The swallow goes south with you: I go west Where fields are empty and scythes at rest. I am the poppy and you the sickle; My heart is broken within my breast.

_Nora Chesson_

VOS NON VOBIS

There was a garden planned in Spring’s young days, Then Summer held it in her bounteous hand, And many wandered through its blooming ways, But ne’er the one for whom the work was planned. And it was vainly done-- For what are many, if we lack the one?

There was a song that lived within the heart Long time--and then on Music’s wing it strayed! All sing it now, all praise its artless art, But ne’er the one for whom the song was made. And it was vainly done-- For what are many, if we lack the one!

_Edith M. Thomas_

“OH, THE BURDEN, THE BURDEN OF LOVE UNGIVEN”

Oh, the burden, the burden of love ungiven, The weight of laughter unshed, Oh, heavy caresses, unblown tendernesses, Oh, love-words unsung and unsaid.

Oh, the burden, the burden of love unspoken, The cramp of silence close-furled, To lips that would utter, to hands that would scatter Love’s seed on the paths of the world.

Oh, the heavy burden of love ungiven: My breast doth this burden bear; Deep in my bosom the unblown blossom-- My world-love that withers there.

_Grace Fallow Norton_

“I SAT AMONG THE GREEN LEAVES”

I sat among the green leaves, and heard the nuts falling, The blood-red butterflies were gold against the sun, But in between the silence and the sweet birds calling The nuts fell one by one.

Why should they fall and the year but half over? Why should sorrow seek me and I so young and kind? The leaf is on the bough and the dew is on the clover, But the green nuts are falling in the wind.

Oh, I gave my lips away and all my soul behind them. Why should trouble follow and the quick tears start? The little birds may love and fly with only God to mind them, But the green nuts are falling on my heart.

_Marjorie L. C. Pickthall_

IN THE PARK

He whistled soft whistlings I knew were for me, Teasing, endearing. Won’t you look? was what they said, But I did not turn my head. (Only a little I turned my hearing.)

My feet took me by; Straight and evenly they went: As if they had not dreamed what he meant: As if such a curiosity Never were known since the world began As woman wanting man!

My heart led me past and took me away; And yet it was my heart that wanted to stay.

_Helen Hoyt_

THE ENCHANTED SHEEP-FOLD

The hills far-off were blue, blue, The hills at hand were brown; And all the herd-bells called to me As I came by the down.

The briars turned to roses--roses, Ever we stayed to pull A white little rose, and a red little rose, And a lock of silver wool.

Nobody heeded,--none, none; And when True Love came by, They thought him nought but the shepherd-boy. Nobody knew but I!

The trees were feathered like birds, birds; Birds were in every tree. Yet nobody heeded, nobody heard, Nobody knew, save we.

And he is fairer than all,--all. How could a heart go wrong? For his eyes I knew, and his knew mine, Like an old, old song.

_Josephine Preston Peabody_

A BIRTHDAY

My heart is like a singing bird Whose nest is in a watered shoot: My heart is like an apple tree Whose boughs are bent with thickset fruit; My heart is like a rainbow shell That paddles in a halcyon sea; My heart is gladder than all these Because my love is come to me.

Raise me a dais of silk and down; Hang it with vair and purple dyes; Carve it in doves and pomegranates, And peacocks with a hundred eyes; Work it in gold and silver grapes, In leaves and silver fleurs-de-lys; Because the birthday of my life Is come, my love is come to me.

_Christina Rossetti_

FOUND

Oh, when I saw your eyes, So old it was, so new, the hushed surprise: After a long, long search, it came to be, Home folded me.

And looking up, I saw The far, first stars like tapers to my awe, In the dim hands of hid, benignant Powers, At search long hours.

And did they hear us call, That they have found us children after all? And did you know, O Wonderful and Dear, That I was here?

_Josephine Preston Peabody_

CHOICE

Of all the souls that stand create I have elected one. When sense from spirit flies away, And subterfuge is done;

When that which is and that which was Apart, intrinsic, stand, And this brief tragedy of flesh Is shifted like a sand;

When figures show their royal front And mists are carved away,-- Behold the atom I preferred To all the lists of clay!

_Emily Dickinson_

“SO BEAUTIFUL YOU ARE INDEED”

So beautiful you are, indeed, That I am troubled when you come, And though I crave you for my need, Your nearness strikes me blind and dumb.

And when you bring your lips to mine My spirit trembles and escapes, And you and I are turned divine, Bereft of our familiar shapes.