Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE HUNTER'S WIFE by PHOEBE CARY

Poet Analysis

First Line: MY HEAD IS SICK AND MY HEART IS FAINT
Last Line: AS BEATS IN MY HEART TO-DAY!
Subject(s): LOVE - COMPLAINTS;
MY head is sick and my heart is faint,
I am wearied out with my own complaint.
Answer me, come to me, then;
For, lo! I have pleaded by everything
My brain could dream, or my lips could sing.
I have called you lover, and called you king,
And man of the race of men!

Come to me glad, and I will be glad;
But if you are weary, or if you are sad,
I will be patient and meek,
Nor word, nor smile will I seem to crave;
But I'll sit and wait, like an Eastern slave,
Or wife, in the lodge of an Indian brave,
In silence, till you speak.

Come, for the power of life and death
Hangs for me on the lightest breath
Of the lips that I believe;
Only pause by the cooling lake,
Till your weary mule her thirst shall slake;
'T were a fearful thing if a heart should break
And you held its sweet reprieve!

Sleep lightly under the loving moon;
Rise with the morning, and ride till noon;
Ride till the stars are above!

And as you distance the mountain herds,
And shame the flight of the summer birds,
Say softly over the tenderest words
The poets have sung of love.

You will come -- you are coming -- a thousand miles
Away, I can see you press through the aisles
Of the forest, cool and gray;
And my lips shall be dumb till our lips have met,
For never skill of a mortal yet,
To mortal words such music set,
As beats in my heart to-day!



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