What issued from that schooling? That I'll write Brief as the dot-and-dash that spells "He's dead" Upon the wire for one who waits in dread -- Brief -- for at best I shall not sleep tonight: My watchfulness, too anxious, alert, and sly, Became suspicion of every act and word, And many a motion, as natural as a bird, I tortured to a hint of brain awry. My lessoning, even where my judgment kept Its finger on her perilous part, became, In its long, sad futility, a flame That chafed, that gnawed me when I waked or slept. Thus sometimes (name me by the brutal name!) I chided, I rebuked her -- and she wept. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...IN A BREATH; TO THE WILLIAMSON BROTHERS by CARL SANDBURG EASTER HYMN by GEORGE SANTAYANA THE LITTLE GIRL LOST, FR. SONGS OF EXPERIENCE by WILLIAM BLAKE THE TWO MYSTERIES by MARY ELIZABETH MAPES DODGE ROBIN ADAIR by CAROLINE KEPPEL THE DOUBLE-HEADED SNAKE OF NEWBURY by JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER |