Page:The poems of Edmund Clarence Stedman, 1908.djvu/65

ALICE OF MONMOUTH IX

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and flame on the dark frontier,

Veiling the hosts embattled there:

Peace, and a boding stillness, here,

Where the wives at home repeat their prayer.

2

The weary August days are long;

The locusts sing a plaintive song,

The cattle miss their master's call

When they see the sunset shadows fall.

The youthful mistress, at even-tide,

Stands by the cedarn wicket's side,

With both hands pushing from the front

Her hair, as those who listen are wont;

Gazing toward the unknown South,

While silent whispers part her mouth:

3

Other work than to wait behind,

Through midnight dew and noonday drouth,—

To wait behind, and fear, and pray!

O, if a soldier's wife could say,—

Kiss thee ere thou meet'st the foe;

Where thou lodgest, worst or best,

Share and soothe thy broken rest!'

—Alas, to stifle her pain, and wait,

This was ever a woman's fate!

But the lonely hours at least may be

Passed a little nearer thee,

And the city thou guardest with thy life

Thou 'lt guard more fondly for holding thy wife."

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