Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Alfred H. Miles, ed. Women Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907.

By Poems. VII. “Bring Me Word How Tall She Is”

Dora Greenwell (1821–1882)

WITHIN a garden shade,

A garden sweet and dim,

Two happy children played

Together; he was made

For God, and she for him.

Beyond the garden’s shade,

In deserts drear and dim

Two outcast children strayed

Together, he betrayed

By her, and she by him.

Together girl and boy,

They wandered, ne’er apart;

Each wrought to each annoy,

Yet each knew never joy

Save in the other’s heart.

By her so oft deceived;

By him so sore opprest;

They each the other grieved,

Yet each of each was best

Beloved, and still caressed.

And she was in his sight

Found fairest, still his prize,

His constant chief delight;

She raised to him her eyes

That led her not aright,

And ever by his side

A patient huntress ran

Through forests dark and wide,

And still the woman’s pride

And glory was the Man.

When her he would despise,

She kept him captive bound;

Forbidding her to rise,

By many cords and ties

She held him to the ground.

At length, in stature grown,

He stands erect and free;

Yet stands he not alone,

For his beloved would be

Like him she loveth wise, like him she loveth free.

So wins she her desire,

Yet stand they not apart;

For as she doth aspire

He grows, nor stands she higher

Than her Beloved’s heart.