The Shirley Letters from California Mines in 1851-52

MP3 Audio CD. The Shirley Letters from California Mines in 1851-52

"ALONE"

A REMINISCENCE OF MARGARET FULLER OSSOLI

By SHIRLEY LEE


Beneath thy spirit-eyes I stand alone,
Nor deem thee of the dead
As mournfully I gaze, sad-hearted one,
On that calm brow and head.

The starry crown of genius could not save
From woman's gift of grief;
The moaning billows o'er thy breast that have
Emblem thy life too brief.

O Margaret! my weak heart-pulses shiver
In wordless woe for thee,
Thy wasted tenderness, thy love that never
Might its fruition see.

Thou hadst no youth, O wondrous child! no youth
Haloed thy later life;
Sternly thy girl heart sought its solemn truth
In battle and in strife.

In thine own Northern home didst thou not live
"Alone," always "alone"?
What heart to thine uplifted heart could give
Ever an answering tone?

In suffering, labor, strife, we saw thee stand
With lips that would not moan,
While shone thy regal brow and eyes with grand
Aspirings all thine own.

At last among thy Romans thou didst find
A shrine for that large heart;
It understood thee not, the Northern mind,
But coldly shrunk apart,

When those pale lips--from whence, an hour agone,
Flew out, like rifted light,
Winged words of wit--murmured their wailed "Alone"
To the pitying midnight.