Poem by Alice Meynell

Surmise

      THE TRACK OF A HUMAN MOOD

Not wish, nor fear, nor quite expectancy
    Is that vague spirit Surmise,
That wanderer, that wonderer, whom we see
    Within each other's eyes;

And yet not often. For she flits away,
    Fitful as infant thought,
Visitant at a venture, hope at play,
    Unversed in facts, untaught.

In "the wide fields of possibility"
    Surmise, conjecturing,
Makes little trials, incredulous, that flee
    Abroad on random wing.

One day this inarticulate shall find speech,
    This hoverer seize our breath.
Surmise shall close with man—with all, with each—
In her own sovereign hour, the moments of our death.

1. Free Will
2. To Silence
3. The Two Questions
4. Unlinked
5. To Tintoretto in Venice

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