Poem by Elinor Wylie

* * *

In our content, before the autumn came
To shower sallow droppings on the mould,
Sometimes you have permitted me to fold
Your grief in swaddling-bands, and smile to name
Yourself my infant, with an infant's claim
To utmost adoration as of old,
Suckled with kindness, fondled from the cold,
And loved beyond philosophy or shame.

I dreamt I was the mother of a son
Who had deserved a manger for a crib;
Torn from your body, furbished from your rib,
I am the daughter of your skeleton,
Born of your bitter and excessive pain:
I shall not dream you are my child again.

1. Upon Your Heart, Which Is.the Heart of All
2. The Little Beauty That I Was Allowed
3. What Other Name Had Half Expressed the Whole
4. The Broken Man
5. One Person

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