Poem by Edith Nesbit

Out of Hope

IF through the rain and wind along the street,
    Where the wet stone reflects the flickering gas,
Some weeping autumn night your wandering feet,
    Lost in a lonely world, should chance to pass;
If, passing many doors that welcomed you
    When robes of good renown your dear name wore,
Your feet again, as once they used to do,
            Paused at my door,--


Should I shut fast my heart for the old ill,
    The old wrong done, the sorrow and the sin?
Or--only knowing that I love you still--
    Should I throw wide the door and let you in?
Come--with your sins--my tears shall wash them all,
    The heart you broke still waits to be your home.
Yet if you came... Oh! lost beyond recall
            You never more will come.

1. To One Who Pleaded for Candour in Love
2. Love and Knowledge
3. The Stolen God
4. The Eternal
5. A Last Appeal

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