Poem by Mathilde Blind

Mourning Women

All veiled in black, with faces hid from sight,
   Crouching together in the jolting cart,
   What forms are these that pass alone, apart,
In abject apathy to life's delight?
The motley crowd, fantastically bright,
   Shifts gorgeous through each dazzling street and mart;
   Only these sisters of the suffering heart
Strike discords in this symphony of light.

Most wretched women! whom your prophet dooms
   To take love's penalties without its prize!
Yes; you shall bear the unborn in your wombs,
   And water dusty death with streaming eyes,
And, wailing, beat your breasts among the tombs;
   But souls ye have none fit for Paradise.

1. The Red Sunsets, 1883 (The twilight heavens are flushed with gathering light)
2. The Music-Lesson
3. The Passing Year
4. Manchester by Night
5. Song (Thou walkest with me as the spirit-light)

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