Fortune and Men's Eyes
Peabody Josephine Preston
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- MARY: Well, headsman?...
- You ask not why I came here, Clouded Brow,
- Will you not ask me why I stay? No word?
- O blind, come lead the blind! For I, I too
- Lack sight and every sense to linger here
- And make me an intruder, where I once
- Was welcome, oh most welcome, as I dreamed!
- Look on me, then. I do confess, I have
- Too often preened my feathers in the sun,
- And thought to rule a little, by my wit.
- I have been spendthrift with men's offerings
- To use them like a nosegay,--tear apart,
- Petal by petal, leaf by leaf, until
- I found the heart all bare, the curious heart
- I longed to see, for once, and cast away.
- And so, at first, with you.... Ah, now I think
- You're wise. There's nought so fair, so ... curious,
- So precious-rare to find, as honesty.
- 'Twas all a child's play then; a counting-off
- Of petals. Now I know.... But ask me why
- I come unheralded, and in a mist
- Of circumstance and strangeness. Listen, love,--
- Well then, dead love, if you will have it so.
- I have been cunning cruel,--what you will:
- And yet the days of late have seemed too long
- Even for summer! Something called me here.
- And so I flung my pride away and came,--
- A very woman for my foolishness!--
- To say once more, -- to say ...
- I am come back; a foot-worn runaway,
- Like any braggart boy. Let me sit down
- And take Love's horn-book in my hands again,
- And learn from the beginning; -- by the rod,
- If you will scourge me, love! Come, come, forgive.
- I am not wont to sue: and yet to-day
- I am your suppliant, I am your servant,
- Your link-boy, yes, your minstrel: so, -- wilt hear?
