My heart was wide to all the world,
Nor any thought at all I had,
Save that who e'er should pass that way
Should come and enter and be glad.
The cold world on its trampling way
Turned for a while to glance within,
And flouted at my open heart
And all the little loves therein.
If I had shut and barred the door,
And dark and bare the rooms had grown,
If I had left the fires to die,
And all the flowers to fade alone,
And one had come to this locked house
To seek a solace in distress,
Whose were the fault, you jeering ones,
If there were nought but emptiness?
Notes
From WINGS OF THE MORNING, edited by Cicely Fox Smith, published by Elkin Mathews, London, UK, © 1904, p. 82.
One might assume that at this point in her life the poet was feeling underappreciated by her friends and family. Subsequently she took sail from England to reside and explore British Columbia for nine years, basing herself in the harbour town of Victoria.
Charley Noble
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