The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Village Wife's Lament, by Maurice Hewlett

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Title: The Village Wife's Lament

Author: Maurice Hewlett

Release Date: April 10, 2007 [EBook #21025]

Language: English

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THE VILLAGE WIFE'S LAMENT

POETICAL WORKS OF MAURICE HEWLETT

A Masque of Dead Florentines
Pan and the Young Shepherd: a pastoral
Artemision
The Agonists: a trilogy
Helen Redeemed and other Poems
Gai Saber: Tales and Songs
The Song of the Plow
Peridore and Paravail
The Village Wife's Lament

THE VILLAGE WIFE'S LAMENT

BY

MAURICE HEWLETT

LONDON

MARTIN SECKER
LONDON: MARTIN SECKER (LTD) 1918

I

i

O what is this you've done to me,
Or what have I done,
That bare should be our fair roof-tree,
And I all alone?
'Tis worse than widow I become
More than desolate,
To face a worse than empty home
Without child or mate.

'Twas not my strife askt him his life
When it was but begun,
Nor mine, I was a new-made wife
And now I am none;
Nor mine that many a sapless ghost
Wails in sorrow-fare--
But this does cost my pride the most,
That bloodshedding to share.

Image of streaming eyes, tear-gleaming,
Of women foiled and defeat,
I am like Christ shockt out of dreaming,
Showing His hands and feet;
Showing His feet and hands to God,
Saying, "Are these in vain?
For men I have trod the sorrowful road,
And by them I am slain."

Seeing I have a breast in common,
I must share in that shame,
Since from the womb of some poor woman
Each evil one came--
Every hot and blundering thought,
Every hag-rid will,
And every haut king pride-distraught
That drove men out to kill.

A woman's womb did fashion him,
Her bosom was his nurse,
And many women's eyes