The Heart of a Woman

From the Rock Island Argus, March 31, 1915.

Laughter and sunshine and story,
    Beauty and sweetness and trust;
Courage and grandeur and glory,
    Shadow and darkness and dust—
All things of light and of loving
    The heart of a woman contains,
Grand virtues, great sweetness and sorrows,
    Peace, happiness, passion and pains.

One moment it blooms like a garden
    With every sweet blossom life knows,
A vale of the peace of the ages,
    A pathway through violet and rose—
And then o’er the darkness and doubting
    The wings of a storm sweep the skies,
And the garden is tossed in the tempest,
    And the vale in a dark ruin lies.

One moment so pitiful, tender,
    And then all the rage and the hate
Fill its beating with infinite shadows
    As it raves against infinite fate.
One moment so true and so loving,
    So clinging and gentle and sweet,
All the song of life sweeping its gamut,
    Every blossom of life in its beat.

And yet, with all changing and travail,
    All sorrow and aching and cross,
All sunshine today, then tomorrow
    Cast down in the grief of some loss;
And yet with its battle and thunder,
    Its April of showers and shine,
God give me the heart of a woman
    And take all the rest that is mine!