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<div style="background:#fff;border:#bbb dashed 1px;padding:5px"><a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=353937" style="color:#000;text-decoration:none"><div style="margin:10px 0"><strong>A Destiny</strong></div><div style="margin:10px 0">I.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">THERE was a lady, who had early wed <br>One whom she saw and lov'd in her bright youth, <br>When life was yet untried--and when he said <br>He, too, lov'd her, he spoke no more than truth; <br>He lov'd as well as baser natures can,-- <br>But a mean heart and soul were in that man. <br>II.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And they dwelt happily, if happy be <br>Not with harsh words to breed unnatural strife: <br>The cold world's Argus-watching failed to see <br>The flaw that dimm'd the lustre of their life; <br>Save that he seem'd tyrannical, tho' gay, <br>Restless and selfish in his love of sway. <br>III.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The calm of conscious power was not in him; <br>But rather, struggling into broader light, <br>The secret sense, they feel, however dim, <br>Whose chance position gives a sort of right <br>(As from the height of a prescriptive throne,) <br>To govern natures nobler than their own. <br>IV.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And as her youth waned slowly on, there fell <br>A nameless shadow on that lady's heart; <br>And those she lov'd the best (and she lov'd well), <br>Had of her confidence nor share, nor part; <br>Her thoughts lay folded from Life's lessening light, <br>Like the sweet flowers which close themselves at night. <br>V.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And men began to whisper evil things <br>Against the honour of her wedded mate; <br>That which had pass'd for youth's wild wanderings, <br>Showed more suspicious in his settled state; <br>Until at length,--he stood, at some chance game, <br>Discover'd,--branded with a Cheater's name. <br>VI.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">Out, and away he slunk, with felon air; <br>Then, calling to him one who was his friend, <br>Bid him to that unblemish'd wife repair <br>And tell her what had chanced, and what the end; <br>How they must leave the country of their birth, <br>And hide,--in some more distant spot of earth. <br>VII.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">It was a coward's thought: he could not bear <br>Himself to be narrator of his shame; <br>He that had trampled oft, now felt in fear <br>Of her who still must keep his blighted name,-- <br>And shrank in fancy from that steadfast eye, <br>The window to a soul so pure and high. <br>VIII.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">She heard it. O'er her brow there pass'd a flush <br>Of sunset red; and then so white a hue, <br>So deadly pale, it seem'd as if no blush <br>Through that transparent cheek should shine anew; <br>As if the blood had frozen in that hour, <br>And her check'd pulse for ever lost its power. <br>IX.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And twice and once did she essay to speak; <br>And with a gesture almost of command, <br>(Though in its motion it was deadly weak) <br>She faintly lifted up her graceful hand:-- <br>But then her soul came back to her, strength woke, <br>And with a low but even voice, she spoke: <br>X.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">'Go! say to him who dream'd of other chance, <br>That HERE none sit in judgment on his sin; <br>That to his door the world's scorn may advance, <br>And cloud his path, but doth not enter in. <br>Here dwell his Own: to share, to soothe disgrace;'-- <br>Which having said, she cover'd up her face, <br>XI.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And, as he left her, sank in bitter prayer,-- <br>If prayer that may be term'd which comes to all, <br>That sudden gushing of our vain despair, <br>When none but God can hear or heed our call; <br>And the wreck'd soul feels, in its helpless hour, <br>Where only dwells full mercy with full power. <br>XII.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And he came home, a crush'd and humbled wretch; <br>Whom when she saw, she but this comfort found, <br>In her kind arms that shrinking form to catch, <br>Which tenderly about his neck she wound, <br>As in the first proud days of love and trust, <br>E'er yet his reckless head was bow'd in dust! <br>XIII.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And they departed to a distant shore; <br>But wheresoe'er they dwelt, however lone, <br>Shame, like a marble statue at his door, <br>Flung her 'thwart shadow o'er his threshold stone; <br>Still darken'd all their daylight hours, and kept <br>Cold watch above them even while they slept. <br>XIV.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And there was no more love between those two! <br>It died not in the shock of that dark hour-- <br>Such shocks destroy not love, whose purple hue <br>Fades rather, like some autumn-wither'd flower, <br>Which day by day along the ruin'd walk <br>We see--then miss it from the sapless stalk; <br>XV.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And, while it fadeth, oft with gentle hand <br>Doth memory turn to life's dark journal-book; <br>And, passing foul misdeeds, intently stand <br>On its first page of glorious hope to look; <br>Weeping she reads,--and, seeing all so fair, <br>Pleads hard for what we are, by what we were! <br>XVI.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">So through that hour love lived; and, though in part <br>'Twas one of most unutterable pain, <br>It had its sweetness too, and told her heart <br>All she could do, and all she could sustain; <br>The holy love of woman buoy'd her up, <br>And God gave strength to drink the bitter cup. <br>XVII.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But when, as days crept on, she saw him still <br>Less grateful than abash'd beneath her eye, <br>And studying not how best to banish ill, <br>But what he might conceal and what deny, <br>Her soul revolted, and conceived a scorn, <br>Sinful and harsh, although of virtue born. <br>XVIII.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And oft she pray'd, with earnestness and pain, <br>That heaven would bid that proud contempt depart, <br>And wept to find the prayer and effort vain, <br>Though it was breathed in agony of heart-- <br>Vain as the murmur of 'Thy will be done,' <br>Breathed by the death-bed of an only son! <br>XIX.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">For when her children err'd (as children will) <br>A sickening terror smote her heart with fears, <br>And scarce she measured the degree of ill, <br>Or made indulgence for their tender years; <br>They were HIS children; and the chance of shame <br>Kept watch for those who bore that father's name. <br>XX.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And, thinking thus, reproof would take a tone <br>So strangely passionate, severe, and wild-- <br>So deeply alter'd,--so unlike her own,-- <br>It stung and terrified her startled child, <br>Whose innate sense of justice seem'd to show <br>Him over-chidden, being chidden so. <br>XXI.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And then a gush of mother's love would swell <br>Her grieving heart,--and she would fondly press <br>The young offending head she loved so well <br>Close to her own, with many a soft caress, <br>Whose reconciling sweetness all in vain <br>Stopp'd her boy's tears, while her's ran down like rain. <br>XXII.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">The world (which still pronounces from the show <br>Of outward things) whisper'd and talk'd of this; <br>Erring and obstinate, its crowds ne'er know <br>How much in judging they may judge amiss, <br>Or how much agony and broken peace <br>May lie beneath the seeming of caprice! <br>XXIII.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But he, her husband (for he was not dull), <br>Saw through these workings of a troubled mind, <br>And, that her cup of sorrow might be full, <br>He taunted her with words and looks unkind, <br>Which with a patient bowing of the heart <br>She took--like one resolved to do her part. <br>XXIV.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And years stole on (for years go by like days, <br>Leaving but scatter'd hours to mark their course), <br>And brightness faded from that lady's gaze, <br>And her cheek hollow'd, and her step lost force, <br>Till it was plain to even a careless eye <br>That she was doom'd, before her time, to die. <br>XXV.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">She died, as she had lived, her secret soul <br>Shut from the sweet communion of true friends; <br>Her words, though not her thoughts, she could control, <br>And still with calm respect his name she blends: <br>They all stood round her whom she call'd her Own, <br>And saw her die--yet was that death-bed lone! <br>XXVI.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">But in its darkest hour her thoughts were stirr'd, <br>And something falter'd from her dying tongue, <br>Mournful and tender--half pronounced, half heard-- <br>For which he was too base--his boys too young; <br>So whatso'er the warning faintly given, <br>It lay between her parting soul and Heaven. <br>XXVII.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">He wept for her--ah! who would not have wept <br>To see that worn face in its pallid shroud, <br>Proving how much she suffer'd ere she slept <br>At peace for ever! Violent and loud <br>Was the outbreaking of his sudden grief, <br>And, like all feelings in that heart, 'twas brief. <br>XXVIII.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And something strange pass'd o'er his soul instead, <br>When thinking upon her whom he had lost, <br>Almost like a relief that she was dead:-- <br>She, whose high nature scorn'd his fault the most, <br>And show'd it least,--had vanish'd from the earth, <br>And none could check his sin, or shame his mirth. <br>XXIX.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">So he return'd to many an evil way, <br>Like one who strays when guiding light is gone; <br>And mid the profligate, miscall'd 'the gay,' <br>Crept to a slippery place--his tale half known-- <br>Ill look'd on, yet endured--the useful tool <br>Of every bolder knave, or richer fool. <br>XXX.</div><div style="margin:10px 0">And his two sons in careless beauty grew, <br>Like wild-flowers in his path: he mark'd them not, <br>Nor reck'd he what they needed, learnt, or knew, <br>Or what might be on earth their future lot; <br>But they died young--which is a thought of rest! <br>Unscorn'd, untempted, undefiled--so best.</div><div style="margin:10px 0"><br /></a><br />poem by <a href="http://en.citatepedia.ro/by.php?a=Caroline+Elizabeth+Sarah+Norton">Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton</a><div class=q>
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<script type="text/javascript" src="//s7.addthis.com/js/300/addthis_widget.js#pubid=citatepedia" async="async"></script><div style="display:inline-block" class="addthis_sharing_toolbox" data-url="http://en.citatepedia.ro/comments.php?id=353937" data-title="A Destiny de Caroline Elizabeth Sarah Norton" data-description="I.

THERE was a lady, who had early wed 
One whom she saw and lov'd in her bright youth, 
When life was yet untried--and when he said 
He, too, lov'd her, he spoke no more than truth; 
He lov'd as well as baser natures can,-- 
But a mean heart and..."></div>
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