The Woman Who Dared

Honest liberty is the greatest foe to dishonest license.
John Milton.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1869, by EPES SARGENT, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.
University Press: Welch, Bigelow, & Co., Cambridge.
Spring saw my little venture just begun; And then your hospitable message came, Inviting me to taste the strawberries At Strawberry Hill. I went. How long I stayed, Urged by dear friends and the restoring breeze, Let me not say; long enough to complete My rhythmic structure; day by day it grew, And all sweet influences helped its growth. The lawn sloped green and ample till the trees Met on its margin; and the Hudson's tide Rolled beautiful beyond, where purple gleams Fell on the Palisades or touched the hills Of the opposing shore; for all without Was but an emblem of the symmetry I found within, where love held perfect sway, With taste and beauty and domestic peace For its allies.
We do not praise the rose, Since all who see it know it is the rose; And so, dear lady, praise of thee would seem, To all who know thee, quite superfluous. But if from any of these thoughts be shed Aught of the fragrance and the hue of truth, To thee I dedicate the transient flower In which the eternal beauty reappears; Knowing, should poison mingle with the sweet, Thou, like the eclectic bee, with instinct sure, Wilt take the good alone, and leave the bad.
Blest Power that canst transfigure common things, And, like the sun, make the clod burst in bloom,— Unseal the fount so mute this many a day, And help me sing of Linda! Why of her, Since she would shrink with manifest recoil, Knew she that deeds of hers were made a theme For measured verse? Why leave the garden flowers To fix the eye on one poor violet That on the solitary grove sheds fragrance? Themes are enough, that court a wide regard, And prompt a strenuous flight; and yet from all, My thoughts come back to Linda. Let me spare, As best I may, her modest privacy, While under Fancy's not inapt disguise I give substantial truth, and deal with no Unreal beings or fantastic facts: Bear witness to it, Linda!