A book of women's verse

by Unknown

I asked help of that which to help had no power,

I sought love where love was utterly unknown.

Idolater, I kneeled to an idol cut in rock,

I might have slashed my flesh and drawn my heart’s best blood,

The Granite God had felt no tenderness, no shock;

My Baal had not seen nor heard nor understood.

In dark remorse I rose. I rose in darker shame,

Self-condemned I withdrew to an exile from my kind;

A solitude I sought where mortal never came,

Hoping in its wilds forgetfulness to find.