“Child no longer. I love, and I am Woman!”
When first thy face blent with my youthful dreaming,
I loved thee fondly, madly, e’en as now;
Yet to a mossy bank, with careless seeming,
I pressed a woman’s heart, a girl’s young brow.
I did not dream that thou couldst ever love me,
One that was fondled as a very child!
But as the glorious stars that beamed above me,
I worshiped thee, with love as deep and wild.
Then bending low, thy face was by my pillow: