The World's Way Poem by Cicely Fox Smith

My heart was wide to all the world,
Nor any thought at all I had,
Save that who e'er should pass that way
Should come and enter and be glad.
The cold world on its trampling way
Turned for a while to glance within,
And flouted at my open heart
And all the little loves therein.

If I had shut and barred the door,
And dark and bare the rooms had grown,
If I had left the fires to die,
And all the flowers to fade alone,
And one had come to this locked house
To seek a solace in distress,
Whose were the fault, you jeering ones,
If there were nought but emptiness?