Alice Duer Miller Poems

I
I have loved England, dearly and deeply,
Since that first morning, shining and pure,
The white cliffs of Dover I saw rising steeply
...

THERE is a willow grows beside a pool;
Its long gray branches sweep the marble rim;
And from those waters shadowy and cool,
The stars shine, large and dim.
...

At dead of night about the dying fire
They told a story how the dead appear;
And men, grown still with fear,
Forgot their old desire
...

I WANTED you to come to-day­
Or so I told you in my letter­
And yet, if you had stayed away,
I should have liked you so much better.
...

Her old love in tears and silence had been building her a palace
Ringed by moats and flanked with towers, he had set it on a hill
...

COURAGE to ask of love neither sign nor token,
Wisdom to wait, silence and faith are better;
Fear, not alone lest the bond be some day broken,
But, that love, too desperately dear, become a fetter.
...

AN equal love between a man and woman,
This is the only charm to set us free,
And this the only omen
Of immortality.
...

IN this still cloister where the roses grow
Waist-high between the arches and the well,
You would have walked a thousand years ago,
So faithful, who are now so infidel;
...

YES, you have guessed it. Do not blame me, dear.
Indeed, I did not dream, 0 tender eyes,
When first we met, that in a little year
My words would dim you with pain's dumb surprise.
...

You who are strong, and do not know the need
That weaker spirits feel, but do not plead -­
The need to lean on someone who is strong -
Oh! see you give their silent want good heed.
...