Shall I not give this world my heart, who hold One figure here above myself, my gold, My life and hope, my joy and my intent?-- _Nay, by that form whose strength so soon is spent, That fragile garment that shall soon be rent, By lips and eyes the heavy earth shall kiss, Not this world, oh, not this!_
Then this poor world shall not my heart disdain? Where beauty mocks and springtime comes in vain, And love grows mute, and wisdom is forgot? _Thou child and thankless! On this little spot_ _Thy heart hath fed, and shall despise it not; Yea, shall forget, through many a world of bliss, Not this world, oh, not this!_
WHISTLER (AT THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM)[84]
[From _The Atlantic Monthly_ (August, 1910)]
So sharp the sword, so airy the defense! As 'twere a play, or delicate pretense; So fine and strange--so subtly-poisèd, too-- The egoist that looks forever through!
That winged spirit--air and grace and fire-- A-flutter at the frame, is your desire; Nay, it is you--who never knew the net, Exquisite, vain--whom we shall not forget!
[82] Copyright, 1909, by S. S. McClure Company.
[83] Copyright, 1909, by S. S. McClure Company.
[84] Copyright, 1910, by the Atlantic Monthly Company.
Mrs. Abby Meguire Roach, "the very cleverest of the Louisville school of women novelists," was born at Philadelphia in 1876. She was educated in the schools of her native city, finishing her training with a year at Wellesley College. In 1899 she was married to Mr. Neill Roach, of Louisville, Kentucky, and that city has been her home since. Mrs. Roach wrote many stories of married life for the New York magazines, which were afterwards collected and published as _Some Successful Marriages_ (New York, 1906). These have been singled out by the reviewers as "charming" and "most beautiful"; and her work has been compared to Miss May Sinclair's, the famous English novelist. One of Mrs. Roach's most recent stories was published in _The Century Magazine_ for July, 1907, entitled "Manifest Destiny," but this has not been followed by any others in the last year or so. "Unremembering June," one of the best of the tales in _Some Successful Marriages_, relates the love of Molly-Moll for her invalid husband, after whose death she falls in love with Reno, the father of Lola, "who had been his salvage from the wreck of his marriage."