| Alfred H. Miles, ed. Women Poets of the Nineteenth Century. 1907. | | | Poems.
VII. “Bring Me Word How Tall She Is” | | By Dora Greenwell (1821–1882) |
| | | | WOMAN IN 1873. |
| |
| “How tall is your Rosalind?” |
| “Just as high as my heart.” |
| As You Like It. |
WITHIN a garden shade, | |
| A garden sweet and dim, | |
| Two happy children played | |
| Together; he was made | |
| For God, and she for him. | 5 |
| |
| Beyond the garden’s shade, | |
| In deserts drear and dim | |
| Two outcast children strayed | |
| Together, he betrayed | |
| By her, and she by him. | 10 |
| |
| Together girl and boy, | |
| They wandered, ne’er apart; | |
| Each wrought to each annoy, | |
| Yet each knew never joy | |
| Save in the other’s heart. | 15 |
| |
| By her so oft deceived; | |
| By him so sore opprest; | |
| They each the other grieved, | |
| Yet each of each was best | |
| Beloved, and still caressed. | 20 |
| |
| And she was in his sight | |
| Found fairest, still his prize, | |
| His constant chief delight; | |
| She raised to him her eyes | |
| That led her not aright, | 25 |
| |
| And ever by his side | |
| A patient huntress ran | |
| Through forests dark and wide, | |
| And still the woman’s pride | |
| And glory was the Man. | 30 |
| |
| When her he would despise, | |
| She kept him captive bound; | |
| Forbidding her to rise, | |
| By many cords and ties | |
| She held him to the ground. | 35 |
| |
| At length, in stature grown, | |
| He stands erect and free; | |
| Yet stands he not alone, | |
| For his beloved would be | |
| Like him she loveth wise, like him she loveth free. | 40 |
| |
| So wins she her desire, | |
| Yet stand they not apart; | |
| For as she doth aspire | |
| He grows, nor stands she higher | |
| Than her Beloved’s heart. | 45 | | | |
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