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Home  »  Poetry: A Magazine of Verse  »  Mary Aldis

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). The New Poetry: An Anthology. 1917.

O Bitter Day

Mary Aldis

O PALE small face

I saw a moment in a throng of men,

I am bereft, I am alone!

I seek, but nowhere find again

Your startled grace,

O pale, small face.

O fearful heart,

Forever questioning, forever dumb,

I weary of your sick mistrust!

Why do you bolt the door when love would come?

Go dwell apart,

O fearful heart!

O bitter day—

When you looked and passed, you of the pale small face,

You of the sweet tormented eyes,

The eager tread, the startled grace!

Yet I said no word to make you stay—

O bitter, bitter day!