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Woman's Love Letters-Sophie M. Almon Hensley · Edgar Allan Poe Poems

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: A Dream by Sophia Margaretta Hensley, read for LibriVox dot
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: Org by Heather James. I stood far off above the
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: haunts of men, somewhere I know not, When the sky
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: was dim from some worn glory, and the morning hymn
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: of the gay Oriole echoed from the glen. Wandering, I
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: felt Earth's peace, nor knew I sought a visioned face,
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: a voice the wind had caught. I passed the waking
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: things that stirred and gazed, thought bound, and heeded not
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: the waking flowers, drank in the morning mist dawn's tender showers,
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: and looked forth for the day God who had blazed
• 0:52
  Speaker 1: his heart away and died at sundown. Far in the
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: gray west faded a loitering star. It seemed that I
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: had wandered through long years, a life of years, still seeking,
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: gropingly a thing I dared not name. Now I could
• 1:15
  Speaker 1: see in the still dawn a hope, in the soft
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: tears of the deep hearted violets, a breath of kinship,
• 1:25
  Speaker 1: like the herald voice of death. Slow moved the morning
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: where the hill was bare, woke a reluctant breeze. Dimly
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: I knew my day was come. The wind blown blossoms
• 1:43
  Speaker 1: threw their breath about me, and the pine swept air
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: grew to a shape, a mighty formless thing, a phantom
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: of the woods imagining, And as I gazed spellbound, it
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: seemed to move its tendril limbs, still swaying tremulously, as
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  Speaker 1: if in spirit doubt. Then, glad and free cristled the
• 2:12
  Speaker 1: being one from the waiting grove into a human likeness.
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: There he stood the vine browed shape of nature's mortal mood.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Now have I found thee vision I have sought these years,
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  Speaker 1: unknowing surely thou art fair and inly wise, and on
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  Speaker 1: thy tasseled hair glows Heaven's own light, passion and fame
• 2:42
  Speaker 1: are not to thy clear eyes, O, Prince of many lands,
• 2:48
  Speaker 1: grant me thy joy. I cried and stretched my hands.
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: No answer but the flourish of the breeze through the
• 2:59
  Speaker 1: black pot. Then, slowly, as the wind parts, the dense
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: cloud forms, leaving not behind but shapeless vapor through the
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: budding trees, drifted some force unseen, and from my sight
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: faded my God into the morning light. Again, Alone with wistful,
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: straining eyes, I waited, and the sunshine flecked the bank,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: happy with arbutus and violets, where I sank, hearing near
• 3:38
  Speaker 1: by a host of melodies. The rapture of the wood
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: thrush soft her mood. The love mate, with such golden numbers, wooed,
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: he ceased. The fresh moss odors filled the grove with
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  Speaker 1: a strange sweetness. The dark hemlock boughs moved soft, as
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: though they heard the brooklet rouse to its spring soul
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  Speaker 1: and whisper low of love. The white robed birches stood unbendingly,
• 4:17
  Speaker 1: like royal maids, in proud expectancy, athwart the ramage where
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: the young leaves press. It came to me, Ah, call
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: it what you will, vision or waking dream. I see
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: it still again. A form borne of the woodland stress
• 4:37
  Speaker 1: grew to my gaze, and by some secret sign, though
• 4:42
  Speaker 1: shadow hid, I knew the form was thine. The glancing
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: sunlight made thy ruddy hair a crown of gold. But
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: on thy spirit face there was no smile, only a
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: tender grace of love, half doubt. Upon thy hand. A
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: rare wild bird of paradise perched fearlessly with radiant plumage
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: and still lustrous eye, And as I gazed. I saw
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: what I had deemed a shadow near thy hand, a
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: dusky wing, a bird like last year's leaves, so dull,
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  Speaker 1: a thing beside its fellow. As the sunshine gleamed, each
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: breast showed letters bright as crystal rain. The fair bird
• 5:40
  Speaker 1: bore delight the other pain. Then came thy voice, O love,
• 5:49
  Speaker 1: wilt have my gift. I stretch'd my glad hands eagerly
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: to grasp the heaven blown bird, gold hued, and longed
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  Speaker 1: to clasp it close and know it mine. Ere I
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: might lift the shining thing and hold it to my breast. Again,
• 6:10
  Speaker 1: I heard thy voice with vague unrest. These are twin birds,
• 6:18
  Speaker 1: and may not part. It be full in thine eyes.
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: I gazed and read therein the paradox of life, of love,
• 6:29
  Speaker 1: of sin, as on a night of cloud and mystery.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: One darting flash makes bright the hidden ways, and feet
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  Speaker 1: tread knowingly though thick the haze thy gift. If so
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  Speaker 1: I chose no other hand save thine. I reached and
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  Speaker 1: gathered to my heart the quivering sentient things. Some time
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  Speaker 1: I start to know them hidden there. If I should
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  Speaker 1: stand idly some day and one God help me breast
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: a homing breeze. My brown bird knows its nest end
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: of poem. This recording is in the public domain.
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: Dream Song by Sophia Margaretta Hensley read for LibriVox dot
• 7:33
  Speaker 2: Org by Alithia Camest thou not nigh to me, and
• 7:39
  Speaker 2: that one glimpse of THEE, when thy lips tremblingly said,
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  Speaker 2: my beloved, twas but a moment's space, And in that
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  Speaker 2: crowded place, I dared not scan thy face, Oh, my beloved.
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  Speaker 2: Yet there may come a time, though loving be a
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  Speaker 2: crime only allowed in rhyme to us beloved, when safe
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  Speaker 2: neath sheltering arm, I may without alarm, hear thy lips
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  Speaker 2: close and warm murmur beloved. End of poem. This recording
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: is in the public domain.
• 8:27
  Speaker 1: Doubt by Sophia Margareta Hensley read for LibriVox dot Org
• 8:32
  Speaker 1: by Heather James. I do not know if all the
• 8:36
  Speaker 1: fault be mine, or why I may not think of
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  Speaker 1: THEE and be at peace with mine own heart. Unceasingly
• 8:45
  Speaker 1: grim doubts beset me. By gone words of thine take
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: subtle meaning, and I cannot rest till all my fears
• 8:55
  Speaker 1: and follies are confessed. Perhaps the wild wind. Questioning has
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: brought my heart its melancholy. For alone in the night stillness,
• 9:07
  Speaker 1: I can hear him moan in sobbing gusts, as though
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: he vainly sought some bygone bliss against the dripping pain,
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: in storm blown torrents, beats the driving rain. Nay, I
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  Speaker 1: will tell THEE all. I will not hide one thought
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  Speaker 1: from THEE. And if I do THEE wrong, so much
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  Speaker 1: more must I be brave and strong to show my fault.
• 9:38
  Speaker 1: And if thou then shouldst chide, I will accept reproof
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  Speaker 1: most willingly. So it but bringeth peace to.
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  Speaker 3: THEE and me.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: I dread thy past. Phantoms of other days pursue my vision.
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  Speaker 1: There are other hands which thou hast held, perchance, some
• 10:03
  Speaker 1: slender bands that draw THEE still to other woodland ways
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: than those which we have known. Some blissful hours I
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: do not share of love and June and flowers. I
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: dread her most, that woman whom thou knewest those years ago.
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  Speaker 1: I cannot bear to think that she can say my lover,
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: praise the pink of palm, or ear the violets were
• 10:39
  Speaker 1: bluest in that dear copse. And dream of some fair
• 10:44
  Speaker 1: day when thou didst while her summer hours away. I
• 10:51
  Speaker 1: dread them too, those light loves and desires that lie
• 10:56
  Speaker 1: in the dim shadow of the years. I fain would
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: cheat myself of all my fears. And as a child
• 11:05
  Speaker 1: watching warm winter fires, dream not of yesterday's black embers,
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  Speaker 1: nor tomorrow's ashes that may strew the floor. I did
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: not dream of this while thou wert near. But now
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: the thought that haunts me day by day is that
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: the things I love, the tender way of mastery, the
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: kisses that are dear as Heaven's best gifts to other
• 11:34
  Speaker 1: lips and arms, oh half their blessedness and all their charms,
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  Speaker 1: tell me that I am wrong, O, man of men.
• 11:45
  Speaker 1: Surely it is not hard to comfort me, laugh at
• 11:49
  Speaker 1: my fears with dear persistency. Nay, if thou must lie
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: to me, there I cain. I hear the rain, and
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: the wind's wailing cry stirs with wild life, the night's monotony,
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: and the poem. This recording is in the public domain.
• 12:18
  Speaker 3: Song by Sofia Margareta Hansley, read for alibrivox dot Org
• 12:22
  Speaker 3: by Iswael in Belgium in February twenty seventeen. If I
• 12:28
  Speaker 3: had known that when the morrow dawned the roses would
• 12:32
  Speaker 3: be dead, I would have filled my hands with blossoms,
• 12:35
  Speaker 3: white and red if I had known. If I had
• 12:41
  Speaker 3: known that I should be to day deaf to all
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  Speaker 3: happy birds, I would have lain for hours to listen
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  Speaker 3: to your words. If I had known, If I had
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  Speaker 3: known that with the morning light you would be gone
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  Speaker 3: for a I would have been more kind. Sweet love
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  Speaker 3: had one his way if I had known. End of poem.
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  Speaker 3: This recording is in the public domain.
• 13:13
  Speaker 1: Anticipation by Sophia Margaretta Hensley, read for LibriVox dot Org
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  Speaker 1: by Heather James. Let us peer forward through the dusk
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  Speaker 1: of years and force the silent future to reveal her
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  Speaker 1: store of garnered joys. We may not kneel forever and
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  Speaker 1: entreat our bliss with tears. Somewhere on this drear earth,
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  Speaker 1: the sunshine lies, Somewhere the air breathes heaven blown harmonies. Someday,
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  Speaker 1: when you and I have fully learned our waiting lesson wondering,
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  Speaker 1: hand in hand, we shall gaze out upon an unknown land,
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  Speaker 1: our thoughts and our desires, forever turned from our old griefs,
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  Speaker 1: as swallows home warding sweep ever southward with unwearied wing,
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  Speaker 1: we shall fare forth comrades for evermore, though the ill
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  Speaker 1: omened bird Time loves to bear has brushed this cheek
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  Speaker 1: and left an impress there. I shall be fierce and
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  Speaker 1: dauntless as of yore, free as a bird o'er the
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  Speaker 1: wide world to rove, and strong and fearless O my
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  Speaker 1: love to love. What have we now the haunting, vague,
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  Speaker 1: unrest of incompleted measures, And we dream vainly of the
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: musician and his theme. How the great master, in a
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  Speaker 1: day most blessed, shall strike some mighty chords in harmony
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  Speaker 1: and make an end, and so the music free. We
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: snatch from fate our moments of delight, few as in
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  Speaker 1: april hours, the wooing calls of orioles, or when the
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: twilight falls first, or the forest ere, the approach of night,
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: the eyes of evening, and love's song is sung but once,
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  Speaker 1: dear heart, but once, and we are young over the
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  Speaker 1: seas together, you and I neath blue Italian skies, or
• 15:35
  Speaker 1: on the hills of storied Greece, where the warm sunlight
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  Speaker 1: fills Spain's mellow vineyards, wandering reverently o'er the green plains
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  Speaker 1: of Palestine. Our days a golden holiday in old world ways.
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: Yet would we linger not by southern shores. The brave
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: breath of Scandinavian snows would draw us from our dreams.
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  Speaker 1: The north wind blows upon thy cheek, my Norsemen, and
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  Speaker 1: the roars of the wild Baltic sound within my ears.
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  Speaker 1: When to my dreams thy stalwart form appears. This will
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  Speaker 1: the future bring see thou hast given from out the
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  Speaker 1: fullness of thy strength, and will this courage to me?
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: Though the rugged hill looms high and fronts our vision.
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  Speaker 1: Yet our heaven, I see it when I sleep, with
• 16:42
  Speaker 1: portals wide and shining towers gleams on the farther side.
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  Speaker 1: End of poem. This recording is in the public domain.
• 17:00
  Speaker 1: Song by Sophia Margaretta Hensley, read for LibriVox dot Org
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: by Heather James. Sure scolds the Oriole, where the elms stir,
• 17:12
  Speaker 1: flaunting her gourd like nest on the tree's swaying crest.
• 17:17
  Speaker 1: May's here I cannot rest go away. Sure Chure scolds
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  Speaker 1: the Oriole, where the leaves blur, giving her threads a
• 17:28
  Speaker 1: jerk spying, where rivals lurk mais here and I'm at work,
• 17:34
  Speaker 1: Go away chure end of poem. This recording is in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. Misunderstanding by Sophia Margaretta Hensley read for
• 17:51
  Speaker 1: LibriVox dot Org by Heather James. Spring's face is wreathed
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: in smiles. She had been driven hither and thither at
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  Speaker 1: the surly will of treacherous winds, till her sweet heart
• 18:07
  Speaker 1: was chill into her grasp. The scepter has been given,
• 18:12
  Speaker 1: and now she touches with a proud young hand the
• 18:17
  Speaker 1: earth and turns to blossoms all the land. We catch
• 18:23
  Speaker 1: the smile, the joyousness, the pride, and share them with her.
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: Surely winter gloom is for the old, and frost is
• 18:34
  Speaker 1: for the tomb. Youth must have pleasure, and the tremulous
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: tide of sun kissed waves, and all the golden fire
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: of summer's noontide splendor of desire I have forgotten, for
• 18:52
  Speaker 1: the breath of buds is on my temples. If in
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: former days I have known sorrow, I remember praise and calm, content,
• 19:03
  Speaker 1: and joy's great ocean floods, and many dreams so sweet
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: that in their place we would not welcome even Truth's
• 19:14
  Speaker 1: fair face. O man to whom my heart has leaned,
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: dost know aught of my life? Sometimes a strong despair
• 19:26
  Speaker 1: enters my soul and finds a lodging there Thou dost
• 19:31
  Speaker 1: not know me. And the years will go as these
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: last months have gone, and I shall be still far
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: still a strange woman unto THEE. I do not blame THEE.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: If there is a fault, let it be mine. For surely,
• 19:53
  Speaker 1: had I tried the door of my heart's home to
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: open wide, no need had been for even love's assault.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: And yet methinks somewhere there is a key that mightst
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: have found and entered happily. I am no saint niched
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: in a hallowed wall for men to worship. But I
• 20:19
  Speaker 1: would compel a level gaze you teachers, who would tell
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: a woman's place. I do defy you all. While justice
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: lives and love with joy is crowned, woman and man
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: must meet on equal ground. The deepest wrong is falsehood.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: She who sells her soul and body for a little
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: gain in ease or the world's notice has a stain
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: upon her soul. No lighter for the belles of marriage rights,
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: and purer far is she who gives her all for
• 21:02
  Speaker 1: love's sad ecstasy. Canst thou not understand a nature strong
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: and passionate, with impulses that sway, with yearning, tenderness that
• 21:16
  Speaker 1: must have way, yet knows no ill, desire, no touch
• 21:22
  Speaker 1: of wrong. If thou canst not, then in God's name,
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: I pray see me no more forever from this day.
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: End of poem. This recording is in the public domain.
• 21:45
  Speaker 4: Shadow Song by Sophia Margaretta Hensley read for librovox dot
• 21:51
  Speaker 4: org by Larry Wilson. The night is long and there
• 21:56
  Speaker 4: are no stars. Let me but dream that the long
• 22:00
  Speaker 4: fields gleam with sunlight and song. Then I shall not
• 22:04
  Speaker 4: long for the light of stars. Let me but dream,
• 22:09
  Speaker 4: for there are no stars. Dream that the ache and
• 22:12
  Speaker 4: the wild heartbreak are but things that seem ah. Let
• 22:17
  Speaker 4: me dream for there are no stars in the poem.
• 22:25
  Speaker 4: This recording is in the public domain.
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: Revulsion by Sophia Margareta Hensley, read for LibriVox dot org
• 22:38
  Speaker 1: by Heather James. I see the starting buds, I catch
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: the gleam in the near distance of a sun kissed pool.
• 22:48
  Speaker 1: The blessed april air blows soft and cool. Small wonder
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: if all sorrow grows a dream and we forget that
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: close around us lie a city's poor, a city's misery.
• 23:07
  Speaker 1: Of every outward vision, there is some internal counterpart to day.
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: I know the blessedness of living and the glow of
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: life's dear springtide. I can bid thee come in thought
• 23:24
  Speaker 1: and wander where the fields are fair with bursting life,
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: and I rejoicing there. Yet I have passed beloved through
• 23:36
  Speaker 1: the veil of dark dismay, and felt the dews of
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: death upon my brow, have measured out my breath, counting
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: my hours of joy, as misers quail at every footfall
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: in the quiet night, and clutch their gold and count
• 23:58
  Speaker 1: it in affright. I learned new lessons in that school
• 24:03
  Speaker 1: of fear. Life took a fresh perspective, sad and brave.
• 24:10
  Speaker 1: The view is from the threshold of the grave. In
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: that long backward glance, I saw her clear from fogs
• 24:21
  Speaker 1: of gathering night, and all the show of small things
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: that seemed great a while ago, our dreams of fame,
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: the stubborn power we call our self, respect, our hopes
• 24:39
  Speaker 1: of worldly good, our jealousies and fears. How in the
• 24:46
  Speaker 1: flood of this new light they faded, poor and small,
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: showing our pettiness beside God's truth, besides his age, our poor,
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: unlearned youth. The earth yearns forth, impatient for the days
• 25:09
  Speaker 1: of its maturity, the ample sweets of summer's fullness, and
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: its great heart beats with a fierce restlessness for Spring delays,
• 25:21
  Speaker 1: seeing her giddy rain end all too soon, her bud
• 25:25
  Speaker 1: crown ravished by the hand of June. And I I
• 25:31
  Speaker 1: shall be happy. Promise me this one small thing beloved.
• 25:36
  Speaker 1: For I long for happiness as the caged bird for song,
• 25:41
  Speaker 1: not where four walls close in the melody. I want
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: the fresh, sweet air, the water's gush, the strong, sane
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: life with thee the summer hush. End of poem. This
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: recording is an the public domain.
• 26:06
  Speaker 3: A Song of Dawn by Sophia Margaretta Hensley, read Forlibrivox
• 26:11
  Speaker 3: dot Org by Israel In Belgium in February twenty seventeen.
• 26:17
  Speaker 3: In the easter lightning, where the woods are chill moves,
• 26:22
  Speaker 3: an unseen finger wakes a sudden thrill in my soul,
• 26:27
  Speaker 3: A glimmer hush. No words are heard in heart, ambush,
• 26:32
  Speaker 3: hidden chirrup of a bird, tremble, heart and forest, like
• 26:37
  Speaker 3: a frightened fawn gleam the distant tree tops. Heither comes
• 26:42
  Speaker 3: the dawn. End of poem. This recording is in the
• 26:48
  Speaker 3: public domain.
• 26:54
  Speaker 1: Weariness by Sophia Margaretta Hensley, read forlibrivox dot Org by
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: Heather James. This April sun has wakened into cheer the
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: wintry paths of thought and tinged with gold, these threadbare
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: leaves of fancy, brown and old. This is for us
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: the wakening of the year, and May's sweet breath will
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: draw the waiting soul to where in distance lies the
• 27:26
  Speaker 1: longed for goal. The summer life will still all questioning,
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: the leaves will whisper, peace and calm will be the wild, vast, blue,
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: illimitable sea. And we shall hush our murmurings and bring
• 27:46
  Speaker 1: to nature, green below and blue above, a whole life's worshiping,
• 27:54
  Speaker 1: a whole life's love. We will not speak of some
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: time fresh fears. We will not think of aught that
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: may arise in future hours to cloud our golden skies.
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: Some souls there are who love their woes and tears,
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: gaining their joy by contrast. But for THEE and me, beloved,
• 28:20
  Speaker 1: peace is ecstasy. It was not always so. There was
• 28:26
  Speaker 1: a time when I would choose the rocky mountain way
• 28:31
  Speaker 1: and climb the hills of doubt to find the day.
• 28:35
  Speaker 1: Fresh effort brought fresh zest, and winter's rhyme chilled not
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: but crowned endeavor, and the heat of summer thrilled and
• 28:46
  Speaker 1: made the pulses beat. But now I am so weary
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: that I turn from labor with a shudder, and from
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: pain as from an enemy. I see no gain in
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: suffering and cleansing. Fires must burn as keenly as desire.
• 29:05
  Speaker 1: So let me know quiet with thee and twilight's afterglow.
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: I who have boasted of my strength and will, and
• 29:15
  Speaker 1: ventured daring flights, and stood alone in fearless, flushed defiance,
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: I have grown humble and seek another hand to fill
• 29:28
  Speaker 1: life's cup, and other eyes to pierce the skies of
• 29:33
  Speaker 1: wisdom's dear sad mighty mysteries. Ah, I will lie so
• 29:41
  Speaker 1: quiet in thine arms. I will not stir thee, and
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: thy whisperings shall teach me patience and so many things
• 29:51
  Speaker 1: I have not learned as yet, And all alarms will
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: melt in peace when safe from tempests rage. My wind
• 30:02
  Speaker 1: tasked ship has found its anchorage, and the poem. This
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: recording is in the public domain.
• 30:17
  Speaker 3: A song of Rest by Sophia Margaretta Hensley, sung for
• 30:20
  Speaker 3: LibriVox dot Org by Israel in Belgium in February twenty seventeen.
• 30:28
  Speaker 3: The world may rage without quieties. Here, states man made
• 30:34
  Speaker 3: toile and shout see Niecks mays near the great world
• 30:40
  Speaker 3: netted go June warmth be marches, no I careno be
• 30:45
  Speaker 3: it so since I am here, time worse when war's
• 30:50
  Speaker 3: alarm called for ah, fear, when sorrow seeming harm, hey,
• 30:57
  Speaker 3: sunder dear, not care. I now what full threatens for scarce.
• 31:03
  Speaker 3: I know how the year's seasons go.
• 31:07
  Speaker 5: Since I am here, this is my resting place, allly
• 31:13
  Speaker 5: and dear, where paints the jeted face may not appear.
• 31:19
  Speaker 5: This is the world to me her swos, I will
• 31:23
  Speaker 5: not see, but rest contentedly. Since I am here. It's
• 31:30
  Speaker 5: your voice chatting love, my mid career, my me courbiding
• 31:36
  Speaker 5: love day, thee so near danger and lost to me,
• 31:42
  Speaker 5: how sweet I fear to see all lost but loss
• 31:47
  Speaker 5: of THEE. And I am here.
• 31:53
  Speaker 3: And of form. This recording is in the public domain.
• 32:02
  Speaker 6: Death by Sophia Margareta Hensley read for LibriVox dot Org
• 32:06
  Speaker 6: by Eva Davis. If days should pass without a written
• 32:12
  Speaker 6: word to tell me of thy welfare, and if days
• 32:16
  Speaker 6: should lengthen out to weeks until the maze of questioning
• 32:21
  Speaker 6: fears confused me, and I heard life's sounds as echoes.
• 32:27
  Speaker 6: And one came and said, after these weeks of waiting,
• 32:31
  Speaker 6: he is dead. Though the quick sword had found the
• 32:36
  Speaker 6: vital part, and the life blood must mingle with the tears.
• 32:42
  Speaker 6: I think that as the dying soldier hears the cries
• 32:47
  Speaker 6: of victory and feels his heart surge with his country's triumph,
• 32:52
  Speaker 6: hour I could hope bravely on and feel that God
• 32:59
  Speaker 6: was good. I could take up my thread of life
• 33:04
  Speaker 6: again and weave my pattern, though the colors were faded forever.
• 33:11
  Speaker 6: Though I might not dare dream often of THEE, I
• 33:15
  Speaker 6: should know that when death came to thee upon thy lips,
• 33:20
  Speaker 6: my name lingered, and lingers ever without blame. I lingers ever.
• 33:27
  Speaker 6: Though we may not know much that our spirits crave,
• 33:31
  Speaker 6: yet it is given to us to feel that in
• 33:35
  Speaker 6: the wading heaven, great souls are greater, and if God
• 33:40
  Speaker 6: bestow a mighty love, he will not let it die
• 33:45
  Speaker 6: through the vast ages of eternity. But if some day
• 33:51
  Speaker 6: the bitter knowledge swept down on my life, bearing my
• 33:56
  Speaker 6: treasured freight to founder on the shoals of born, what fate,
• 34:02
  Speaker 6: smiling with awful irony, had kept till life grew sweeter?
• 34:08
  Speaker 6: That my God was clay, That neath thy strength a
• 34:14
  Speaker 6: lurking weakness lay that thou, whom I had deemed a
• 34:19
  Speaker 6: man of men, faulty as great men are, but with
• 34:24
  Speaker 6: no taint of baseness, with those faults that shew the
• 34:29
  Speaker 6: saint of after days? Perhaps were it even then when
• 34:35
  Speaker 6: first I loved thee but a spreading tree, whose leaves
• 34:40
  Speaker 6: shewed not its roots deformity. I should not weep, for
• 34:47
  Speaker 6: there are wounds that lie too deep for tears. And
• 34:51
  Speaker 6: death is but a friend who loves too dearly, And
• 34:56
  Speaker 6: the parting end of love's joy day upon tree pane
• 35:01
  Speaker 6: a cry to God. Then peace beside the torturing grief
• 35:08
  Speaker 6: when honor dies, and trust and soul's belief. Travelers have
• 35:14
  Speaker 6: told that in the Java Isles, the yupus tree breathes
• 35:19
  Speaker 6: its dread vapor out into the air. There needs no
• 35:24
  Speaker 6: hand about its branches, for the poison's deadly whiles to
• 35:29
  Speaker 6: work a strong man's hurt. For there is death envenomed,
• 35:34
  Speaker 6: noisome in his every breath. So would I breathe thy
• 35:40
  Speaker 6: poison in my soul till all that had been wholesome,
• 35:44
  Speaker 6: pure and true shewed its decay, and stained and wasted,
• 35:50
  Speaker 6: grew though sundered as the distant northern pole from his
• 35:54
  Speaker 6: far sister, I should bear thy blight upon me, as
• 35:59
  Speaker 6: I asked into the night, didst dream thy truth and
• 36:04
  Speaker 6: honor meant so much to me? Dear heart, Oh, I
• 36:09
  Speaker 6: am full of tears to night of longing love and
• 36:14
  Speaker 6: foolish fears. Would I might see THEE know thy tender touch,
• 36:20
  Speaker 6: For time is long, and though I may not will
• 36:24
  Speaker 6: to question fate, I am a woman still end of palm.
• 36:31
  Speaker 6: This recording is in the public domain.
• 36:36
  Speaker 1: Battle Song by Sophia Margareta Hensley, read for Liberbox dot
• 36:41
  Speaker 1: Org by Heather James Clear sounds the call on high
• 36:46
  Speaker 1: to arms and victory. Brave hearts that win or die,
• 36:51
  Speaker 1: dying may win proudly the banner's wave. What though the
• 36:56
  Speaker 1: goal's the grave, death cannot harm the brave, Though death
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: they win softly. The evening hush stilling strikes, maddened rush cools,
• 37:08
  Speaker 1: the fierce battle flush, see the day die, A thousand faces,
• 37:13
  Speaker 1: white mirror, the cold moonlight and glassy eyes are bright
• 37:19
  Speaker 1: with victory. End of poem. This recording is in the
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: public domain.
• 37:30
  Speaker 3: Content by Sophia Margerita Hensley readfall liiprovox dot org by
• 37:35
  Speaker 3: Iswat in Belgium in February two thousand seventeen. I have
• 37:41
  Speaker 3: been wondering where the daisies grow, great fields of tall
• 37:46
  Speaker 3: white daisies, And I saw them bends reluctantly and seemed
• 37:51
  Speaker 3: to draw away in pride when the fresh breeze would
• 37:54
  Speaker 3: blow from timothy and yellow butter cup. So by their
• 37:58
  Speaker 3: fearless beauty lift up. Yet must they bend at the
• 38:04
  Speaker 3: strong breezes? Will bright flawless things, whether in wrath he
• 38:09
  Speaker 3: sweep or as ofttimes in mood caressing creep over the
• 38:15
  Speaker 3: meadows and a down the hill. So love in sports,
• 38:19
  Speaker 3: all truth, as fates allow, blows over proud young hearts
• 38:24
  Speaker 3: and beats them bow. So beautiful is it to live,
• 38:29
  Speaker 3: So sweet to hear the ripple of the bubbling, to
• 38:33
  Speaker 3: smell the clover blossoms, white and pink, to feel oneself
• 38:37
  Speaker 3: far from the dusty street, from dusty souls, from all
• 38:42
  Speaker 3: the flare and fret of living and the fever of regret.
• 38:47
  Speaker 3: I have grown younger. I can scarce believe it is
• 38:51
  Speaker 3: the same sad woman full of dreams of seven short
• 38:55
  Speaker 3: weeks ago. For now it seems I am a child
• 38:58
  Speaker 3: again and can dis receive my soul with daisies plucking
• 39:03
  Speaker 3: one by one, the petals dazzling in the noonday sun.
• 39:08
  Speaker 3: Almost with old time eagerness, I try my fate and say,
• 39:13
  Speaker 3: at a soft BOOKU, then lower passionimon padito, quick the
• 39:22
  Speaker 3: white petals fall, and lovingly I pluck the last and
• 39:26
  Speaker 3: drop with tender touch the knowing daisy. For he loves
• 39:30
  Speaker 3: me much. I can remember how in childish days I
• 39:37
  Speaker 3: deemed that he who held my heart in thrall must
• 39:40
  Speaker 3: love me passionately or not at all. Poor little wilful,
• 39:48
  Speaker 3: ignorant heart that praise it knows not what, and heedlessly
• 39:52
  Speaker 3: demands the best that life can give with outstretched hands.
• 39:58
  Speaker 3: Now I am wiser and have learned to prize peace
• 40:02
  Speaker 3: above passion, and the summer life here with the flowers,
• 40:06
  Speaker 3: above the ceaseless strife of armed ambitions. They alone are
• 40:10
  Speaker 3: wise who know the dizzy secrets and can hold fast
• 40:15
  Speaker 3: in their eager hands her heart of gold and of poem.
• 40:22
  Speaker 3: This recording is in the public domain.
• 40:29
  Speaker 4: Sea Song by Sophia Margaretta Hensley, read for LibriVox dot
• 40:35
  Speaker 4: Org by Lurie Wilson. A dash of spray, a wheat
• 40:40
  Speaker 4: browned way, my ships in the bay, in the glad
• 40:43
  Speaker 4: blue bay, the winds from the west, and the waves
• 40:46
  Speaker 4: have a crest, And my birds in the nest, and
• 40:48
  Speaker 4: my ships in the bay at dawn, to stand soft,
• 40:52
  Speaker 4: hand to hand, bear feet on the sand, on the
• 40:55
  Speaker 4: hard brown sand, to wait dew crowned for the terror
• 41:00
  Speaker 4: sound of a keel that will ground on the screeping sand,
• 41:05
  Speaker 4: a glad surprise in the wind swept skies. And my
• 41:08
  Speaker 4: wee one's eyes, those wondering eyes, He will come, my
• 41:13
  Speaker 4: sweet he will haste to meet those hurrying feet and
• 41:17
  Speaker 4: those sea blue eyes. I know the day must weary away,
• 41:22
  Speaker 4: And my ships in the bay, in the clear blue bay. Ah,
• 41:26
  Speaker 4: but there's wind in the west, for the waves have
• 41:30
  Speaker 4: a crest. But my birds in the nest, and my
• 41:32
  Speaker 4: ships in the bay. In the poem. This recording is
• 41:38
  Speaker 4: in the public domain.
• 41:46
  Speaker 3: Gratitude by Sofia Margareta Hensley Readfolibros dot Org by Iswael
• 41:51
  Speaker 3: in Belgium in February twenty seventeen. There are some things,
• 41:58
  Speaker 3: dear friend, are easy. You are far to say in
• 42:01
  Speaker 3: written words than when we sit i answering eye or
• 42:05
  Speaker 3: hand to hand, close knit. Not that there is between
• 42:09
  Speaker 3: us any bar of shyness or reserve the days past
• 42:13
  Speaker 3: for that and utter trust has come at last only
• 42:19
  Speaker 3: when shut alone and safe inside these four white walls,
• 42:23
  Speaker 3: hearing no sound except our own heart beatings silences have
• 42:28
  Speaker 3: crept stealthily round us as the incoming tide, quiet and
• 42:33
  Speaker 3: unperceived creeps. Ever on till mound and pebble, rock and
• 42:38
  Speaker 3: reef are gone, or out on the green hill side,
• 42:43
  Speaker 3: even there there is a hush, and words and thoughts
• 42:47
  Speaker 3: are still. For the trees speak, and myriad voices fill
• 42:54
  Speaker 3: with wondrous echoes all the waiting air. We listen, and
• 43:00
  Speaker 3: in listening must forget our own heart's murmur, and our
• 43:04
  Speaker 3: spirits fret, even our joys. Thou knowest when the air
• 43:11
  Speaker 3: is full to overflowing with the sense of hope fulfilled
• 43:15
  Speaker 3: and passion's vehemence, there is no place for words we
• 43:20
  Speaker 3: do not dare to break love stillness, even though the
• 43:24
  Speaker 3: power were ours by speech to lengthen out the hour.
• 43:30
  Speaker 3: But here in quietness I can recall all I would
• 43:34
  Speaker 3: tell THEE how thou art to me impulse and inspiration,
• 43:39
  Speaker 3: And with THEE I can but smile, though all my
• 43:42
  Speaker 3: idols fall. I wait my meed as others who have
• 43:47
  Speaker 3: known patience till to their utmost stature, grown, as when
• 43:53
  Speaker 3: the heavens are draped in gloomy gray and earth is
• 43:56
  Speaker 3: tremulous with a vague unrest. A glory feels the tender
• 44:01
  Speaker 3: troubled west that glads the closing of November's day, so
• 44:06
  Speaker 3: breaks in sun smiles my beclouded sky. When day is over,
• 44:12
  Speaker 3: and I know THEE, Iy, thou art so much? All
• 44:17
  Speaker 3: this and more to me? And what am I to THEE?
• 44:22
  Speaker 3: Can I repay these many gifts? Is there no royal
• 44:26
  Speaker 3: way of recompense? So I may proudly see the man
• 44:30
  Speaker 3: my heart delights to praise, renowned for wealth and honor,
• 44:34
  Speaker 3: and with rapture crowned ha. Though there is no recompense
• 44:40
  Speaker 3: in love? Yet have I paid THEE? Given these gifts
• 44:44
  Speaker 3: to THEE? Joy riches worship thou hast joy in me?
• 44:50
  Speaker 3: Is it not so beloved? Who shall prove no worship
• 44:55
  Speaker 3: of thee by my soul confessed and riches ah. A
• 45:01
  Speaker 3: wealth of love is best end of poem. This recording
• 45:08
  Speaker 3: is in a public domain Song by Sophia Margareta Hensley,
• 45:18
  Speaker 3: read for LibriVox dot org by Isla in Belgium in
• 45:21
  Speaker 3: February twenty seventeen. I have known a thousand pleasures. Love
• 45:29
  Speaker 3: is best Ocean songs and forest treasures, work and rest,
• 45:35
  Speaker 3: duel joys of dear existence, triumph over fate's resistance. But
• 45:41
  Speaker 3: to prove, through times wide distance, love is best. End
• 45:48
  Speaker 3: of poem. This recording is in the public domain.
• 45:56
  Speaker 4: Prayer by Sophia Margareta Hinsley, read for lib vox dot
• 46:00
  Speaker 4: org by Larry Wilson. I stood upon a hill and
• 46:05
  Speaker 4: watched the death of the day's turmoil. Still the glory
• 46:09
  Speaker 4: spread cloud top to clod top, and each rearing head
• 46:13
  Speaker 4: trembled to crimson so mighty. A breath from some wild
• 46:17
  Speaker 4: titan in a rising sire might kindle flame in voicing
• 46:22
  Speaker 4: his desire, soft stirred the evening air. The pine crowned
• 46:27
  Speaker 4: hills glowed in an answering rapture, where the flesh grew
• 46:31
  Speaker 4: to a blood drop, and the vesper hush moved in
• 46:34
  Speaker 4: my soul, while from my life all ills faded and
• 46:38
  Speaker 4: passed away. God's voice was there, and in my heart
• 46:43
  Speaker 4: the silence was a prayer. There was a day when
• 46:46
  Speaker 4: to my fearfulness was borne a joy, when doubt was
• 46:51
  Speaker 4: swept afar, a shadow and a memory, and a star
• 46:55
  Speaker 4: gleamed in my sky more bright for the distress. The
• 46:59
  Speaker 4: stillness breathe thanksgiving, and the air wafted methought the incense
• 47:04
  Speaker 4: of a prayer. Heaven sets no bounds of bead, roll
• 47:08
  Speaker 4: or appeal, and when the fiery heart with mute embrace
• 47:12
  Speaker 4: bends trembling. But for a moment's space, it needs no
• 47:16
  Speaker 4: words that cry, no limbs that kneel as meteor's flash.
• 47:21
  Speaker 4: So in a moment's light, life darting forth touches the infinite.
• 47:27
  Speaker 4: All my prayers wordless, nay, I can recall a night
• 47:31
  Speaker 4: not so long past, but that each thought lives at
• 47:35
  Speaker 4: this hour and throbs again unsought. When silence broods and
• 47:40
  Speaker 4: night's chill shadows fall, then darkness, thousand pulses thrilled and
• 47:46
  Speaker 4: stirred with the dear grace of a remembered word, and
• 47:50
  Speaker 4: I was still thy voice enshouting me like the strong
• 47:55
  Speaker 4: sweep of ocean breath. The power of one resistless thought
• 48:00
  Speaker 4: transformed my hour of love dreams to a fear all hopelessly,
• 48:05
  Speaker 4: I knew love's impotence, and my despair stretch'd soul's hands
• 48:10
  Speaker 4: forth and quiver'd to a prayer. My passionate heart cried out,
• 48:17
  Speaker 4: If his dear life, through stress of keen temptation, merits
• 48:21
  Speaker 4: aught of penance or requital, be it wrought upon my life?
• 48:26
  Speaker 4: If only through strife is one the peace, through drudgery
• 48:31
  Speaker 4: the gain, give him the issue, unto me the pain.
• 48:37
  Speaker 4: Some day our soul's course or trackless lands, swayed off
• 48:42
  Speaker 4: by adverse winds, or swept along in fate's wild current,
• 48:45
  Speaker 4: with the fluttering throng towards sins engulfing melstone spirit hands
• 48:51
  Speaker 4: will brace our trembling wings and through the night, pointing
• 48:55
  Speaker 4: upbear in our last trembling flight in the poem. This
• 49:04
  Speaker 4: recording is in the public domain.
• 49:12
  Speaker 3: Song by Sophia Margareta Hensley, Redfolibrivox dot Org by iswak
• 49:16
  Speaker 3: In Belgium in February twenty seventeen. Red gleams the mountain
• 49:22
  Speaker 3: ridge slow, the stream creeps under the old bend bridge,
• 49:28
  Speaker 3: and labor sleeps. There are no restless birds, no leaves
• 49:33
  Speaker 3: that stir dust, her gray mental gods, Knight's harbinger. The
• 49:38
  Speaker 3: storm souls change and start pause, lah Lan seize in
• 49:44
  Speaker 3: my own quiet heart is born at peace. End of poem.
• 49:51
  Speaker 3: This recording is in the public domain.
• 49:58
  Speaker 6: Loneliness Fia Margareta Hensley or for LibriVox dot Org by
• 50:03
  Speaker 6: Eva Davis. Dear, I am lonely, for the bay is
• 50:08
  Speaker 6: still as any hill girt lake. The long brown beach
• 50:12
  Speaker 6: lies bare and wet. As far as I can reach,
• 50:17
  Speaker 6: there is no motion. Even on the hill where the
• 50:20
  Speaker 6: breeze loves to wander, I can see no stir of leaves,
• 50:26
  Speaker 6: nor any waving tree. There is a great red cliff
• 50:30
  Speaker 6: that fronts my view, a bare, unsightly thing. It angers
• 50:35
  Speaker 6: me with its unswerving grim monotony. The mackerel weir, with
• 50:42
  Speaker 6: branching boughs of skew, stands like a fire swept forest,
• 50:46
  Speaker 6: while the sea laps it with soothing sighs. Continually. There
• 50:53
  Speaker 6: are no tempests In this sheltered bay, the stillness frets me,
• 50:58
  Speaker 6: and I long to be where winds sweep strong and
• 51:02
  Speaker 6: blow tempestuously, to stand upon some hill top far away
• 51:08
  Speaker 6: and face a gathering gale, and let the stress of
• 51:12
  Speaker 6: nature's mood subdue my restlessness. An impulse seizes me, a
• 51:20
  Speaker 6: mad desire to tear away that red browed cliff, to
• 51:25
  Speaker 6: sweep its crest of trees and huts into the deep,
• 51:30
  Speaker 6: to force a gap by axe or storm or fire,
• 51:35
  Speaker 6: and let rush in with motion, glad and free the
• 51:39
  Speaker 6: rolling waves of the wild, wondrous sea. Sometimes I wonder
• 51:46
  Speaker 6: if I am the child of calm, law loving parents,
• 51:50
  Speaker 6: or stray from some wild gipsy camp. I cannot stay
• 51:56
  Speaker 6: quiet among my fellows when this wild law for freedom
• 52:01
  Speaker 6: takes me. I must fly to my dear woods and
• 52:05
  Speaker 6: know my liberty. It is a cringing to a social
• 52:11
  Speaker 6: law that I despise these changing, senseless forms of fashion.
• 52:18
  Speaker 6: And until a thousand storms of God's impatience shall reveal
• 52:23
  Speaker 6: the flaw in man's pet system, he will weave the
• 52:27
  Speaker 6: spell about his heart and dream that all is well. Ah,
• 52:35
  Speaker 6: life is hard, dear heart, for I am left to
• 52:39
  Speaker 6: battle with my old time fears alone. I must live
• 52:44
  Speaker 6: calmly on and make no moan though of my hoped
• 52:49
  Speaker 6: for happiness, bereft thou wilt not come. And still the
• 52:55
  Speaker 6: redcliff lies, hiding my ocean from these longing eyes. End
• 53:03
  Speaker 6: of Calm. This recording is in the public domain.
• 53:09
  Speaker 4: Sea Song by Sophia Margaretta Hinsley, read for librovox dot org.
• 53:15
  Speaker 4: Why Larry Wilson. It sings to me. It sings to me,
• 53:21
  Speaker 4: the sore blown voice of the blithesome sea, of its
• 53:25
  Speaker 4: world of gladness, all untold, of its heart of green,
• 53:29
  Speaker 4: and its minds of gold, and desires that leap and flee.
• 53:34
  Speaker 4: It moans to me, It moans to me, the storm
• 53:38
  Speaker 4: stirred voice of the restive sea, a vain dismay and
• 53:42
  Speaker 4: the yearning pain for hopes that will never be borne again.
• 53:46
  Speaker 4: From the womb of the wavering sea. It calls to me,
• 53:51
  Speaker 4: It calls to me, the luring voice of the rebel sea.
• 53:55
  Speaker 4: And I long with a love that is born of
• 53:57
  Speaker 4: tears for the wild fresh life and the glorying fears,
• 54:02
  Speaker 4: for the quest and the mystery. It wails to me,
• 54:06
  Speaker 4: It wails to me of the deep, dark graves in
• 54:10
  Speaker 4: the yawning sea, and I hear the voice of a
• 54:13
  Speaker 4: boy that is gone, But the lad sleeps sound till
• 54:17
  Speaker 4: the judgment dawned, and the heart of the wind swept
• 54:20
  Speaker 4: sea in the poem. This recording is in the public domain.
• 54:32
  Speaker 6: In completeness by Sophia Margareta Hensley, read for LibriVox dot
• 54:36
  Speaker 6: Org by Eva Davis. Since I first met thee dear,
• 54:41
  Speaker 6: and long before I knew myself beloved, save by the
• 54:47
  Speaker 6: sense all women have a shadowy confidence, half fear that
• 54:53
  Speaker 6: feels it's bliss, nor asks for more, I have learned
• 54:58
  Speaker 6: new desires, known love's distress, sounded the deepest steps of loneliness.
• 55:08
  Speaker 6: I was a child at heart, and lived alone, dreaming
• 55:13
  Speaker 6: my dreams as children may at whiles between their hours
• 55:18
  Speaker 6: of play. And Earth's broad smiles allured my heart. An
• 55:25
  Speaker 6: ocean's marvelous tone woke no strange echoes, and the woods complain,
• 55:32
  Speaker 6: made chance honorous, stirred no thoughts of pain. And if
• 55:38
  Speaker 6: sometimes dear Nature spoke to me in tones mysterious, I
• 55:44
  Speaker 6: had learned so much dwelling beside her daily, that her
• 55:49
  Speaker 6: touch made me discerning, though I might not see her
• 55:53
  Speaker 6: purpose nor her meaning. I had part in the proud
• 55:58
  Speaker 6: throbbing of that mighty heart. But now the earth has
• 56:04
  Speaker 6: put a tiring cloth about her face. Even in the
• 56:09
  Speaker 6: mountain's cheir there is a lack. And in the sea
• 56:13
  Speaker 6: of fear, the glad rash sea, whose every mood, if
• 56:18
  Speaker 6: wroth or soothing mild, is dear to me, as are
• 56:23
  Speaker 6: Joy's newborn kisses on the lips of care. Since I
• 56:28
  Speaker 6: have known the dear, all life has grown, and expectation,
• 56:34
  Speaker 6: as the swelling grain trembles to harvesting, and earth in
• 56:38
  Speaker 6: pain travails till spring is born. So felt alone is
• 56:44
  Speaker 6: the dumb reaching out of things unborn, the night's gray
• 56:49
  Speaker 6: promise of the amber morn. I long to taste my
• 56:55
  Speaker 6: pleasures through thy lips, to sail with thee or foaming
• 56:59
  Speaker 6: way waves, and feel our spirits rise together with the
• 57:04
  Speaker 6: reel of waters and the wavering land's eclipse. To see
• 57:10
  Speaker 6: thy fair hair damp with salt sea spray, and in
• 57:14
  Speaker 6: thine eyes the wildness of the way. I long to
• 57:20
  Speaker 6: share my woods with thee to fly to some black
• 57:25
  Speaker 6: hearted forest where the trail of mortals lingers, not to
• 57:30
  Speaker 6: hear the gale sweep round us with a shuddering ecstasy,
• 57:36
  Speaker 6: to feel night's tumult past the cool, soft hand of
• 57:41
  Speaker 6: the untroubled dawn, move o'er the land, to swim with
• 57:46
  Speaker 6: thee far out into the bay, a trembling glitter on
• 57:51
  Speaker 6: the waves, the shore glowing with noontide fervor, never more
• 57:57
  Speaker 6: to fear the treacherous depths, though along the way sweep
• 58:03
  Speaker 6: beyond words, the sighs that breathe and blow, the moist
• 58:08
  Speaker 6: salt kisses, and the glad warm glow, And when they unrest,
• 58:14
  Speaker 6: the vague desires that rush over our lives and may
• 58:19
  Speaker 6: not be denied. Gone in the tasting lure us, where
• 58:24
  Speaker 6: the tide of men sweeps on, let us forget the
• 58:28
  Speaker 6: hush together, and in city madness drain our cup of
• 58:33
  Speaker 6: pleasure to its dregs of pain. Ever I need thee incomplete,
• 58:40
  Speaker 6: and pour this life of mine, yet never dream. My
• 58:45
  Speaker 6: soul craves the old piece till I may have the whole.
• 58:51
  Speaker 6: My joy is my abiding, And what more of dreams
• 58:56
  Speaker 6: and waking bliss the fates allow comes as a gift
• 59:01
  Speaker 6: of love's great overflow. End the poem. This recording is
• 59:07
  Speaker 6: in the public domain.
• 59:14
  Speaker 3: Song by Sophia Margareta Hansley readfolibrivox dot org by Iswael
• 59:19
  Speaker 3: in Belgium in February twenty seventeen. Deep in the green bracken,
• 59:26
  Speaker 3: lying close by the welcoming sea, dream I and let
• 59:31
  Speaker 3: all my dreaming drift as it will. Love to thee
• 59:36
  Speaker 3: sated with splendid caresses, showered by the sun in his pride,
• 59:41
  Speaker 3: scorched by his passionate kisses, languidly abs the tide. End
• 59:49
  Speaker 3: of poem. This recording is in the public domain.
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: Life's Joys by Sophia Margarette read for LibriVox dot org
• 1:00:02
  Speaker 1: by Heather James. I have been pondering what our teachers
• 1:00:07
  Speaker 1: call the mystery of pain, and lo my thought, after
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: its half blind reaching out, has caught this truth and
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: held it fast. We may not fall beyond our mounting
• 1:00:21
  Speaker 1: Stung by life's annoying deeper we feel the mystery of joy.
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: Sometimes they steal across us, like a breath of eastern
• 1:00:31
  Speaker 1: perfume in a darkened room. These joys of ours. We
• 1:00:36
  Speaker 1: grope on through the gloom, seeking some common thing, and
• 1:00:40
  Speaker 1: from its sheath, unloose, unknowing some bewildering scent of spice,
• 1:00:47
  Speaker 1: thronged memories of the Orient. Sometimes they dart across our
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: turbid sky, like a quick flash after a heated day,
• 1:00:58
  Speaker 1: a moment where the sun bombrous shadows lay, we see
• 1:01:02
  Speaker 1: a glory. Though it passed us by. No earthly power
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: can filch that dazzling glow from memory's eye. That instance,
• 1:01:12
  Speaker 1: shine and show. Life is so full of joys. The
• 1:01:17
  Speaker 1: alluring sea this morning, clear and placid, may ere night
• 1:01:23
  Speaker 1: toss like a petulant child, And when the light of
• 1:01:27
  Speaker 1: a new morning dawns sweep, grand and free, A mighty power,
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: if fierce or mild or bright, with every tide, flows
• 1:01:40
  Speaker 1: in a fresh delight. I can remember well when first
• 1:01:45
  Speaker 1: I knew the fragrance of white clover. There I lay
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: on the warm July grass, and heard the play of
• 1:01:55
  Speaker 1: sun browned insects, and the breezes blue. To my drowsed sense,
• 1:02:01
  Speaker 1: the scent the blossoms had, the subtle sweetness, stayed, and
• 1:02:06
  Speaker 1: I was glad, nor past the gladness. Though the years
• 1:02:12
  Speaker 1: have gone a many years, beloved since that day, whenever
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: by the roadside or away in radiant summer fields, wandering
• 1:02:22
  Speaker 1: alone or with glad children, to my restless sight, shows
• 1:02:27
  Speaker 1: that pale head comes back, the old delight. Oh, the
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: dark water and the filling sail, the scudding like a
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: sea mew, with the hand firm on the tiller. See
• 1:02:43
  Speaker 1: the red shored land receding as we brave the hastening gale,
• 1:02:48
  Speaker 1: white gleam, the wavetops, and the breakers roar sounds thunderingly
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: on the far distant shore. This mad hair flying in
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: the breeze blows wild across my face. See there the
• 1:03:04
  Speaker 1: gathering squall, that dark line to the eastward, Watch it
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: crawl stealthily towards us o'er the snow wreaths piled close
• 1:03:14
  Speaker 1: on each other. Ah, what joy to be drunk with
• 1:03:19
  Speaker 1: salt air in battle with the sea. So many joys,
• 1:03:25
  Speaker 1: and yet I have but told of simple things, the
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: joys of air and sea. Not all these things are
• 1:03:33
  Speaker 1: worth one hour with thee, one moment when thy darling
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: arms enfold my body, and all other meaner joys fade
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: from me like a child's forgotten toys. One thought is
• 1:03:50
  Speaker 1: ever with me, glorying all life's common aims. Surely will
• 1:03:55
  Speaker 1: dawn a day bright with an unknown rapture, when thy
• 1:04:00
  Speaker 1: way will be my journey road. And I can call
• 1:04:04
  Speaker 1: these joys our joys, for thou wilt walk with me
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: down budding pathways to the abounding sea. End of poem.
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: This recording is in the public domain. Song by Sophia
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: Margaretta Hensley read for LibriVox dot Org by Heather James.
• 1:04:31
  Speaker 1: Lo laughed, the columbine trembled, her petals fine as the
• 1:04:37
  Speaker 1: breeze blue in her dove heart. There stirred murmurs, the
• 1:04:44
  Speaker 1: dull bee herd and love life's wild white bird straightway
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: she knew, resting her lilac cheek gently in aspect, meek
• 1:04:59
  Speaker 1: on the gray stone, the morning glory free welcomed, the
• 1:05:05
  Speaker 1: yellow bee, heard the near rolling sea murmur and moan
• 1:05:12
  Speaker 1: calm lay the tawny sand, stretching a long wet hand
• 1:05:19
  Speaker 1: to the far wave. Swift to her warm, waiting breast,
• 1:05:25
  Speaker 1: longing to be possessed, leaps neath his billowy crest, her
• 1:05:31
  Speaker 1: lover brave. End of poem. This recording is in the
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: public domain. Barter by Sophia Margaretta Hensley, read for LibriVox
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: dot org by Heather James. There is a long, thin
• 1:05:52
  Speaker 1: line of fading gold in the far west, and the
• 1:05:56
  Speaker 1: transfigured leaves on some slight top most bough that sways
• 1:06:02
  Speaker 1: and heaves, hang limp and tremulous, nor warm nor cold,
• 1:06:08
  Speaker 1: the pungent air, and neath the yellow haze show flushed
• 1:06:13
  Speaker 1: and glad the wild october ways. There is a soft
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: enchantment in the air, a mystery the summer knows not,
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: nor the sturdy frost crowned winter. Nature wore her blandest
• 1:06:29
  Speaker 1: smile to day. As here and there I wandered elf
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: beset through wood and field, and gleaned the glories of
• 1:06:38
  Speaker 1: the autumn yield. A bunch of purple aster golden rod,
• 1:06:44
  Speaker 1: darkened by the first frost, a drooping spray of scarlet
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: barbery and tall and gray, the silk cord cotton with
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: its bursting pod, some tarnished maple boughs, and like a
• 1:07:00
  Speaker 1: flash of sudden flame, a branch of mountain ash. She smiled,
• 1:07:07
  Speaker 1: but it was not the welcoming smile of frank surrender,
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: as a witching maid in gorgeous garments, cunningly arrayed might
• 1:07:16
  Speaker 1: smile and draw them closer. Hers the guile to let
• 1:07:21
  Speaker 1: men hope, pray, labor in love's stress ere they her
• 1:07:28
  Speaker 1: hidden beauties may possess deep in the heart of earth,
• 1:07:34
  Speaker 1: where the springs rise down with the sweet linnaea, and
• 1:07:39
  Speaker 1: the moss in the brown thrush's throat, where the pines
• 1:07:44
  Speaker 1: toss in winter's harrying storms. Her secret lies ours the
• 1:07:50
  Speaker 1: chill night dews, and the waiting pain. Ere we her
• 1:07:55
  Speaker 1: fairy wealth may hope to gain tis. So with knowledge
• 1:08:02
  Speaker 1: eagerly we turn great Wisdom's page. And when our clear
• 1:08:07
  Speaker 1: eyes grow dim in the dusk of years and heads
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: bend low, weary, at last, the truth we strove to
• 1:08:16
  Speaker 1: learn is ours forever, but its joy of sight is
• 1:08:22
  Speaker 1: dearly bought. Methinks, with youth's delight. Fate, too, with chaffering
• 1:08:30
  Speaker 1: voice and beckoning hand, doles out our happiness. We snatch
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: at wealth and pay with anxious care and fading health.
• 1:08:41
  Speaker 1: We call for love and dream that we shall stand
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: on ground enchanted. But though sweet the way, the rocks
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: are sharp, and grief comes with the day. Even in love,
• 1:08:59
  Speaker 1: dear heart, there is exchange of gifts and griefs. And
• 1:09:04
  Speaker 1: so I render thee vows for thy vows, and pay
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: unfalteringly what love demands, nor ever deem it strange. And
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: when the snow drifts fast and north winds sting. I
• 1:09:21
  Speaker 1: make no murmur, but await the spring and the poem.
• 1:09:28
  Speaker 1: This recording is in the public domain.
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 3: Song by Sophia Margareta Hansley readfalllibrivox dot Org by Iswa
• 1:09:41
  Speaker 3: in Belgium in February twenty seventeen. Joy came in youth
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 3: as a hummingbird, sing hey for the honey and bloom
• 1:09:52
  Speaker 3: of life, And it made a home in my summer
• 1:09:56
  Speaker 3: bower with the honeysuckle and the sweet bee flower, sing Hey, father,
• 1:10:02
  Speaker 3: blossoms and sweets of life. Joy came as a lark
• 1:10:07
  Speaker 3: when the years had gone. Ah, Hush, hush still, for
• 1:10:11
  Speaker 3: the dream is short. And I gazed far up to
• 1:10:16
  Speaker 3: the melting blue, where the rare song dropped like a
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 3: golden dew. Ha sweet is the song, though the dream
• 1:10:24
  Speaker 3: be short. Joy hovers now in a far off mist.
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 3: The night draws on, and the air breathy snow, and
• 1:10:35
  Speaker 3: I reach sometimes with a trembling hand, to the red
• 1:10:38
  Speaker 3: tipped cloud of the joy bird's land. Alas for the
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 3: days of the storm and the snow end of poem.
• 1:10:50
  Speaker 3: This recording is in the public domain. Tomorrow by Sofya
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 3: ma Arogaretta Hensley breadfolibrovoxx dot org Byzwa in Belgium in
• 1:11:04
  Speaker 3: February twenty seventeen, but one short night between my love
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 3: and me. I watch the soft shod dust creep wistfully
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 3: through the slow moving curtains, pausing by and shrouding with
• 1:11:19
  Speaker 3: its spirit, fingers free each well known chair. There is
• 1:11:24
  Speaker 3: a growing grace of tender magic in this little place,
• 1:11:29
  Speaker 3: comes through half opened windows, soft and cool as spring's
• 1:11:33
  Speaker 3: young breath, the vagrant evening air. My day worn soul
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 3: is hushed. I fain would bear no burdens on my
• 1:11:43
  Speaker 3: brain to night, no rule of anxious thought. The world
• 1:11:48
  Speaker 3: has had my tears, my thoughts, my hopes, my aims
• 1:11:52
  Speaker 3: these many years. This is thy hour, and I shall
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 3: sink to sleep with a glad weariness, to know that
• 1:12:01
  Speaker 3: when the new day dawns, I shall lay by my
• 1:12:05
  Speaker 3: pen needed no more. If I perchance should weep a
• 1:12:10
  Speaker 3: few quick tears so doing, who would guess twas the
• 1:12:14
  Speaker 3: last thrub of my soul's loneliness. Not even thou, dear heart,
• 1:12:20
  Speaker 3: canst ever know how I have yearned these many months,
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 3: these years, for love for thee as the calm boatman
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 3: steers his slender shallop where he fain would go tempests
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 3: and rocks before. So through the dark to this dim,
• 1:12:38
  Speaker 3: far off day has set my bark to morrow. I
• 1:12:44
  Speaker 3: can hear the quick closed door, the approaching steps, my
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 3: pained heart's fluttering, thy voice than thee, and all the
• 1:12:57
  Speaker 3: storm and sting of bygone griefs up past for evermore,
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 3: swept from my life, as the resistless twind scatters the chaff,
• 1:13:06
  Speaker 3: nor leaves a moat behind, as long imprisoned captives reached
• 1:13:12
  Speaker 3: the light and gaze with greedy eyes on field and tree,
• 1:13:17
  Speaker 3: drinking the beauties of the sky and sea, half fearful
• 1:13:20
  Speaker 3: of their bliss. So from the night of dreams and shades,
• 1:13:25
  Speaker 3: half doubting, we awake and grasp the joy we almost
• 1:13:30
  Speaker 3: fear to take. Thou hidest in thy warm ones, my
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 3: cold hand, reading my soul in these unwavering eyes. Nay,
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 3: thou hast known my hopes, my agonies through written words,
• 1:13:47
  Speaker 3: and thou canst understand I have kept nothing back of
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 3: all the streams of my heart flowings, doubts, nor fears,
• 1:13:56
  Speaker 3: nor dreams. So long my life life has followed no
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 3: control but mine own impulse. Now I pray thee bend
• 1:14:06
  Speaker 3: my will to thine, and so unhindered tend my soul's
• 1:14:10
  Speaker 3: wild garden. I have laid the whole bare to thy sowing.
• 1:14:16
  Speaker 3: And life's precious wine is of thy pouring, and thy
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 3: way is mine. End of poem. This recording is in
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 3: public domain. Song by Sophia Margaretta Hensley Readfolibrivox dot org
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 3: by iswa in Belgium in February two thousand seventeen. Where
• 1:14:44
  Speaker 3: is the waiting time? Where are the fears gone? With
• 1:14:48
  Speaker 3: the winter's rhyme, the by gone years, all life's plain,
• 1:14:53
  Speaker 3: lone and vast slow treads, The morn night shades have moved,
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 3: and past joyce day is born. End of poem. This
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 3: recording is in the public domain. And of a Woman's
• 1:15:09
  Speaker 3: Love Letters by Sophia Margareta Hansley,