Read "Suspense" by James Whitcomb Riley online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
A woman's figure, on a ground of night / Inlaid with sallow stars that dimly stare / Down in the lonesome eyes, uplifted there / As in vague hope some alien lance of light / Might pierce their woe. The tears that blind her sight -- / The salt and bitter blood of her despair -- / Her hands toss back through torrents of her hair / And grip toward God with anguish infinite.
And O the carven mouth, with all its great / Intensity of longing frozen fast / In such a smile as well may designate / The slowly-murdered heart, that, to the last, / Conceals each newer wound, and back at Fate / Throbs Love's eternal lie -- "Lo, I can wait! "