Explore "A Maid who Died Old" by Madison Cawein on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
/ Frail, shrunken face, so pinched and worn, / That life has carved with care and doubt! / So weary waiting, night and morn, / For that which never came about! / Pale lamp, so utterly forlorn, / In which God's light at last is out.
/ Gray hair, that lies so thin and prim / On either side the sunken brows! / And soldered eyes, so deep and dim, / No word of man could now arouse! / And hollow hands, so virgin slim, / Forever clasped in silent vows!
/ Poor breasts! that God designed for love, / For baby lips to kiss and press; / That never felt, yet dreamed thereof, / The human touch, the child caress -- / That lie like shriveled blooms above / The heart's long-perished happiness.
/ O withered body, Nature gave / For purposes of death and birth, / That never knew, and could but crave / Those things perhaps that make life worth, -- / Rest now, alas! within the grave, / Sad shell that served no end of Earth.