Explore "A Woman of the World" by Madison Cawein on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
/ I. As to my soul -- 'tis pathos and passion. / As to my life -- 't hath a flavor of sin. / What would you have when such is the fashion, / Was and will be of the world we are in? / Yes, I have loved. And have you? -- Have you reckoned / The cost of all love? -- I can tell you: as much / As a soul! -- Is it worth it? -- You'll know it that second / You know that you love; and God pity all such!
/ II. My lover dissembled that ardor's pure beauty. / I endured undeceived nor pretended; and gave / All that his passion demanded -- my duty, / For I loved. And the world? -- why, I was his slave! -- / Should it worry I pleased him? -- Propriety sorrowed, / Uprolling her eyes as occasion, and -- well, / That lie, overglossed with a modesty borrowed, / Assisted my fall and the end was -- I fell.