Explore "Unsatisfied" by Ella Wheeler Wilcox on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
_The bird flies home to its young_; / _The flower folds its leaves about an opening bud_; / _And in my neighbour's house there is the cry of a child_. / _I close my window that I need not hear_.
She is mine, and she is very beautiful: / And in her heart there is no evil thought. / There is even love in her heart- / Love of life, love of joy, love of this fair world, / And love of me (or love of my love for her); / Yet she will never consent to bear me a child. / And when I speak of it she weeps, / Always she weeps, saying: / ‘Do I not bring joy enough into your life? / Are you not satisfied with me and my love, / As I am satisfied with you? / Never would I urge you to some great peril / To please my whim; yet ever so you urge me, / Urge me to risk my happiness-yea, life itself- / So lightly do you hold me. ' And then she weeps, / Always she weeps, until I kiss away her tears / And soothe her with sweet lies, saying I am content. / Then she goes singing through the house like some bright bird / Preening her wings, making herself all beautiful, / Perching upon my knee, and pecking at my lips / With little kisses. So again love's ship / Goes sailing forth upon a portless sea, / From nowhere unto nowhere; and it takes / Or brings no cargoes to enrich the world.