Read "Possession" by Edith Nesbit online for free on Textopian. Full text with search, annotations, highlights, and AI-powered reading aids.
THE child was yours and none of mine, / And yet you gave it me to keep, / And bade me sew it raiment fine, / And wrap my kisses round its sleep.
I carried it upon my breast, / I fed it in a world apart, / I wrapped my kisses round its rest, / I rocked its cradle with my heart.
When in mad nights of rain and storm / You turned us homeless from your door, / I wrapped it close, I kept it warm, / And brought it safe to you once more.
But the last time you drove us forth, / The snow was wrapped about its head, / That night the wind blew from the North, / And on my heart the child was dead.
The child is mine and none of yours, / My life was his while he had breath, / What of your claim to him endures, / Who only gave him birth and death?