My Kate
ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING
She was not as pretty as women I know,
And yet all your best made of sunshine and snow
And yet all your best made of sunshine and snow
Drop to shade, melt to nought in the long-trodden ways,
While she's still remembered on warm and cold days-
My Kate.
Her air had a meaning, her movements a grace;
You turned from the fairest to gaze on her face;
And when you had once seen her forehead and mouth,
You saw as distinctly her soul and her truth-
My Kate.
Such a blue inner light from her eyelids outbroke,
You looked at her silene and fancied she spoke;
When she did, so peculiar yet soft was the tone,
Though the loudest spoke also, you heard her alone-
My Kate.
I doubt if she said to you much that could act
As a thought or suggestion; she did not attrat
In the sense of the brilliant or wise; I infer
'Twas her thinking of others made you think of her-
My Kate.
She never found fault with you, never implied
Your wrong by her right; and yet men at her side
Grew nobler, girls purer, as through the whole town
The children were gladder that pulled at her gown-
My Kate.
None knelt at her feet confessed lovers in thrall;
They knelt more to God than they used- that was all;
If you praised her as charming, some asked what you meant,
But the charm of her presence was felt when she went-
My Kate.
The weak and the gentle, the ribald and rude,
She took as she found them, and did them all good;
It always was so with her- see what you have!
She has made the grass greener even here with her grave-
My Kate.
To be remembered in this way!
-Sarah Michelle
