C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
Nameless Pain
By Elizabeth Drew Barstow Stoddard (18231902)
I
A wife and mother,—is it not
Enough for me to be content?
What other blessing could be sent?
That make each day like other days;
I only see Time’s shadow now
Darken the hair on baby’s brow.
No beggar brings his misery;
I have no power, no healing art,
With bruisèd soul or broken heart.
’Tis lotus-eating in a cage;
I study art, but art is dead
To one who clamors to be fed
Who longs for Labor’s lusty rest.
O foolish wish! I still should pine
If any other lot were mine.