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172 | Uncollected and Other Poems Step by Step Step by step you told me was the journey— Day after day you told me was the year— Patience, Faith and Duty! I believed and I obeyed you; Centuries have rolled over me—left me here. Life whirls by in splendid new occasions, Time swings on, with triumph in its train, The world does move! Life is growth and motion! While I sit still, in patience, faith and pain. I have step-by-stepped like a blind horse in a treadmill, I have day-after-dayed through an endless inch-worm age; Rebellions lift the peoples—discovery! invention! Divine is discontent! there is righteousness in rage! I have done with patience! I will dictate duty! Child of mine no more shall hear what I have borne so long! Foresight, effort, daring, shall guide to ease and beauty, And show my crippled sisters that their petty rules are wrong. (Woman’s Journal, 30 April 1904, 138) “O ’Tis Love, ’Tis Love, ’Tis Love That Makes the World Go Round”27 Why should the people of to-day Believe the things old poets say As if all tales were true— As if those people knew? Because our ancestors were sold, Believing all that they were told, That isn’t proof, you know— That doesn’t make it so! We love in France, we love in Spain, Across the world and back again We’re loving with a will; But some live nations forge ahead Some drop behind, as good as dead. And some are sitting still. Did love propel Columbus’ keel?28 Make Darwin29 think or Froebel30 feel? Still oil, develop coal? Was Watt31 in love when watching steam? Is railroad conquest Love’s young dream? Does Eros seek the pole? O bless you, no! They love in Hindustan:32 But precious slow those people go U NC OL L E C T E D A N D O T H E R P OE M S | 173 In spite of Cupid’s plan. The Roman ringed the world with power, The Turk and Tartar had their hour, The Hindu also ran. They love in China, too, but what does China do? For all her lover’s sighs and tears She has not moved in a thousand years! Surely enough to show Love doesn’t make us go! Because a thing is said and said, By many living and more dead, That doesn’t make it so! O bless you, no! (Woman’s Journal, 7 May 1904, 146) Faith and Fact Have you lost your hold on God? Fallen low, sunk again, Into error, weakness, pain, Till the light no more seems true. Fear not in the dark and cold; God has never lost his hold Upon you. Have you lost your faith in God? Learned too much, grown too wise To believe mistakes and lies? Still the Primal Force doth act, Fear not in the light to-day; Better than all faith can say Is the fact. (Woman’s Journal, 21 May 1904, 162) Where We Leave Off Where we leave off and something else begins— Not at our skins, Not at the garments new With which we cover them: Not at the door-step, nor the dooryard fence, Nor where the city dense Thins gradually to the open land; Not at the strand Of this our country, where the surf-beat dies, Or map-line lies: Not with the hemisphere!—the human soul Needs the world whole. ...

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