Edith Wharton -"A Failure."

( She Speaks.)

I MEANT to be so strong and true!

The world may smile and question, When?

But what I might have been to you

I cannot be to other men.

Just one in twenty to the rest,

And all in all to you alone, --

This was my dream; perchance 'tis best

That this, like other dreams, is flown.



For you I should have been so kind,

So prompt my spirit to control,

To win fresh vigor for my mind,

And purer beauties for my soul;

Beneath your eye I might have grown

To that divine, ideal height,

Which, mating wholly with your own,

Our equal spirits should unite.
more