Looking Back
Artist: Arthur Hughes
Engraver: Joseph Swain
1873
Wood-engraving
Illustration for a poem by May Paul (see below) in Good Words
[Click on image to enlarge it, and see below for the text that appears beneath the image.]
IT'S oh for the sunny stream
That leaps by the daisied lea;
And it’s oh for the cot by the wood,
Where my goodman first brought me!
It’s oh for the cot by the wood—
The smoke curling up to the west—
The working and waiting and looking forth
For a face to bring me rest!
Kindly looks it has for me still—
It is tender and true as of old;
But ’tis hard to have no skill,
And a brain that won’t take hold!
I walk up and down among silk.
And the servants come at my call,
And my hands are whiter than milk;
But I mourn in midst of it all.
I try and strive till I faint,
And wish I could only lie.
Always asleep, and dream that I
In the happy days gone by.
It’s oh for the sunny stream
That leaps by the daisied lea—
And it’s oh for the cot by the wood
Where my goodman first brought me.
Bibliography
Paul, May. “Looking Back.” Good Words. (1873): 640.
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Last modified 22 November 2019