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1886–1950

THE WOMAN

William Rose Benét

You could hurt and you could heal, You could hide and still reveal, You were lilies, lilies and steel. You the near and you the far

Were as lamplight and a star. I cannot tell them what you were; Yet, Death, you have not all of her. No, I, the passionate nondescript,

Have wine your lips have never sipped, Have wine of her in my heart's blood Whom I never understood. You were tender and benign,

Trusting — and all fire divine And a constellation's sign. You the far and you the near, You heaven high and heaven here,

You the quest, and closest dear. Ah, God, you have not all of her, For still my cause she can prefer Where she goes, and where You were.

You could weep and you could rise With the Word clear in your eyes, With a strength beyond the wise. Girl and goddess, will and love,

Struggling, battling, winged above Memories I have memory of!

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THE WOMAN · William Rose Benét · Poetry Cove