A WOMAN'S QUESTION

By: Adelaide Anne Procter

Before I trust my fate to thee,

Or place my hand in thine.

Before I let thy future give

Color and form to mine.

Before I peril all for thee,

Question thy soul to-night for me.

I break all slighter bonds, nor feel

A shadow of regret.

Is there one link within the past

That holds thy spirit yet?

Or is thy faith as clear and free

As that which I can pledge to thee?

Does there within thy dimmest dream

A possible future shine,

Wherein thy life could henceforth breathe,

Untouched, unshared by mine?

If so, at any pain or cost,

Oh, tell me before all is lost.

Look deeper still.  If thou canst feel

Within thy inmost soul

That thou has kept a portion back

While I have staked the whole

Let no false pity spare the blow,

But in true mercy tell me so.

Is there within thy heart a need

That mine cannot fulfill?

One chord that any other hand

Could better wake or still?

Speak now –lest at some future day

My whole life wither and decay.

Lives there within thy nature hid

The demon-spirit change

Shedding a passing glory still

On all things new and strange?

It may not be thy fault alone

But shield my heart against thy own.

Couldst thou withdraw thy hand one day

And answer to my claim

That fate, and that today’s mistake

Not thou – had been to blame?

Some soothe their conscience thus; but thou

Wilt surely warn and save me now.

Nay, answer not, I dare not hear,
The words would come too late;
Yet I would spare thee all remorse,
So, comfort thee, my fate.
Whatever on my heart may fall,
Remember, I would risk it all!