Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, NORA, by ELIZABETH WEST PARKER


Poetry Explorer

Classic and Contemporary Poetry

NORA, by                    
First Line: When I came back from nora's burial
Last Line: "oh, let me be like her!"
Subject(s): Death; Housekeeping; Dead, The


When I came back from Nora's burial
I found the three days' work to do;
The kitchen sink piled high with sticky dishes,
The beds unmade, the pantry bare;
Soiled rugs to sweep, soiled floors to scrub;
Besides, the countless, little, nameless things
The true housekeeper's feet run after all day long
And never overtake, --
The tiny trivial tasks that show only when they
Are left undone;
Yet their accomplishment makes all the difference
Between the comfort and the rub
Of daily living.

Yes, she, the one I loved the best of all,
Who ever turned toward me the brighter side of things,
Who shared with me her beauty and her song,
Was gone;
Gone on to higher life; and there was left for me
Only the same old toil and fret, --
The dirt that I must fight each hour,
Knowing full well that it would conquer me,
That surely they would lay me down in it at last, --
To rub, and scrub, and scour, and clean,
To bake, and brew, and mend
For those who did not care for me at all,
Nor I for them.

And she was gone, gone, gone!

Yet I took up the broom and pail with strength
I never felt before.
Lord! How she hated drudgery!
She would not even talk of it.
How she laughed at those who spent good time
In telling how much work they'd done that day!
Yet she was tied to drudgery herself
As most of us must always be, it seems.
"It is to do," she said, and kept her thought
Upon the book, the music, and the bit
Of loveliness her flashing needle wrought so cleverly.
She had so little strength; but with it all she loved
The bird, the flower, the sky, the child -- so hard
That all who neared her caught her joy in life.
No pain could spoil her smile;
When it was winter out-of-doors, she made you think of spring.

When I came back from Nora's funeral
I worked with all my might and prayed,
"Oh, let me be like her!"





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