If, however, one will meditate over the whole, take hints here and there and put them together, a distinct picture is slowly formed in the mind. A wife, whose husband demands that she explain to him something in her past life, is speaking. She has perhaps loved some one before him, and his curiosity or jealousy is aroused. The poem really constitutes her appeal to his higher nature and her insistence upon the sacredness of their present relation, which she fears words may profane. She does not even fully understand the past herself. To explain would be false to him, hence with love and tenderness she pleads for delay. Yet she promises to speak his "speech," but "to-morrow, not to-night." Perhaps she hopes that his mood will change; possibly she feels that he is not now in the right attitude of mind to understand or sympathize with her experiences. A WOMAN'S LAST WORD Let's contend no more, Love, Strive nor weep: All be as before, Love, --Only sleep! What so wild as words are? I and thou In debate, as birds are, Hawk on bough! See the creature stalking While we speak! Hush and hide the talking, Cheek on cheek. What so false as truth is, False to thee? Where the serpent's tooth is, Shun the tree-- Where the apple reddens, Never pry-- Lest we lose our Edens, Eve and I. Be a god and hold me With a charm! Be a man and fold me With thine arm! Teach me, only teach, Love! As I ought I will speak thy speech, Love, Think thy thought-- Meet, if thou require it, Both demands Laying flesh and spirit In thy hands. That shall be to-morrow, Not to-night: I must bury sorrow Out of sight: --Must a little weep, Love, (Foolish me!) And so fall asleep, Love, Loved by thee. In this poem a most delicate relation between two human beings is interpreted. Short though it is, it yet goes deeper into motives, concentrates attention more energetically upon one point of view, and is possibly more impressive than if the theme had been unfolded in a play or novel. It turns the listener or reader within himself, and he feels in his own breast the response to her words. All great art discharges its function by evoking imagination and feeling, but it is not always the intellectual meaning which first appears. However far apart these two poems may be in spirit or subject, there are certain characteristics common to them; they are both monologues.