Poems (Osgood)/A Reply to one who said, "Write from your Heart"

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Poems
by Frances Sargent Osgood
A Reply to one who said, "Write from your Heart"
4443305Poems — A Reply to one who said, "Write from your Heart"Frances Sargent Osgood
A REPLY
to one who said, "write from your heart."

    Ah! woman still
    Must veil the shrine,
Where feeling feeds the fire divine,
    Nor sing at will,
    Untaught by art,
The music prison'd in her heart!

    Still gay the note,
    And light the lay,
The woodbird warbles on the spray,
    Afar to float;
    But homeward flown,
Within his nest, how changed the tone!

    Oh! none can know,
    Who have not heard
The music-soul that thrills the bird,
    The carol low,
    As coo of dove
He warbles to his woodland-love!

    The world would say
    'Twas vain and wild,
Th' impassion'd lay of Nature's child;
    And Feeling, so
    Should veil the shrine,
Where softly glow her fires divine!