Jennifer's Love

Small is my secret--let it pass--
  Small in your life the share I had,
Who sat beside you in the class,
  Awed by the bright superior lad:
    Whom yet with hot and eager face
    I prompted when he missed his place.



For you the call came swift and soon:
  But sometimes in your holidays
You meet me trudging home at noon
  To dinner through the dusty ways,
    And recognized, and with a nod
    Passed on, but never guessed--thank God!
Truly our ways were separate.
  I bent myself to hoe and drill,
Yea, with an honest man to mate,
  Fulfilling God Almighty's will;
    And bore him children. But my prayers
    Were yours--and, only after, theirs.
While you--still loftier, more remote,
  You sprang from stair to stair of fame,
And you've a riband on your coat,
  And you've a title to your name;
    But have you yet a star to shine
    Above your bed, as I o'er mine?