His Last Letter

Well, you are free;     The longed for, lied for, waited for decree     Is yours to-day.     I made no protest; and you had your say,     And left me with no vestige of repute.     Neglect, abuse, and cruelty you charge     With broken marriage vows.    The list is large     But not to be denied.    So I was mute.     Now you shall listen to a few plain facts     Before you go out wholly from my life     As some man's wife.     Read carefully this statement of your acts     Which changed the lustre of my honeymoon     To sombre gloom,     And wrenched the cover from Pandora's box.     In those first talks     'Twixt bride and groom I showed you my whole heart,     Showed you how deep my love was and how true;     With all a strong man's feeling I loved YOU:     (God, how I loved you, my one chosen mate.)     But I learned this     (So poorly did you play your little part):     You married marriage, to avoid the fate     Of having 'Miss'     Carved on your tombstone.    Love you did not know,     But you were greedy for the showy things     That money brings.     Such weak affection as you could bestow     Was given the provider, not the lover.     The knowledge hurt.    Keen pain like that is dumb;     And masks itself in smiles, lest men discover.     But I was lonely; and the feeling grew     The more I studied you.     Into your shallow heart love could not come,     But yet you loved my love; because it gave     The prowess of a mistress o'er a slave.     You showed your power     In petty tyranny hour after hour,     Day after day, year after lengthening years.     My tasks, my pleasures, my pursuits were not     Held near or dear,     Or made to seem important in your thought.     My friends were not your friends; you goaded me     By foolish and ignoble jealousy,     Till, through suggestion's laws     I gave you cause.     The beauteous ideal Love had hung     In my soul's shrine,     And worshipped as a something all divine,     With wanton hand you flung     Into the dust.    And then you wondered why     My love should die.     My sins and derelictions cry aloud     To all the world:    my head is bowed     Under its merited reproaches.    Yours     Is lifted to receive     The sympathy the court's decree insures.     The world loves to believe     In man's depravity and woman's worth;     But I am one of many men on earth     Whose loud resounding fall     Is like the crashing of some well-built wall     Which those who seek can trace     To the slow work of insects at its base.     . . . . . . .     Be not afraid.     The alimony will be promptly paid