Skip to content
Linespedia

The Coquette.

Topics: classic

Alone she sat with her accusing heart,          That, like a restless comrade frightened sleep,              And every thought that found her, left a dart          That hurt her so, she could not even weep.              Her heart that once had been a cup well filled          With love's red wine, save for some drops of gall              She knew was empty; though it had not spilled          Its sweets for one, but wasted them on all.              She stood upon the grave of her dead truth,          And saw her soul's bright armor red with rust,              And knew that all the riches of her youth          Were Dead Sea apples, crumbling into dust.              Love that had turned to bitter, biting scorn,          Hearthstones despoiled, and homes made desolate,              Made her cry out that she was ever born,          To loathe her beauty and to curse her fate.

AI analysis available. Enable JavaScript to interact.

About this line

"Alone she sat with her accusing heart,..."

Exploring the themes of classic, Ella Wheeler Wilcox delivers a powerful performance in "The Coquette."... ### Why We Love This Line At Linespedia, we believe that poetry is the ultimate sanctuary for the soul...

Classified Tags

Related lines

"Luck is the tuning of our inmost thought          To chord with God's great plan.         That done, ah! know,     Thy silent wishes to results"

"I stand in the blaze of the candle rays,          While my merry maidens three     Arrange each tress, and loop my dress,          And render m"

"I held the golden vessel of my soul     And prayed that God would fill it from on high.     Day after day the importuning cry     Grew stronger"

"How happy they are, in all seeming,          How gay, or how smilingly proud,     How brightly their faces are beaming,          These people"

"Here morning in the ploughman's songs is met     Ere yet one footstep shows in all the sky,     And twilight in the east, a doubt as yet,     S"

"The Text is taken from Percy's Reliques (1765), vol. i. p. 71, 'given from two MS. copies, transmitted from Scotland.' Herd had a very similar bal"

Continue Reading

"Luck is the tuning of our inmost thought          ..."

Weekly Poetic Insight

Join our literary Sanctuary

Get the most inspiring lines, poetic analysis, and secret shayaris delivered to your inbox every Sunday.