Susan Coolidge

Verses Susan Coolidge

Publisher Marketing: Do their errands; enter into the sacrifice with them; be a link yourself in the divine chain, and feel the joy and life of it.-ADELINE D. T. WHITNEY What can I do for thee, Beloved, Whose feet so little while ago Trod the same way-side dust with mine, And now up paths I do not know Speed, without sound or sign? What can I do? The perfect life All fresh and fair and beautiful Has opened its wide arms to thee; Thy cup is over-brimmed and full; Nothing remains for me. I used to do so many things, - Love thee and chide thee and caress; Brush little straws from off thy way, Tempering with my poor tenderness The heat of thy short day. Not much, but very sweet to give; And it is grief of griefs to bear That all these ministries are o'er, And thou, so happy, Love, elsewhere, Never can need me more: - And I can do for thee but this (Working on blindly, knowing not If I may give thee pleasure so): Out of my own dull, burdened lot I can arise, and go To sadder lives and darker homes, A messenger, dear heart, from thee Who wast on earth a comforter, And say to those who welcome me, I am sent forth by her.

Contributor Bio:  Coolidge, Susan Susan Coolidge was the pen name of nineteenth-century American author Sarah Chauncey Woolsey. Born to wealth, Coolidge worked as a nurse during the Civil War before returning to her family home to take up a career in writing. Although best known for her classic Katy series of children's novels including What Katy Did and What Katy Did Next, Coolidge also published more than twenty works of fiction, and edited The Autobiography and Correspondence of Mrs. Delaney and The Diary and Letter of Frances Burney. Coolidge died in 1905.