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Note: Images of the original pages are available through
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Transcriber's note:

      Text enclosed by equal signs is in bold face (=bold).





SONGS OF WOMANHOOD

       *       *       *       *       *

_BY THE SAME AUTHOR._

_Uniform with this Volume._

REALMS OF UNKNOWN KINGS.


=The Athenaeum.=--'_In this volume the critic recognises with sudden
joy the work of a true poet._'

=The Saturday Review.=--'_It is a book in which deep feeling speaks
... and it has something of that essentially poetical thought, the
thought that sees, which lies deeper than feeling._'

LONDON: GRANT RICHARDS.

       *       *       *       *       *


SONGS OF WOMANHOOD

by

LAURENCE ALMA TADEMA







Grant Richards
48 Leicester Square
London
1903

Edinburgh: Printed by T. and A. Constable




A great number of the following verses are already known to readers of
_The Herb o' Grace_, and of the little reprint, _Songs of Childhood_.
As these pamphlets, however, did not reach the public, it has been
thought advisable to re-issue the verses in book-form, together with
three or four more collected from various reviews, and a number that
are here printed for the first time.

                                                           L.A.T.




Contents


                                                             PAGE

CHILDHOOD

    KING BABY                                                   3

    A BLESSING FOR THE BLESSED                                  5

    TO RAOUL BOUCHARD                                           8

    TO-DAY AND TO-MORROW                                       10

    THE NESTING HOUR                                           11

    THE LITTLE SISTER--Bath-time                               12
                       Bed-time                                13

    A TWILIGHT SONG                                            14

    A WINTRY LULLABY                                           15

    THE WARM CRADLE                                            16

    THE DROOPING FLOWER                                        17

    MOTHERS IN THE GARDEN--I.                                  18
                          II.                                  19

    THE GRAVEL PATH                                            20

    THE NEW PELISSE                                            21

    SOLACE                                                     22

    STRANGE LANDS                                              23

    MARCH MEADOWS--A Lark                                      24
                   Lambs                                       25

    THE ROBIN                                                  26

    THE MOUSE                                                  27

    THE BAT                                                    28

    THE SWALLOW                                                29

    SNOWDROPS                                                  30

    FROST                                                      32

    APPLES                                                     33

    LONELY CHILDREN--I.                                        34
                    II.                                        35

    PLAYGROUNDS                                                36

    FAIRINGS                                                   38

    THE FLOWER TO THE BUD                                      40

    SIX SONGS OF GIRLHOOD

    LOVE AND THE MAIDENS                                       43

    AWAKENINGS                                                 44

    THE CLOUDED SOUL                                           46

    THE HEALER                                                 47

    THE OPEN DOOR                                              48

    THE FUGITIVE                                               49


THE FAITHFUL WIFE                                              53


WOMANHOOD

    A WOMAN TO HER POET                                        63

    THE INFIDEL                                                64

    LOVE WITHIN VOWS                                           65

    THE EXILE                                                  66

    THE SCAR INDELIBLE                                         67

    REVULSION                                                  68

    THE CAPTIVE                                                69

    POSSESSION'S ANGUISH                                       70

    TREASURES OF POVERTY                                       72

    SOLITUDE                                                   73

    THE HEART ASLEEP                                           74

    ADVERSITY                                                  75

    FACES OF THE DEAD                                          76

    THE SLEEPER                                                80

    STARS                                                      81

    TRELAWNY'S GRAVE                                           82

    V.R.I.--JANUARY 22, 1901                                   83

    LINES ON A PICTURE BY MARY GOW                             84

    TO SERENITY                                                85


ELEVEN SONNETS                                                 89


THE