Dora Read Goodale (1866-?)

"I have not seen any volume by Miss Goodale: the sonnet I have quoted appeared in Harper’s Magazine." (Sharp)

Confession

Believe me, dear, unyielding though I be,

Ambitions flourish only in the sun--

In noisy daylight every race is run,

With lusty pride for all the world to see.

When darkness sinks the earth in mystery,

When eye or ear or sight or sound is none,

But death, a tide that waits to bear us on,

And life, a loosening anchor in the sea,

When time and space are huge about the soul,

And ties of custom lost beyond recall,

And courage as a garment in the flame,

Then all my spirit breaks without control,

Then the heart opens then the hot tears fall

To prove me wholly woman that I am.