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Home  »  Poetry: A Magazine of Verse  »  Aline Kilmer

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). The New Poetry: An Anthology. 1917.

Charmian’s Song

Aline Kilmer

I’M glad I have but a little heart—

For my heart is very small:

It makes it free to come and go,

And no one cares at all.

I give my heart for a tender look,

For a gentle word or touch;

And the one who has it never knows,

And it does not hurt me much.

If my heart were great and I gave it away,

Then all the world would see;

But my heart is only a little thing

And it does not trouble me.

I may give my little heart unseen,

It is so small and light;

And only very wakeful things

Can hear it cry at night.