Letter to a Suitor

Here is a poem written by a Miss Procter that exposes the vulnerability of a woman and pleads for men to search their hearts before asking her hand.

Before I trust my fate to thee,

Or place my hand in thine;

Before I let thy future give

Color and form to mine;

Before I peril all for thee,

Question thy soul tonight for me.

I break all slighter bonds, nor feel

A shadow of regret;

Is there one link within the past

That holds thy spirit yet?

Or is thy faith as clear and free

As that which I can pledge to thee?

Does there within thy dimmest dreams

A possible future shine,

Wherein thy life could henceforth breathe,

Untouched, unshared by mine?

If so, at any pain or cost,

Oh, tell me before all is lost.

Look deeper still. If thou canst feel

Within thy inmost soul

That thou hast kept a portion back,

While I have staked the whole,

Let no false pity spare the blow,

But in true mercy tell me so.

Is there within thy heart a need

That mine cannot fulfill?

One chord that any other hand

Cold better wake or still?

Speak now-lest at some future day

My whole life wither and decay.

Lives there within thy nature bid

The demon-spirit Change,

Shedding a passing glory still

On all things new and strange?

It may not be thy fault alone-

But shield my heart against thine own.

Couldst thou withdraw thy hand one day

And answer to my claim

That Fate, and that to-day's mistake-

Not thou-had been to blame?

Some sooth their conscience thus; but thou

Wilt surely warn and save me now.