I finally discovered who wrote this poem several months after I received the verse. And years later, I found the verse again in a book of selected poems by Elizabeth Barrett Browning.

Almost ten years ago, it was given to me on a slip of paper, without the poet's name. I cried a river of tears.

This poem has haunted me all these years. It's about heartache. Mostly, it's about a broken heart who warns of the regret the woman would experience when she realises what she has done.

It's also about the fears of a variety-seeking Queen Bee, who might feel unloved one day, only to realise that the love of one is better than the admiration of many.

Bon Journal

A False Step

by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

Sweet, thou hast trod on a heart,
Pass, there's a world full of men;
and women as fair as thou art
Must do such things now and then.

Thou only hast stepped unaware;
Malice, not one can impute;
and why should a heart have been there,
In the way of a fair woman's foot?

It was not a stone that could trip.
Nor was it a thorn that could rend:
Put up thy proud underlip!
'Twas merely the heart of a friend.

And yet, peradventure, one day
Thou, sitting alone at the glass,
Remarking the bloom gone away,
Where the smile in its dimplement was,

And seeking around thee in vain,
From hundreds who flattered before,
Such a word as, "Oh, not in the main
Do I hold thee less precious, but more!"...

Thou'lt sigh, very like, on thy part,
"Of all I have known or can know,
I wish I had only that heart
I trod upon ages ago!"

1 November 2003 Saturday

analyticalQ poetry collection

Related:

Woman - a poem

If thou must love me, let it be for nought ..... by Elizabeth Barrett Browning

fear of regret

nolstagia

sentimental recollection

unrequited love

these are the themes of great poems