< Return to Charlotte Perkins Gilman Poems
Finding
Out of great darkness and wide wastes of silence,
Long loneliness, and slow untasted years,
Came a slow filling of the empty places,
A slow, sweet lighting of forgotten faces,
A smiling under tears.
A light of dawn that filled the brooding heaven,
A warmth that kindled all the earth and air,
A thrilling tender music, floating, stealing,
A fragrance of unnumbered flowers revealing
A sweetness new and fair.
After the loss of love where I had sought him,
After the anguish of the empty shrine,
Came a warm joy from all the hearts around me,
A feeling that some perfect strength had found me,
Touch of the hand divine.
I followed Love to his intensest centre,
And lost him utterly when fastened there;
I let him go and ceased my selfish seeking,
Turning my heart to all earth’s voices speaking,
And found him everywhere.
Love like the rain that falls on just and unjust,
Love like the sunshine, measureless and free,
From each to all, from all to each, to live in;
And, in the world’s glad love so gladly given,
Came heart’s true love to me!
See Seeking by Charlotte Perkins Gilman
< Return to Charlotte Perkins Gilman Poems
“How I wish this illustrated version was given to me back [when I first read this story]! The level of detail in the illustrations helped me ‘feel’ the story. They are beautiful, haunting, disturbing, and yet not over interpreting the work. Do a young (or old) English student a favor and get this illustrated version of Gilman’s classic early feminist story The Yellow Wallpaper.”
—Lynn Silvera, Amazon reviewer