"The Trembling Heart"

The Trembling Heart

I lift my head and walk my ways

       Before the world without a tear,

And bravely unto those I meet

       I smile a message of good cheer;

I give my lips to laugh and song,

       And somehow get me through each day;

But oh, the tremble in my heart

       Since she has gone away!

Her feet had known the stinging thorns,

       Her eyes the blistering tears;

Bent were her shoulders with the weight

       And sorrow of the years;

The lines were deep upon her brow,

       Her hair was thin and gray;

And oh, the tremble in my heart

       Since she has gone away!

I am not sorry; I am glad;

       I would not have her here again;

God gave her strength life’s bitter cup

       Unto the bitterest dreg to drain; 

I will not have less strength than she,

       I proudly tread my stony way;

But oh, the tremble in my heart

       Since she has gone away!

"The Trembling Heart" published in The Assumption Pioneer out of Napoleonville, Louisiana on June 15, 1907.

"The Trembling Heart" as it appears in Ella Higginson's The Voice of April-Land (1903).

"The Trembling Heart" as it appears in Ella Higginson's Four-Leaf Clover (1901).