A Celebration 
of Women Writers

"The Other" by Ethna Carbery [aka Mrs. Seumus MacManus, Anna Johnston] (1866-1902)
From: The Four Winds of Eirinn: Poems by Ethna Carbery. (Anna MacManus.), Complete Edition, Edited by Seumas MacManus. Dublin, Ireland: M. H. Gill and Son, Ltd. 1906. p. 73.

Editor: Mary Mark 
Ockerbloom

[Page 73] 

THE OTHER.

I am the Other–I who come
  To heal the wound she gave,
The wound that struck your fond words dumb,
  And left your world a grave.

What though you loved her–I love you,
  And so the most is said,
Here is my yearning heart, still true
  To yours her frailty bled.

(But oh! the bitter grief that I
  Kept hushed, the wild despair,
When your dear eyes had passed me by
  To find her face so fair.)

Now she hath gone her cruel way,
  And I am come again,
To seek among the husks to-day
  For one sweet golden grain.

Because in me Love's strength is great,
  Too great for pride, or sin,
I knock upon your heart's barred gate,
  And pray you let me in.

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Editor: Mary 
Mark Ockerbloom