I Would Give Up The

One Who Awakens Gradually Out Of A Dream, A Delicious, Grotesque, Impossible Dream, To Feel Again The Realities Pressing Into Her Soul

There Were Days When She Was Unhappy, She Did Not Know Why,--when It Did Not Seem Worthwhile To Be Glad Or Sorry, To Be Alive Or Dead; When Life Appeared To Her Like A Grotesque Pandemonium And Humanity Like Worms Struggling Blindly Toward Inevitable Annihilation.

I Would Give Up The Unessential; I Would Give My Money, I Would Give My Life For My Children; But I Wouldn't Give Myself.

Well, For Instance, When I Left Her Today, She Put Her Arms Around Me And Felt My Shoulder Blades, To See If My Wings Were Strong, She Said.

I Dance With People I Despise; Amuse Myself With Men Whose Only Talent Lies In Their Feet, Gain The Disapprobation Of People I Honor And Respect; Return Home At Day Break With My Brain In A State Which Was Never Intended For It; And Arise In The Middle Of The Next Day Feeling Infinitely More, In Spirit And Flesh Like A Liliputian, Than A Woman With Body And Soul. Entry (when She Was Eighteen) In Her Commonplace Book, 1868-1869.