After a "decent interval" (they's checked
the calendar), they urged her to begin
TO rearrange her life, How circumspect
They were, and kind. But every discipline
Eluded her until at last so did
The faces of her grief.  He'd given shape
ANd substance to her days. As he would bid,
She'd lived, obedient. But now escape
Frompattersn was---she saw it----wise. Leave tears
To Sunday dauthers, sorrowing, How dead
He was, beloved ghost, and she with years
Stretched, endless and mysterious, ahead.
She vowed to like her solitary bed,
TO seek a need, to flee the bleak excess
Of empty hours and of idleness.
Eventually she'd learn to answer "Yes"
TO widowhood, she thought.  No longer wife
But woman still, she---rearranged her life.