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Charlotte Mew

Charlotte Mew, born in London on November 15, 1869 into a family of seven children, would die by her own hand on March 24, 1928: she had lost all her family to death or pyschiatric hospitals. She was educated at a

On the Road to the Sea

by Charlotte Mew (1869–1928)

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16

We passed each other, turned and stopped for half an hour, then went our way,

I who make other women smile did not make you—

But no man can move mountains in a day.

So this hard thing is yet to do.

 But first I want your life:—before I die I want to see 
   The world that lies behind the strangeness of your eyes, 
 There is nothing gay or green there for my gathering, it may be, 
    Yet on brown fields there lies 
 A haunting purple bloom: is there not something in grey skies 

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