I WANTED you to come to-day <br />Or so I told you in my letter <br />And yet, if you had stayed away, <br />I should have liked you so much better. <br />I should have sipped my tea unseen, <br />And thrilled at every door-bell's pealing, <br />And thought how nice I could have been <br />Had you evinced a little feeling. <br /> <br />I should have guessed you drinking tea <br />With someone whom you loved to madness; <br />I should have thought you cold to me, <br />And revelled in a depth of sadness. <br />But, no! you came without delay <br />I could not feel myself neglected: <br />You said the things you always say, <br />In ways not wholly unexpected. <br /> <br />If you had let me wait in vain, <br />We should, in my imagination, <br />Have held, what we did not attain, <br />A most dramatic conversation. <br />Had you not come, I should have known <br />At least a vague anticipation, <br />Instead of which, I grieve to own, <br />You did not give me one sensation.<br /><br />Alice Duer Miller<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/how-like-a-woman/
