Georgia Douglas Johnson, "The Heart of a Woman" (1918)
As a lone bird, soft winging, so restlessly on,
Afar o'er life's turrets and vales does it roam
In the wake of those echoes the heart calls home.
The heart of a woman falls back with the night,
And enters some alien cage in its plight,
And tries to forget it has dreamed of the stars
While it breaks, breaks, breaks on the sheltering bars.
Published in The Heart of a Woman and Other Poems, 1918
Also published in Caroling Dusk, 1927