The Heart of a Woman

On By RosinaIn Inner Life

The heart of a woman goes forth with the dawn,

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.

—Georgia Douglas Johnson, 1916

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Hope deferred makes the heart sick. (Proverbs 13:12) What thoughts and feelings does this poem stir up in you? Have you ever felt trapped or oppressed? Do you have shattered hopes and dreams lying around your feet? Leave a comment to share your insights on dealing with deferred hope.

6 thoughts on “The Heart of a Woman”

  1. Victoria

    I love this poem. I remember us reading it at home when we were younger. I think for me the biggest thing is the longing to be a mother. Even more than getting married. I love being a career woman and I love that I can do so much youth ministry and mother kids who don’t have mothers but I long to have my own kids. I know God can redeem this, just not sure how he will do it.

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    1. The hope of being a mother is a beautiful one. I don’t think it’s a desire you should try to forget, even if it’s heartbreaking. I pray that Jesus will grant you your desire.

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  2. RachelG

    I think it is so fitting for you to share about hope deferred right after your post on fear and a hardened heart. When my hope is deferred, I tend to say things like “Well, I won’t get my hopes up again” or “Next time I’ll know better than to hope for _______” In other words, I harden my heart. I put up a barrier against the possibility of pain. Fact is, the pain is still there, even if I’ve hardened myself to it. I need to allow painful experiences to soak into my heart and to draw me to the One who heals the broken-hearted.

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    1. Rachel, what you said about the pain being there even when we harden ourselves to it is so true. But it’s not easy to let pain out and bring it to Jesus for healing. That’s something I have to keep working on!

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  3. Louisa

    I felt like all my dreams died with Sheldon. It was as though a city’s skyline had been flattened. I had no long-term dreams left. I had two events every week that I lived for, and I’m SO GLAD I had those. Romans says we are saved by hope.

    Now I have hope again, and dreams. I enjoy life. But there are still those dreams that Sheldon & I had that will never be realized–except maybe in some way in the new earth. I grieve those dreams.

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