by Lydia Sigourney
MORN on her rosy couch awoke,
Enchantment led the hour,
And mirth and music drank the dews
That freshen Beauty’s flower.
Then from her bower of deep delight,
I heard a young girl sing,
“Oh, speak no ill of poetry,
For ’tis a holy thing.” Continue reading Poetry.
by Lydia Sigourney
First of that train which cursed the wave,
And from the rifled cabin bore,
Inheritor of wo,—the slave
To bless his palm-tree’s shade no more, Continue reading To the First Slave Ship
by Lydia Sigourney
How fair upon the admiring sight,
In Learning’s sacred fane,
With cheek of bloom, and robe of white,
Glide on yon graceful train.
Blest creatures! to whose gentle eye
Earth’s gilded gifts are new,
Ye know not that distrustful sigh
Which deems its vows untrue. Continue reading School of Young Ladies.
by Lydia Sigourney
“How can the Red men be forgotten, while so many of our states and territories, bays, lakes and rivers, are indelibly stamped by the names of their giving?”
YE say they all have pass’d away,
That noble race and brave,
That their light canoes have vanish’d
From off the crested wave
That mid the forests where they roam’d
There rings no hunter’s shout;
But their name is on your waters,
Ye may not wash it out. Continue reading Indian Names
by Lydia Sigourney
DEATH found strange beauty on that polish’d brow,
And dash’d it out. There was a tint of rose
On cheek and lip. He touched the veins with ice,
And the rose faded. Continue reading Death of an Infant
Sigourney wrote several poems in homage to the famous Connecticut tree known as the Charter Oak. This poem was written in the period of state-wide grief when the tree was struck by lightening and fell on August 21, 1856. Hartford even organized a funeral procession for the tree that drew crowds of mourners. The wood from the tree was harvested and turned into keepsakes that can still be viewed at places like the CT Museum of Culture and History and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art. Charles De Wolf Brownell’s painting of 1857 is often on view at the Wadsworth, a spectacular homage to the tree whose frame is made from the Charter Oak’s wood. Read what Mark Twain had to say about the Charter Oak on his first visit to Hartford and to the Wadsworth in this anthology (see “Glimpse of Hartford” under Samuel Clemens/Mark Twain.) To learn what made this such an iconic tree and to see an image of Brownell’s painting, go to The Legend of the Charter Oak on Connecticuthistory.org. Continue reading Fall of the Charter Oak
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Ringel, Faye. “Historically Speaking: Lydia Sigourney, Pioneering Educator and Poet, Was Norwich Native.” Norwich Bulletin (2021). https://www.norwichbulletin.com/story/news/local/2021/03/07/historically-speaking-lydia-sigourney-pioneering-educator-poet/4619682001/.
Sayers, Edna Edith, and Diana Gates. “Lydia Huntley Sigourney and the Beginnings of American Deaf Education in Hartford: It Takes a Village.” Sign Language Studies 8, no. 4 (2008): 369–411. http://www.jstor.org/stable/26190548.
Teed, Melissa Ladd. “A Passion for Distinction: Lydia Huntley Sigourney and the Creation of a Literary Reputation.” The New England Quarterly 77, no. 1 (2004): 51–69. http://www.jstor.org/stable/1559686.
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https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/52036/death-of-an-infant.
“Indian Names.” All Poetry (1834). https://allpoetry.com/Indian-Names.
“Letter VII: Manners and Accomplishments.” Letters to Young Ladies.
(Harper 1837), https://www.loc.gov/item/07028114/.
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1842), Library of Congress, PDF, https://www.loc.gov/item/03002311/. oldmatemedia.com+2loc.gov+2archive.org+2
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https://allpoetry.com/poem/16655912-To-the-First-Slave-Ship-by-Lydia-Howard-Huntley -Sigourney.
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