Tag Archives: Poem

Ann Plato

Lines, Written Upon Being Examined In School Studies for the Preparation of a Teacher.

Lines, Written Upon Being Examined In School Studies for the Preparation of a Teacher.

by Ann Plato

Teach me, O! Lord, the secret errors of my way,
Teach me the paths wherein I go astray,
Learn me the way to teach the word of love,
For that’s the pure intelligence above.
As well as learning, give me that truth forever–
Which a mere worldly tie can never sever,
For though our bodies die, our souls will live forever. Continue reading Lines, Written Upon Being Examined In School Studies for the Preparation of a Teacher. →

Lydia Huntley Sigourney

Fall of the Charter Oak

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 →

Wallace Stevens

St. Armorer’s Church from the Outside  

An armorer is a manufacturer of firearms. There is no real “St. Armorer.”  Stevens got the idea for him from the Church of the Good Shepherd on Wyllys Street in Hartford. This church was built to honor Samuel Colt, the wealthy manufacturer of firearms—most famously the Colt pistol—who lived in Hartford. It is now part of Coltsville National Historical Park.  The most striking aspect of this church is the Armorer’s Porch which features Colt pistols and other gun parts carved into its façade (see photos below). Continue reading St. Armorer’s Church from the Outside   →

Wallace Stevens

The Plain Sense of Things

“The Plain Sense of Things” also takes place in Elizabeth Park.  It is late autumn, the leaves have fallen, and the park looks bare.  The greenhouse is exposed in all its dilapidation.  The water lilies on the pond are now just “waste.”  It seems to Stevens that this is how the world would look if one had no imagination.  He wonders if the depression he feels, looking at this barren scene, means that his own imagination has failed.  But no.  He realizes that “the absence of the imagination had / Itself to be imagined.” His perception of this scene, his feelings about it, and his description of it in this poem are themselves imaginative acts.   Our imaginations are always at work. Continue reading The Plain Sense of Things →

Wallace Stevens

Nuns Painting Water-Lilies 

This poem was inspired by something Stevens saw in Elizabeth Park.  In a letter to a friend, he wrote, “Until quite lately a group of nuns came [to Elizabeth Park] each morning to paint water colors especially of the water lilies” (L 610).  In this poem he imagines the nuns’ thoughts.  As they paint, they ponder the miraculous beauty of life which seems to them “supernatural” in origin.  This experience awakens in them a refreshing clarity of mind and spirit.  They feel that this is a “special day” and that they themselves are an integral part of it.  There were several French orders of nuns in the Hartford area, which explains all the French terms in the poem. Continue reading Nuns Painting Water-Lilies  →