(Hartford: Edwin Valentine Mitchell, 1929)
She had a way
Of sweeping up a room
Then for a minute
Hanging on the broom.
Plumb in the middle—
There she would stand
Holding a broom
And the world in her hand.
OH, let me run with autumn winds
That pass through reeds and rushes
Let me shriek with evening gales
In ragged currant bushes.
Let me tear through aspen trees,
Roar on naked beaches,
Let me howl through bending oaks
In haunted woodland reaches.
I tell you, this, the grief I hold
Is no considerate sorrow;
This is the King of Pain who must
A fitting garment borrow. Continue reading from Herb Woman and Other Poems
“The Mischievous Sinfulness of Mother Coakley,” a thoroughly reworked version of his New Yorker story “Mother Coakley’s Reform” (March 18, 1944), is an example of Gill’s exploration of the life of Catholic clergy in his fiction and is set in a monastery in a Carolina town. The narrative tone is warm and somewhat whimsical in telling the story of a nun struggling with sins of pride, envy, and greed stemming from, of all things, her competitiveness on the tennis court and a priest facing two specific weaknesses of his own. The hopefulness of faith and the capacity for change make this a meaningful pairing with “The Knife.” Continue reading The Mischievous Sinfulness of Mother Coakley
The chapters selected for this anthology come late in the book. Elizabeth has just died and family members arrive that evening to visit. These two chapters explore the tensions in the family and the internal conflicts experienced by Elizabeth’s husband, Doctor Thomas Rowan. Readers may find it helpful to refer to the cast of characters below for an orientation to the selected chapters. Continue reading The Trouble of One House