by Ann Plato
When in the morning’s misty hour,
When the sun beems gently o’er each flower;
When thou dost cease to smile benign,
And think each heart responds with thine,
When seeking rest among divine,
Forget me not. Continue reading Forget Me Not.
by Harriet Beecher Stowe
Think not, when the wailing winds of autumn
Drive the shivering leaflets from the tree,—
Think not all is over: spring returneth,
Buds and leaves and blossoms thou shalt see. Continue reading Think Not All Is Over
During Stevens’s years in Hartford (1916-1955) he made sure he always lived near Elizabeth Park. His final home at 118 Westerly Terrace is only a short walk from the park. He walked in the park almost every day. “Vacancy in the Park” is set in Elizabeth Park on a cold day in March. Stevens notices the footprints of someone who has walked across the freshly fallen snow. To describe the way this makes him feel, he invents three similes (“It is like…”). How does each simile make you feel? The poem concludes, “The four winds blow through the rustic arbor, / Under its mattresses of vines.” You can see that rustic arbor covered with vines in the center of the famous Rose Garden in Elizabeth Park. (This is the first municipal rose garden in the United States and the third largest rose garden in the country today.) Continue reading Vacancy in the Park
The river of rivers in Connecticut is both the Connecticut River that flows through Hartford and the invisible river of life that flows endlessly through all living things. Haddam is a town on the Connecticut River. The town of Farmington is located on the Farmington River, a tributary of the Connecticut River. Continue reading The River of Rivers in Connecticut
Stevens thought a lot about the importance of imagination in life. Here the speaker performs one odd, imaginative act—he places a jar on a hilltop. The man-made jar sticks out from the natural scene surrounding it, commanding our attention and becoming a focal point in the landscape. The speaker’s gesture is an example of how we create human order in the world. How does the jar affect the landscape around it? Does the poem suggest that this is a good or a bad thing? How? Continue reading Anecdote of the Jar
Consider these questions as you work your way through this poem. What is the effect of this imaginary “firecat” on the clattering bucks? Why do they form a neatly geometric “circular line” when trying to avoid the firecat? Does this interaction remind you of any similar pattern in your own life? Continue reading Earthy Anecdote
(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