" When thirty or forty country people were scattered
along the sidewalks in front of the stores on Main Street, she would walk
at nicely calculated angles to the different groups so as to leave as few
gaps as possible between the figures, making them appear as near a solid
phalanx as she could. Then she would murmur to herself, with the accent of
soulful revel, "The thronged city streets," and, "Within the thronged
city," or, "Where the thronging crowds were swarming and the great
cathedral rose." Although she had never been beyond Carlow and the
bordering counties in her life, all her poems were of city streets and
bustling multitudes. She was one of those who had been unable to join the
excursion to Rouen when the President was there; but she had listened
avidly to her friends' descriptions of the crowds. Before that time her
muse had been sylvan, speaking of "Flow'rs of May," and hinting at
thoughts that overcame her when she roved the woodlands thro'; but now the
inspiration was become decidedly municipal and urban, evidently reluctant
to depart beyond the retail portions of a metropolis. Her verses
beginning, "O, my native city, bride of Hibbard's winding stream,"--
Hibbard's Creek runs west of Plattville, except in time of drought--"When
thy myriad lights are shining, and thy faces, like a dream, Go flitting
down thy sidewalks when their daily toil is done," were pronounced, at the
time of their publication, the best poem that had ever appeared in the
"Herald.
Pages:
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25