WeRead Powered by ReaderPub
Hazel bloom cover

Hazel bloom

Chapter 79: To James Newton Mathews.[2]
By Julia Carter Aldrich
Open in WeRead

Explore more books like this:

PoetryReligion/Spirituality

About This Book

A compact collection of lyrical poems and short narratives that meditate on motherhood, faith, and the consolations found in nature. Many pieces recall childhood and domestic scenes, confront suffering and loss, and draw on Christian imagery to offer comfort and moral reflection. The verse moves between contemplative monologue, descriptive nature writing, and occasional narrative sketches, balancing personal feeling with devotional and ethical concerns. Throughout, simple pleasures—flowers, seasons, quiet homelife—are set against questions of destiny, grief, and spiritual hope.

To James Newton Mathews.[2]

Must write a sonnet!—ere the Poet’s rank,
With its devouring hopes, I dare to claim—
Ere I with them may seek a place or name—
Ere I may taste Castalia’s fount, where drank
The bards of eld, or find the flowery bank
Of clear Penneus, flashing back the flame
Of sunset fires. Thro’ moorlands, low and dank,
Alone, must grope, unlit by torch of fame.
Tho’ Poesy should stir my soul to song
That flowed like liquid tenderness along,
Or, wild and glad as leaping forest rills—
Tho’ Nature’s music thro’ my being thrills
And Imagery, with all her fairy throng,
My dreamy world of thought and vision fills,—
Alas! I’m doomed—this stanza is a line too long.

[2] “You must write a Sonnet to gain a Poet’s diploma.”—J. N. M.