In the Morning

Chapter 42: TO M——, WITH A COPY OF “THE PETERKIN PAPERS.”

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About This Book

A sequence of lyric poems that meditates on dawn, nature, and spiritual feeling, often deploying mountain, forest, and seaside imagery to probe grief, consolation, and renewal. Poems move among quiet pastorals, occasional and domestic verse, devotional hymns, translations, and lighter nonsense pieces, following seasonal rhythms and holiday observances. The voice shifts between elegiac introspection and bright affirmation, favoring sensory detail—birdsong, running water, sunlight—and a consolatory outlook that finds moral and emotional sustenance in simple scenes and ritual moments.

TO M——, WITH A COPY OF “THE PETERKIN PAPERS.”

A Boston girl prefers a set of volumes that are uniform,

In Syriac, Chaldaic, Sanskrit, Arabic, or Cuneiform,

For these will test her paleontological ability,

And not insult her culture by superfluous facility.

She loves a scientific pedant, or, to use a synonyme,

A specimen, with printed name and label fair to pin on him.

Alas! I fear she will despise a book without a mystery,

That never once alludes to Art, or Mediæval History;

But as she is compelled each day to recognize and meet her kin,

I trust she will accept at least this tale of Mrs. Peterkin.