{"id":523,"date":"2012-04-20T15:06:29","date_gmt":"2012-04-20T19:06:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/blog\/?p=523"},"modified":"2016-12-09T12:22:23","modified_gmt":"2016-12-09T16:22:23","slug":"another-gem-for-national-poetry-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/?p=523","title":{"rendered":"Another gem for National Poetry Month"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The following are excerpts from a poem by a Grace Stone Field, the pen name of Mrs. Charles I. Page. It was printed along with the Historical Society’s annual report from August 9, 1912. The recording secretary of the time, Elizabeth C. Barney Buel, believed this tribute to Harriet Beecher Stowe to be Grace Stone Field’s “masterpiece”…”very beautiful–a true artistic gem.”<\/p>\n

In the first few stanzas Field tackles Stowe’s impact on the fight against slavery, but also pays tribute to her writings on New England and its “quaint or queer” citizens in a later stanza (Poganuc People<\/em><\/a>, anyone?).<\/p>\n

Harriet Beecher Stowe: A Tribute<\/p>\n

Shall we twine a greener tendril in the laurel crown she wears?
\nShall we add a fresher flower to the garland that she bears?
\nShall we say, of one long silent, that she speaks again today?
\nShall we prate of her and praise her in some trite, perfunctory way?<\/p>\n

Nay, she heeds nor praise nor blaming, dwelling with the immortals now;
\nWe can add no glint of glory to the nimbus round her brow–
\nBut her own achievements land her, speaking with a certain voice
\nThrough the lips of dusky thousands who but name her to rejoice.<\/p>\n

Let us rather say God put her in the time and place he planned,
\nSet a task that men might shrink from her slender woman’s hand;
\nMade her mighty among women, made her strong to dare and do–
\nClosed her fingers round her weapon, small and trenchant, too;<\/p>\n

And with sympathy diviner than the sympathy of men
\nShe made plain the bondsman’s sorrows with her tiny, potent pen;
\nStirred the feeble, laggard impulse, set the northern heart on fire!
\nWoke the wavering, sluggard conscience to a splendid brave desire.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

Thus she wrote, yet lighter fancies wove and wrought within her brain
\nAnd she sketched our fair New England, lovely valley, pleasant plain;
\nWrote of tender hearts that fluttered under manners more austere
\nOf the Puritan descendants, stern and solemn, quaint or queer.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The following are excerpts from a poem by a Grace Stone Field, the pen name of Mrs. Charles I. Page. It was printed along with the Historical Society’s annual report from August 9, 1912. The recording secretary of the time, Elizabeth C. Barney Buel, believed this tribute to Harriet Beecher Stowe to be Grace Stone […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":130,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[13],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/130"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=523"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":527,"href":"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/523\/revisions\/527"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=523"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=523"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.litchfieldhistoricalsociety.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=523"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}