Garnet Poems: An Anthology of Connecticut Poetry Since 1776

Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–1896)

Garnet Poems A Driftless ConneCtiCut series Book This book is a 2012 selection in the Driftless Connecticut Series, for an outstanding book in any field on a Connecticut topic or written by a Connecticut author. An Anthology of ConneCtiCut poetry sinCe 1776 eDiteD By Dennis BArone With A foreWorD By DiCk Allen Wesleyan University Press  Middletown, Connecticut Wesleyan University Press Middletown CT 06459 www.wesleyan.edu/wespress© 2012 Wesleyan University Press All rights reserved Manufactured in the United States of America Designed by Mindy Basinger Hill Typeset in 10/14 pt. Calluna The DrifTless ConneCTiCuT series is funded by the Beatrice Fox Auerbach Foundation Fund at the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving. This project is supported in part by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Garnet poems: an anthology of Connecticut poetry since 1776 / edited by Dennis Barone. p. cm.—(Garnet books) Includes index. ISBN 978-0-8195-7309-4 (cloth : alk. paper)— ISBN 978-0-8195-7310-0 (ebook) “A Driftless Connecticut series book”—T.p. verso. 1. American poetry—Connecticut. 2. Connecticut—Poetry. I. Barone, Dennis. PS548.C8G37 2012 811'.60809746—dc23 2012010190 5 4 3 2 1 foreWorD By DiCk Allen ix eDitor’s prefACe By Dennis BArone xi John trumBull (1750–1831) from Progress of Dulness 1 from M’Fingal 4 timothy DWight (1752–1817) from Greenfield Hill 6 A Song 13 DAviD humphreys (1753–1818) The Monkey, 15 Sonnet I 17 from The Address to the Armies of the United States of America 18 Joel BArloW (1754–1812) from The Hasty Pudding 19 from The Columbiad 22 JAmes ABrAhAm hillhouse (1789–1841) from The Judgment, A Vision 24 from Sachem’s Wood 26 lyDiA sigourney (1791–1865) The Western Emigrant 27 Death of an Infant 29 The War-Spirit 30 Indian Names 31 hArriet BeeCher stoWe (1811–1896) The Old Psalm Tune 33 Above 35 The Miserere 37 henry hoWArD BroWnell (1820–1872) Suspiria Ensis 38 A War Study 42 All Together 43 ChArlotte perkins gilmAn (1860–1935) In Duty Bound 45 To the Young Wife 46 AnnA hempsteAD BrAnCh (1875–1937) Connecticut Road Song 48 Inheritance 50 First Letter 51 WAllACe stevens (1879–1955) Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird 52 Of Hartford in a Purple Light 55 from An Ordinary Evening in New Haven 56 The Plain Sense of Things 60 The River of Rivers in Connecticut 61 Contents mArk vAn Doren (1894–1972) Going Home 62 The Unknown Army 63 The Seven Sleepers 64 Anger in the Room 65 roBert penn WArren (1905–1989) Small White House 66 Evening Hawk 67 Rather Like a Dream 68 Heart of Autumn 69 ChArles olson (1910–1970) from As the Dead Prey upon Us 70 Variations Done for Gerald Van De Wiele 71 JAmes lAughlin (1914–1997) Is Memory 75 The Old Men 76 from My Aunt 77 What the Pencil Writes 79 WilliAm mereDith (1919–2007) The Open Sea 80 The Wreck of the Thresher 81 Winter Verse for His Sister 83 Here and There 84 riChArD WilBur (1921– ) In Trackless Woods 86 In the Field 87 Advice to a Prophet 90 “A World Without Objects Is a Sensible Emptiness” 92 The Beautiful Changes 93 hAyDen CArruth (1921–2008) The Sound of Snow 94 Stepping Backward 95 The Mythology of Dark and Light 96 JAmes merrill (1926–1995) A Tenancy 102 The Emerald 105 The Victor Dog 107 from Mirabell: Books of Number 109 Dead Center 111 f. D. reeve (1928– ) Night River 112 Identity Crisis 113 Watersong 115 what the cranes said 116 DonAlD hAll (1928– ) Christmas Eve in Whitneyville 117 White Apples 119 Kicking the Leaves 120 1943 124 John hollAnDer (1929– ) An Old Song 125 Pageant of the Cold 126 That’s for Oblivion 127 Collected Novels 128 Adam’s Task 132 leWis turCo (1934– ) Ode on St. Cecilia’s Day 1964 133 The Late, Late Show 135 The Recurring Dream 137 Wake Disturbing Surfaces 138 russell eDson (1935– ) A Chair 139 A Stone Is Nobody’s 140 The Ancestral Mousetrap 141 The Ceremony 142 The Matter 143 susAn hoWe (1937– ) Silence Wager Stories 144 BrenDAn gAlvin (1938– ) The Potatoes Have a Word to Say 152 The Connecticut River in Flood 153 from Wampanoag Traveler 155 DiCk Allen (1939– ) Another Knowledge 158 On the New Haven Line 160 To a Woman Half a World Away 161 A Last...