Miscellaneous Poems of Sarah Orne Jewett
Collected in this page are manuscript poems and pieces from Jewett's letters and other writings. These have not been published with her other poems, and so they might easily be missed by readers hoping to read her collected poems.
They are arranged in alphabetical order by title or first line.
Adeline's Pepper-owl Poem, from "The Pepper-Owl" (1876)
Sarah Orne Jewett
"Tell me about the kittens, love!
I long to hear you speak.
Oh, tell me everything you know!
Unclose that silver beak."Oh, do not look so sad, my dear!
And cease that dismal scowl:
Smile gently with your yellow eyes,
My useful pepper-owl!"
A LamentTune, Hamburg.
The tides creep slowly in and out,
The sea winds blow; the wild birds call;
Oh sweet and bright the wild rose blooms –
There is a shadow o'er them all.
Oh, what to us the rose's bloom?
How can we care for sea-birds' song?
Through tears we watch the restless sea
For absent is our dear Aunt Long.We loved to sit upon the rocks;
To watch the waves and dashing spray,
But sigh, for she, who oft last year
Was spattered with us, is away.No more we raise our voices sweet
To that melodious darkey tune,--
There's no Aunt Long to serenade,
And useless is the fair new moon.Her grave behavior; solemn looks;
The hat she wore of ample size
Sweet reminiscences by scores,
Fond memory shows to mournful eyes.Oh, "Herring" wails and "Gusty" howls,
And Mary fadeth like a leaf.
Persis and Sary, pale and thin
No longer eat, for deepest grief.The elders strive to hide their grief --
Her namesake steals away to cry;
The afternoons are spent in tears,
And unavailing misery.Her call on Thursday only served
To make our sadness still more deep.
It passed as quick as swallow's flight,
Or pleasing vision seen in sleep.The roses fade upon our cheeks,
And hushed is mirthful shout and song.
We mourn beside the sad sea waves,
The absence of our dear Aunt Long.This poem is in a letter of the summer of 1875 to Mellen Chamberlain. This transcription by John Alden appears in Boston Public Library Quarterly 9 (1957): 86-96. It is reprinted here courtesy of the Trustees of the Boston Public Library/Rare Books.
Notes
Alden writes:
"During their visit to 'The Cove' that summer the Jewett girls joined other guests in an omnibus letter to Chamberlain. Sarah's contribution was a poem referring to a relative, a Mrs. Willard, known as 'Aunt Long.' She introduces her lines:I feel that you will deeply sympathize in the feelings I have tried to express in the enclosed Lament, and send it, thinking it will be more interesting than any other addition to this letter....
Whether or not Chamberlain's sense of humor was equal to the poem we shall never know."
Tune: Hamburg: The hymn tune "Hamburg," is credited to Lowell Mason (1824). Perhaps the most familiar hymn sung to this tune is "When I Survey the Wondrous Cross" (1707) by Isaac Watts.
All in the winter weather
[Notes and guesses at unreadable words appear in brackets.]
All in the winter weather
I found my flowers in bloom.
How could they miss the summer sun
with firelight in the room!
A tall white lily [in the corner ?],
You in the twilight stand.
And I can touch the dear bright roses
Beside you, with my hand.
Sarah Orne Jewett
Note
This poem so far is known only in a manuscript held by an unknown private owner. The manuscript appears clearly to be in Jewett's handwriting. It is a fair copy, presumably meant for a gift presentation, and Jewett has signed it. It is illustrated with an image of two red roses at the top of the page. I have not seen color work by Jewett of this kind. In the scanned copy of the ms. I was able to examine, the medium of the image is not clear. Is it a color printed page for writing fair copies as gifts? Is it a unique piece of painting in oil or watercolor? While it is possible the image was made by Jewett, this seems unlikely, as the roses are more realistic than her typically impressionistic style of watercolor.
One might reasonably guess that the poem is addressed to Annie Fields, though Jewett was close to others to whom the poem might be addressed. The lack of a date further complicates speculation about the poem's occasion.
The Daisies
15 January 1871
[Notes and guesses at unreadable words appear in brackets.]
When the good year is old,
And somewhat weary,
Yet has enough of gold
To keep him cheery --
When Earth, clad in her best,
Sits by her neighbor
The Sun, and has a rest
From Summer labor --
When prudent skies [amaze]
The North in hazes
There comes the holiday
Of all the daisies.-----
They are the folk that won
September's graces.
And charmed the jovial sun
With their bright faces.
He let them linger late;
When they grew sober
He gave them leave to wait
And see October;
For all the quiet land
(Ere days were duller)
Would haste to make it grant
With dear bright color.
-----Lo all in fields and towns,
And each new comer
Dressed in old fashioned gowns
The move in Summer
Stay yet awhile, behind
Blooms that were stronger
And play with sun and wind
A little longer.
Still happy still alert,
Still [not readable -- perhaps: memry heart see] --
[Dropped / Dappled] from September's [skint]
When she departed------
Till winter comes so near
His shadow chills them,
And they lose half the cheer
September [wills] them
Till their old friend the sun
Becomes forgetful.
And Autumn has begun
To grow regretful;
Then they [make] haste to hide
Their altered faces.
And lie down side by side
In grassy places.
Reprinted from MS Am 1745.24 (24) by permission of the Houghton Library, Harvard University.
Isles to east and isles to west are
Isles to east and isles to west are;
You were wise, my Lord Sylvester
Since you felt a love for Shelter
when you saw* its wooded shore, --
All your money might be spent
But the kindliness you meant,
And the friendliness you gave,
All your trees* and pastures gave;
Still the manor-door stands wide
And your children still abide.
Treasure you have left behind you
Generous and kind I find you.*
Once in sunshine, once in rain
Proved I true these verses vain.
Sarah O. Jewett
Shelter Island*
13 September 1884
Notes
Since: Jewett revised this line from "If you felt a love for shelter".
saw: Jewett underlined this word twice.
trees: Jewett has corrected this word.
and: This word is underlined twice.
you: Jewett has drawn a short double line between this line and the next, perhaps intending to set off the final couplet.
Shelter Island: In September of 1884, Jewett and Annie Adams Fields visited Professor Eben Norton Horsford and his family at their home, the Sylvester Manor on Shelter Island, off the eastern coast of Long Island, NY. During the previous July, Horsford held a celebration and dedication of a monument to memorialize the time when persecuted Quakers exiled from Massachusetts found refuge at Shelter Island. See Sarah Orne Jewett Letters of 1884.
The manuscript of this poem is held by the Fales Library and Special Collections, Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, New York University. Sylvester Manor Archive 1649-1996, MSS.208, Box 114: Folder 24, "Poem by Sarah Orne Jewett About Shelter Island," [Signed].
O little pains! Mes petite breads!O little pains! Mes petite breads!
This verse appears in a letter to Mrs. George D. Howe in Fields, Letters, dated at Chailly, 9 July, 1892.
I break with joy your crisp young heads
In you no dreadful soda lurks
To stab me with a thousand dirks.
Some baker immigrant should bring
You to my New World suffering.
Shall I ever tire of your kisses?
Shall I ever tire of your kisses?
I asked myself to-day
When your arms had been around me
And you had gone away
Will the pine-tree tire of the wind that blows
Through its branches from the sea
And stirs within it its bravest life
As you do mine in me?
Will the flower that the storm has beaten
Be tired of the summer sun
That shines out clear and bright and warm
After the rain is done?
Oh no, my love, my darling
You always grow more dear
Our hearts are one heart always now
And I need never fear.
Note
The manuscript of this poem is held by the Houghton Library of Harvard University, MS Am 1745.24, item 104.
Sonnet on Meeting Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)Right here, where noisiest, narrowest is the street; [,]
This appears in an undated letter to Annie Fields c. 1886-1890, and in Jewett's unpublished story, "Carlyle in America" c. 1894-1890. The text is from the letter; differences in the story text are indicated in brackets.
Where gaudy [flaunting] shops bedeck the crowded way;
Where idle newsboys in vindictive play
Dart to and fro with venturesome bare feet;
Here, where the bulletins from fort and fleet
Tell gaping readers what's amiss today,
Where sin bedizens, folly makes too gay, [no comma]
And all are victims of their own conceit;
With these ephemeral insects of an hour
That war [fret] and flutter, as they downward float
In some pale sunbeam that the spring has brought,
Where this vain world is revelling in power; [no semicolon]
I met great Emerson, [;] serene, remote,
Like one adventuring on seas of thought.
To a Mandolin.
Where are the young musicians
Who touched thy silver strings?
The best of them are angels
Who stand with folded wings --
Sweet harpers in the heavenly choirs
Released from Earthly things.
But do their fancies never
Stray back to Earth again?
And do they never smile and dream
Of thy sweet ringing strain?
Some echoes of the old time Songs
Must have been slow to wane!
And do their ghosts to Italy
In summer nights flit down
To linger near the balconies
Among the shadows brown;
And strike the plaintive chords again
Within the sleeping town?
Note
A fair copy manuscript of this poem is held by the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA. Transcription and annotation by Terry Heller, Coe College. Whether this copy is in Jewett's hand is not yet known.
Shana McKenna, Archivist at the Gardner museum, notes that Morgan Library & Museum holds a signed manuscript of this poem, annotated by M. A. De Wolfe Howe page [4], editor of Jewett's posthumous Verses 1916: "These verses sent me by Miss Mary Jewett, came to light too late for inclusion in the collection."
Why do I love you?
Why do I love you? If I told you why
Then you would know the secret that was made
The law that Love has from all time obeyed,
And I should understand a mystery.
From the four corners of the earth have I
Gathered into my heart, all unafraid
The friendships that are mine. This price I paid:
I gave myself for them most willingly.
The life in me a part of all Life is!
One great power moves the whole world on its way;
When I am happiest is when I find
The next of kin to me in hills or seas
Or trees that grow, or flowers that bloom in May
Or you dear love my friend so true and kind.
This sonnet is from an MS in the Louise Chandler Moulton papers (Library of Congress), quoted in John E. Frost's Sarah Orne Jewett, p. 116.
Unless otherwise indicated, transcribed and edited by Terry Heller, Coe College.