The Poet's Lesson
By Mary Gardiner Horsford
We're kicking off National Poetry Month 2015 with the poem, The Poet's Lesson, by Mary Gardiner Horsford (1824-1855). According to http://archives.rpi.edu,
Mary Gardiner Horsford married Eben Norton Horsford August 4, 1847. She was born Mary L’Hommedieu Gardiner on September 26, 1824, daughter of Samuel and Mary Catherine Gardiner. Mary was privately tutored as a child and later attended the Albany Female Seminary where she met Eben. Mary’s avocation was poetry. Many of her poems were printed in local newspapers. She published a volume of poems entitled Indian Legends and Other Poems. Mary gave birth to four daughters: Lilian, Mary Katherine, Gertrude and Mary Gardiner. Mary died November 25, 1855, months after the birth of her last child. She was buried at Shelter Island. This poem is found in public domain.
The Poet's Lesson
By Mary Gardiner Horsford
"He who would write heroic poems, must make his whole life a heroic poem." --Milton.
There came a voice from the realm of thought,
And my spirit bowed to hear,--
A voice with majestic sadness fraught,
By the grace of God most clear.
A mighty tone from the solemn Past,
Outliving the Poet-lyre,
Borne down on the rush of Time's fitful blast.
Like the cloven tongues of fire.
Wouldst thou fashion the song, O! Poet-heart,
For a mission high and free?
The drama of Life, in its every part,
Must a living poem be.
Wouldst thou speed the knight to the battle-field,
In a proven suit of mail?
On the world's highway, with Faith's broad shield,
The peril go forth to hail.
For the noble soul, there is noble strife,
And the sons of earth attain,
Through the wild turmoil and storm of Life,
To discipline, through pain.
Think not that Poesy liveth alone,
In the flow of measured rhyme;
The noble deed with a mightier tone
Shall sound through latest time.
Then poems two, at each upward flight,
In glorious measure fill;
Be the Poem in words, one of beauty and might,
But the Life one, loftier still.
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