Of Postcards and Poems:
Meet Harriett Prescott Spofford
Poem: Fancies
Part III: At Dawn
A gush of bird-song, a patter of dew,
A cloud, and a rainbow’s warning,
Suddenly sunshine and perfect blue, -
An April day in the morning!
Magical, autumn hazes are,
And rare is your summer weather,
With its purple midnight throbbing far
Over lovers clasped together;
But dearer to me these darling flowers
The passionate noontide scorning,
This gladsome slipping of shining showers,
This April day in the morning!
Harriet Elizabeth Prescott Spofford
was a prolific female writer who grew up in Newburyport and later lived on Deer Island.
At a young age, she became financially responsible for her family and started writing pulp fiction for newspapers to support her parents and siblings. In 1859, at the age of 24, her talent was recognized and one of her stories was published in
The Atlantic;
her career blossomed from there. She wrote gothic novels and novellas, detective stories, and romantic poems, all with vivid imagery and imaginative narratives. A New York Times literary critic once called her a “Flaming Fire Lily Among the Pale Blossoms of New England.”
After marrying Richard S. Spofford, she lived in the only home on Deer Island in the middle of the Merrimack River.
Looking for something to read during quarantine? Find Spofford’s poems
here
.
Editor's note: April is National Poetry Month!
