xt7h445hf319 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7h445hf319/data/mets.xml Kentucky. Department of Education. Kentucky Kentucky. Department of Education. 1951-03 bulletins  English Frankford, Ky. : Dept. of Education  This digital resource may be freely searched and displayed in accordance with U. S. copyright laws. Educational Bulletin (Frankfort, Ky.) Education -- Kentucky Educational Bulletin (Frankfort, Ky.), "Thoughts Have Wings", vol. XIX, no. 1, March 1951 text 
volumes: illustrations 23-28 cm. call numbers 17-ED83 2 and L152 .B35. Educational Bulletin (Frankfort, Ky.), "Thoughts Have Wings", vol. XIX, no. 1, March 1951 1951 1951-03 2022 true xt7h445hf319 section xt7h445hf319 9 Commonwealth of Kentucky 0

EDUCATIONAL BULLETIN

 

 

 

 

"Thoughts Have Wings”
Published by
\ DEPARTM ENT EIF EDUCATION
‘ BOSWELL B. HODGKIN

Superintendent of Public Instruction

 

 

 

 

 

ISSUED MdNTHEY .
Entered as second— class matter March 21,1933 at the post office at
Frai§ fentucky, under the Act of August 24,1912.‘ * ‘

munch 195] "“1 No.1

 

  

 v’.’ 4

FOREWORD

This Bulletin is the third edition of “Thoughts Have Wings”.
The first edition was issued as the January, 1947, Bulletin of the
State Department of Education. The second edition was a mimeo-
graphed publication, released through the State Department of
Education in April, 1948. The first two editions contained examples
of creative writings in verse and prose done by boys and girls in
grades 1 through 12. This, the third edition, contains poetry writ-

rlten and illustrated by Kentucky teachers.

I trust that this publication will be received with enthusiasm by
all of the teachers in Kentucky who are in position to develop love
and appreciation of poetry in the minds and hearts of the boys and
girls in our schools, and to encourage creative talent in this field.

Gratitude is expressed to the teachers who cooperated with the
committee by sharing their writings with all who may read this
Bulletin.

Genuine appreciation is extended to the following special com-
mittee for the preparation of this unique and creative piece of work:

Miss Rubie Smith, Chairman ______ Murray State College

Miss Martha Shipman _____________ University High School

Miss Claudia Payne _______________ Supervisor, Ft. Thomas Schools
Miss Louise Combs _______________ State Department of Education

Appreciation is also expressed to every contributor to the Ap-
pendices, a significant part of this Bulletin.

Plans are underway to use these three editions of “Thoughts Have
Wings" as an approach to encouraging all schools of the Common-
wealth to place some emphasis throughout the year on reading and
writing of poetry and on growth and development of boys and girls
through such learning experiences.

Boswell B. Hodgkin
Superintendent Public Instruction
February 7, 1951

 

  

  

 

Thoughts Have Wings

We are told that within every individual there is a desire to
create. This innate creative drive expresses itsehC in many ways.
Sometimes it is with paints, or clay, or charcoal that people express
themselves. Sometimes it is with saws and wood working tools.
Again, the draftsman’s board reveals a design, either simple or in—
tricate. Often it is with words that people paint their thoughts and
feelings.

Possibly it is creative teachers who do the most to develop and
nurture the innate creativity of children. Unfortunately, it can be
teachers who do the most harm to children’s creative spirits. Many
teachers, who do little writing themselves, free children to write and
experience the joy of creating. Some teachers, however, write for the
joy of self expression, often joining the children as they write.

This bulletin is made up of poetry written by teachers in Ken-
tucky. Part I contains verse written with no special audience in mind.
Part II contains verse written for children. It is with a great d all of
enthusiasm that the committee shares with other Kentucky teachers
these poems.

.The illustrations, creativity through artistic experiences, were
done by Claudia Payne. Art Supervisor in Fort Thomas, Kentucky.

Committee.

llnhie E, Smith, Chairman
Murray State College
Murray, Kentucky
Martha Shipman
University School
Lexington, Kentucky
Claudia Payne
Art Supervisor
Fort Thomas. Kentucky

  

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THOUGHTS HAVE WINGS*

(Cover page and all illustrations by Miss Claudia Payne,
Art Supervisor, F mt Thomas)

° The title used for this bulletin and for the first issue in January, 1947, was
created in 1946 by a group of children in the sixth grade of the Murray
Training School. Miss Rubie Smith was the teacher.

3

 

   

POETRY‘<

...... To develop a love for poetry in a child, the teacher must love
and appreciate poetry. In the presentation of poetry, the teacher
should

   
   
  
  
  
 
  
 
 
 
    
  
   
 
 

1. Love and appreciate good poetry

2. Have a large and varied store of poems at her command

3. Know her poems well, though it is unnecessary to repeat them
from memory

Have a background of the best in poetry

Enunciate well

Improve her voice if necessary

Speak distinctively, making the rythm felt

N93911:“

No yardstick can measure the poetry age of a child. The teacher
must try different poems until most of the children Show interest and
appreciation. Saturate the children with good poetry. Give new
poems, but also repeat often the poems you have read and found
enjoyed. If a great deal of the best poetry is well presented at oppor-
tune moments, there will be an arousing of an appreciation of and an
interest in the best of poetry. It will lay the foundation for a love
of the best available poems}

‘ ‘° From the State Department of Education Bulletin “A Kindergarten Guide”,
September, 1950—Miss Carolyn Taylor7 Louisville, Chairman.

  

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PART I
TEACHERS WRITE POETRY

 

  

 

 

Peace

 

How still the field holds its soft weight of snow!
Even the black water of the pond stands motionless
Slow to reflect the fragile gold of sedge

And the strange whiteness of apple trees

Huddled about its edge.

How still the field holds its soft weight of snow—
Let those who walk across it softly go—

Treasure its quietness—

Talk not at all.

Peace can be shattered

By a loud footfall.

 

LILLIAN Lowny

 Twilight

Deep burnt orange and lilac purple
Sunset gold and scarlet red,
Powder blue and egg yolk yellow,
Blended softly overhead.

Fading slowly with the sunlight
Dying embers float away,

Throwing kisses with their shadows
Bidding farewell to the day.

Deeper, deeper gray light covers

All the golden gleams of light;

And the deepest shades of blackness
Transform twilight into night.

ERMA CARR LOAR

 

  

 

Z :.

:E

 

Ea

As Seen by Boone

 

 

 

 

  

 

“As Seen By Boone . . 3’1

Last night I dreamed that through a silent wood

Whose shadows oft had known some red-skinned band,
A figure trod, in buck and moccasins,

To stand once more atop the Cumberland.

The Bluegrass carpet swept in waves of jade,

The eastern coal fields lent a murky hue,
\Vhile far away the northern cities’ towers
Were needles stitching stars on skies of blue.

\Vith shaded eyes the well-known figures gazed

And seemed to pierce the shadows of the years.
Beloved Kentuck—how lovely in the mist—

His land of hopes and dreams~of prayers and tears!

There was the home of Foster’s glowing dreams,
The poetry in stone at Hodgenville,

Tobacco fields and tasselled golden corn
Which stretched across the vale and O’er the hill.

And as the dawnlight gleamed along the ridge,
It found a figure kneeling in the dew,
And somewhere near, this whisper on the breeze,
“My dreams of you, Kentucky, have all come true!”

ALICE E. KENNELLY

1 Published in Bluegrass, a volume of verse by Miss Kennelly.

 

 Ballet Thought

Swiftly the butterflies

Gather around the phlox,

Skim through the four o’clocks—
Hover and rise.

So, lightly, spirits rise,

Soar with brief happiness
After such loveliness,

Swiftly, like butterflies.

LILLIAN Lowan

 

 Behind the Dream3 . . .

1 never see a tree bud into leaf,
Or watch a waxen rose unfold to light,
Or feel the wind—a scarf of faint perfume
That steals across the softly scented night,
I never see a bird on homeward wing,
Or catch the fading gleams of sunset’s glow,
Without remembering in my heart of hearts
The One whose mighty power hath made it so.

ALICE E. KENNELLY
HY,,.

’ Published in Bluegrass, a volume of verse by Miss Kennelly.

11

 

 Thoughts Have Wings
12

 

 

  

Thoughts

Thoughts have wings; they always will—

And they can take us far.

We need not have an airplane or even a motor car,
For though we really are at home,

Our thoughts need not be there.

They have the fun of spreading wings,

And traveling everywhere.

SARA LAND

13

 

  

 

Spring is hanging out her signs
To advertise her joys

Her hawkers are the blue jays
Who fill the air with noise

The elm tree holds her laces
Spread out against the sky

The bluejays screamed the prices
Come buy! Come buy! Come buy!

LILLIAN LOWERY

l4

 

 Intruder

You have walked a path

That others may not walk;

Have made old words

Take new meanings;'

Have smiled and made your way
Into long-deserted halls;

Have laughed, and made them echo
With the sound.

Your eyes have been gay,

Kind, wise.

You have made me laugh
And look into myself,

You have made me cry
And curse you.

You have forced your way

Into my garden

And walked a path

Where others have not been
And will not be.

No other stranger

Will smile his way

Into this heart.

LAURA VIRGINIA ROBERTS

15

 

 The tree that grows the tallest
Grows the closest to the sky

Sees the first bright ray of morning
Hears the thunder rolling by;

But the tree that grows the shortest
Grows the closest to the earth

Hears the first small crickets calling
Sees the first spring flower at birth.

ERMA CARR LOAR

 

 OAR

Snowfall

Outside (I cannot see it but I know)

The snow is falling heavily . . .

\Veaving itself into a blanket

To cover my world.

To cleanse my world perhaps?

No, to cover it.

The hillsides, the trees, cease to be bare;
An nntended garden—a garbage heap—
Become a frosted wonderland and

A gem—encrusted pyramid.

A squalid cabin

Is the Gingerbread Cottage—sugar coated—
And a poorman’s yard or two of lawn

ls sprinkled with diamonds.

The snow falls silently . . .

And covers the ugliness—

It does not cleanse.

LAURA VmGINIA ROBERTS

17

 

       
 
     
   
 
     

What will it be, oh, What will it be?
What did you bring me from over the sea?
A silver trinket, a strange perfume?
Mementoes of Isfahan, Bagdad, Khartoum?
A box, a jewel, a crocodile?
Why—I brought you—

a golden wait-awhile.

Tell me truly, what did you bring?
A fine, old painting, a golden ring?
A turquoise, blue as the sky at Capri?
Something wonderful—just for me?
Exciting, exotic, sweet as a caress?
Ah—I brought you—

A silver nothingness.

LILLIAN LOWERY

 

 ERY

Purple Blue

You ask me why my lips

Are purple blue today?

You do not know that yesterday
I ran away

And walked through meadows
Wet with dew ‘

Until I found the

Purple blue

Of violets.

And so my lips are

Purple blue today

Because I kissed each tiny one

I found along the way,

And now when I look into your eyes
And smile to you

You know my lips show

Purple blue

Of Violets.

EnMA Cmm LoAn

19

 

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Dream Trail2

“How far away is Heaven?”
I asked a silver star,

He winked at me and whispered,
“From earth—it’s very far.”

“But how then must I reach it?”
I questioned in dismay,

While he, all twinkling, beckoned,
“Come on, it’s up this way.”

And so I tiptoed Skyward
In shoes of dreamer blue,
And softly kicked a cotton cloud
To see if this were true.

And when it bumped against the moon,
I skipped the Milky Way!

Then I lightly danced from star to star——
Convinced that I should stay.

But as I reached the final step,
Alas, I didn’t see

The deep blue pool between the stars—
and splash—Eternity!

ALICE E. KENNELLY

2Published in Bluegrass, :1 volume of verse by Miss Kennelly.

21

 

 Dawn in the Valley

The dawn flowed out and over me
Before I left the hill

But ’round me in the valley
Darkness sat still—

So still that I stopped walking
Across the valley’s cup

And felt the dawn spill over me
While I was looking up.

LILLIAN LOWRY

 

 Rainbow Flowers

The rainbow must have fallen down
And scattered color all around;
For yesterday up in the sky
Rainbow color floated by,
And now today it is not there,
But painted flowers bloom everywhere.

, ERMA CARR LOAR
my

23

 

 PART II

TEACHERS WRITE VERSE FOR CHILDREN

 

 At ’the Barbershop

Zip, go the scissors, zip, zip, zip!

Clip, go the clippers, clip, clip, Clip!

Down go the curly locks, down, down, down!

>ROund goes the barber’s chair, Hound, ’round, ’roundl

MARGARET MARRS

25

 

 Little Bird
While sitting in our apple tree
I saw a little bird.

And although he would sing to me
He would not say a word.

I said to him, “How-do-you—do,”
Politely as I could;

But he just 'chirped and flew away.
I guess he thought he should.

MARGARET MARRS

 

 IAlms

The Yoyo

I like to play with my bright yoyo;
Watch it go high, watch it go low.

I can twirl it and flip it and make it spin—
And I hope in the tournament 3 prize I’ll Win.

MARY DAWN VVALLINC

27

 

  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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“The Air Show”
28

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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The Air Show

It’s lots of fun to watch the air show.
I’ve been many times, did you ever go?

The bombers and jet planes make lots of noise
Buzz, whiz and zoom, go the girls and boys.

It must be fun to fly so high,
To touch the clouds as they go by—

And as they fly low over fields so green
They see the barns and farms so Clean.

The rivers must look like a piece of brown thread;
I hope they can see Gramp’s tobacco bed-—

There’s the parachute man getting ready to jump;
If he lands in a haystack he won’t get a bump.

The pilots are bringing the planes in to land.
The air show was fun, and so was the band.

MARY DAWN \VALLING

29

 

 Banana

When you peel a banana, just go zip, zip, zip,
But don’t step on the peeling or you’ll slip, slip, slip.

MARY DAWN WALLING

I 30

 

 Corn 011 the Cob

Corn 0n the cob is my favorite food.
It’s salty and buttery and very good;
It’s such a delicious vegetable friend;
VVon’t you please pass the corn to me again?

INC It exercises my teeth and my gums, I guess—
But don’t you agree, it’s an awful mess?

MARY DAWN WALLING

31

 

     

  

Chocolate Pie

I took some mud and made a pie
Chocolate, you know,

Then took some suds from Mama’s wash
To have meringue to go

Upon the top so it w0uld be

Exactly like the ones I see

On pantry shelves.

 

But when I went to serve it,
Surprises were in store

Because a baby fishing worm

Came tumbling to the floor

And all my friends who were at tea
Got up and ran away from me.

The scary cats!

ERMA CARR LoAn

 A Telephone for Plants

I wonder if the crocus has
A calendar or Chart,
Or else how would she know
\Vhen it’s time for her to start
Up through the snow?

Someday when I have learned a lot
I think I shall invent
A telephone, so I can know
And hear each message that is sent
\Vhen flowers start to grow.

ERMA CARR LOAR

LOAR

33

 

  

 

 

 

 Suckers

Lime ones and lemon,
And red suckers, too,
I’ve only one penny,
Oh! What will I do?

JUANITA WILFORD

 

35

 

 Little Bridges

Thoughts are little bridges
That you cross each day

Whether you’re at home or school
Or whether you’re at play.

Little thoughts that take you
Away to lands afar;

Then quickly bring you back again
To where you really are.

ERMA Cmm LoAH

 

 ()AR

Christmas

I can hardly wait til Christmas,
With a tree and presents gay.
It makes all folks so happy—
In a special sort of way.

I can hardly wait til Christmas,

With pudding and mince meat pie—-
With lights and holly and tinkling bells
And carolers passing by.

Yes, Christmas is my favorite time,
Of all the year most bright.

For along with all the fun we have,
It makes our hearts feel right.

SARA LAND

37

 

  

About the Contributors To Parts I and II

Claudia Payne, the illustrator of this bulletin, is Art Supervisor in
Fort Thomas Public Schools. She is a graduate of Eastern State
College, and is president of the Kentucky Branch of the Associa-
tion for Childhood Education.

Lillian Lowry is a supervising teacher in the Murray Training School,
Murray, Kentucky. Mrs. Lowry has written many poems. It will
be recalled that the poems of her daughter, Ann, were in the first
volume of Thoughts Have Wings. Mrs. Lowry has published.

Erma Carr Loar‘ teaches Third Grade in the McKinley School, Padu-
cah, Kentucky. Since she was a small child she has written verse.
Her poems for children have been written in the last five years.
She has published some poems.

Sara Land teaches Second Grade in the John G. Carlisle School, Cov-
ington, Kentucky.

Laura Virginia Roberts wrote her verse while attending Eastern State
College, Richmond, Kentucky.

Alice E. Kennelly is Dean of Girls at Holmes High School, Covington,
Kentucky. She has published a volume of verse called Bluegrass.

Her poem, “As Seen By Boone. . . won the Sesquicentennial
Award in Kenton County in 1942.

Juanita Wilford is a senior at Murray State College. She lives in
Barlow, Kentucky. Her poem was done during her work as a
major in Elementary Education.

Mary Dawn Walling is Third Grade teacher in the Johnson School in
Fort Thomas, Kentucky.

Margaret Marrs is Sixth Grade teacher in Covington, Kentucky. Her

poems were written while she was studying at the University of
Cincinnati.

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APPENDICES

Appendix A—Governor’s Proclamation

Appendix B—History of Kentucky Poetry Day

Appendix C—A History of Kentucky Literature Since 1913
Appendix D—Two Poems Contributed by Students

  

 

 PROCLAMATION
By The
GOVERNOR

‘ Of The

Commonwealth of Kentucky

 

To All To Whom These Presents Shall Come:

WHEREAS,

\VHEREAS,

WHEREAS,

The General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Ken—
tucky, being gathered in august assemblage, in biennial
session of one thousand nine hundred forty-two, and
being representative of the citizens of this Common-
wealth, did, by resolution, recognize and acknowledge
its obligation to stimulate and foster literary develop—
ment through an instructive program emphasizing the
lives and works of Kentucky poets; and,

this resolution did authorize and direct the Governor
to designate, by proclamation, the seventh day of April
in each succeeding year as Kentucky Poetry Day, which
day shall be to honor and preserve the memory of poets
of Kentucky; and,

it further provides that this day shall be observed with
suitable activities by the citizens of the Commonwealth
and by the study and special observance of poetry in
the public schools of the state according to such program

as may be determined by the Superintendent of Public
Instruction; and,

41'

 

   

WHEREAS, it is the will of the Governor and the Superintendent
of Public Instruction to preserve and to perpetuate the
name and memory of this proud Commonwealth through
the literary achievements of its sons and daughters; and,

WHEREAS, the lingual music and the meditative theoretics, ex-
pressed in poetry, serve to inspire the minds and souls
of youth to thoughts and deeds of lofty acclaim;

NOW, THEREFORE, 1, Lawrence W. Wetherby, Governor of the
Commonwealth of Kentucky, do hereby proclaim the sev-
enth clay of April, one thousand nine hundred fifty-one, as

KENTUCKY POETRY DAY

and request all citizens of the Commonwealth to join
with the schools in observing through an appropriate
program the memory of the leaders who have contrib-
uted to the literature and poetry of Kentucky, such
program to be developed through the leadership and
stimulation of the Superintendent of Public Instruction

Done at Frankfort, Kentucky, this the fifth
day of February in the year of our Lord
one thousand nine hundred fifty—one, and
in the year of the Commonwealth the one
hundred and fifty-ninth.

LAWRENCE W. VVETHERBY, Governor

GEORGE GLENN HATCHEE, Secretary of State.

   
  
 
 
 
 
   
  
   
   
 
 
 
    
  
  
  
   
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  

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APPENDIX B
KENTUCKY POETRY DAY

History of Kentucky Poetry Day

Kentucky Poetry Day has had a definite place on the State Calendar
since 1942, when a resolution, prepared by Mr. Marguerite T. Rose-
bery of Louisville, establishing a date devoted to Kentucky poets and
their poetry, was introduced in the Legislature by Representative Ray
Stephenson, passed both houses and was duly signed by Governor
Keen Johnson. In the resolution April 7 was designated as Kentucky
Poetry Day.

Purpose of Kentucky Poetry Day
1. To give honor and recognition to Kentucky poets
2. To develop greater love, appreciation, and knowledge of Ken—
tucky poets and their writings
8. To encourage creative writing through stimulation and inspiration
4. To promote cultural growth and development.

Kentucky’s Poet Laureate

J. T. Cotton Noe is poet laureate of Kentucky.

Dr. Noe who was a great teacher at the University of Kentucky
is living now at Beverly Hill, California.

“A Brief Anthology of Kentucky Poetry” compiled by J. T. C. Noe
has been published by the University of Kentucky Department of
Extension, Lexington, Kentucky.

Influence of Kentucky Background

The following paragraph contributed by Dr. Thomas D. Clark of
the University of Kentucky points out that there is much in Ken—
tucky that is indegenous to poetry:

“Kentucky has inspired her poets from the beginning of the white
man’s history. The natural beauty of the state has ever been an attrac-
tion, especially in the changing seasons of spring and fall. The
variations of the state’s topography has destroyed all geographical
monotony. To, the historical development of the region has been of
such a rugged nature that the epochal poet has found in the frontier
and its pioneers, in its gallant soldiers, and in its folk past the material
about which substantial Kentucky poetry has been composed. Ken-
tucky’s poets have ever been appreciative of this fact. From the earliest
publication of books and newspapers in the state down to the present, _

43

 

     
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
   
   
  
  
   
  
 
 
   
   
  
   
   
   
   
 
  
  

the poet has been inspired to write and publish thoughts of his native
land. Out of Kentucky’s literary history have come many major poets,
and many Kentucky poems are among the best regional compositions
in the Nation’s literature.

“Few states in the Union have enjoyed the undying loyalty of their
sons and daughters as has Kentucky. Though they are far removed
from their homes, Kentuckians look back with nostalgia to the days
when they lived in so pleasant a land, or they look forward to a day
when they may be able to return. It is from this spirit of nostalgia
that much of Kentucky’s poetry has sprung. Then there is the ever-
present spirit of humor and good will which has bubbled over into
folk poems of enduring value.”

Biographical Sketch of Madison Cawein

The following is an excerpt from a History of Kentucky by Clark:1

“The most finished poet of the whole Kentucky group was Madison
Cawein. Cawein, born in Louisville, March 28, 1865, became one of
America’s best lyric poets. Born of poor parents, he was forced to
leave school at an early age to secure a job in a Louisville gambling
house. Having a poet’s temperament, Cawein soon failed in business.
In 1887 he published his first poems in a small booklet entitled
“Blooms of the Berry”. With the appearance of his first publication
the young Louisville poet attracted the attention of William Dean
Howells and Thomas Bailey Aldrich through whose interest he began
a long and productive career. Cawein’s better known works are
“Lyrics and Idylls”, “Days and Dreams”, “Undertones”, “The Vale of
Temper”, “Kentucky Poems”, “So Many Ways”, ‘The Poet”, “The Fool
and the Faeries”, and the “Cup of Comas”. Born of a father and
mother who spent much time in the woods near Louisville in search
of medicinal herbs, Cawein came in close contact with nature. Many

critics have said of Cawein that he never got away from his genuinely
natural sources.”

1Clark, Thomas D., “History of Kcntucky”—page 389, Prentice—I‘Iall, InC.,
1937. '

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ms APPENDIX C
A HISTORY OF KENTUCKY LITERATURE
:1; SINCE 1913*
ays By John Wilson Townsend
lay Lexington, Kentucky
gla Window shopping on Fourth Avenue one night not so long ago,
er- trying hard to stay out of trouble, I ran head on into my old obsession
nto which, to me alone, has always been magnificent: literary Kentucky.
Ever since that day in Lexington thirty-five years ago when my
sister came home from Hamilton College with the question: “Has
'k" Kentucky produced a poet?” I have known no peace, as, on that
' occasion, two personalities were born within me. The one eternally
:on chanting: “Go ahead, find the answer for that question”; and the other,
Of ' the amber light, cautioning: “Don’t do that, make money.” When I
to have obeyed the first voice, I have been happy but frightfully poor in
.ng purse; and when I have hearkened to the yellow signal, I have been
rss. miserable but, sometimes, able to meet my creditors. So it has gone
,ed and so it will continue to go until I take that last but brief ride out
.on Main Street and settle myself beneath the long shadows of Henry
>an Clay’s towering monument, not far from where Mr. Allen’s King
;an Solomon of Kentucky sleeps, happily clutching the shoddy white
“'9 buttons of his blue cotton shirt.
0f “‘Has Kentucky produced a poet?’ eh?” I repeated my sister’s
”1 question to her. “I tell you what I’ll do: I’ll ask Colonel Bill Polk; he,
11d being an Old Union soldier, on Grant’s stait, and a newspaper man,
'Ch should know, I think. For the last forty years he has been threatening
ny to write a history of Lexington, too, so that should mean something, I
31y reckon.” '

“‘Has Kentucky produced any poets, eh?” said old Bill Polk,
with the gravy stains and tobacco juices on his grease—encrusted vest.
“Well, I don’t know, bud, but I’ll find out.”

“Has Lexington produced a poet, then?” I tried again.

“ ‘Lexington poet,’ huh?” ‘

“Yes.”

“Well—now, the blockhouse wasn’t down on Main Street where'
George W. Ranck put it—pioneers were too smart to erect a blockhouse
in a hollow or at the bottom of a hill, and further, Ranck, or someone,

45

 

     

changed the records in the court house—I can show you where he did
it—the blockhouse was at the head of South Broadway hill—I—”; and
old Bill Polk was off again on his one and only theme.

Now, as I come to consider it this evening, perhaps I am just as
great a bore about our native letters as Bill was about the blockhouse.
If so, I can very fervently hope that I shall not live as long as he did.
That will be something for my friends to hang a hope on, will it not?

After Polk failed me, I appealed to my professors at old Kentucky
University. No, they knew about the New England and Knickerbocker
schools; two of them were acquainted with the Hartford wits, and one,
believe it or not, had heard of Sidney Lanier. That was encouraging
but, as always, when really up against a tough problem, I appealed
to Bob Hamilton, assistant at the town’s little public library.

“Oh, Bob,” breathless for the moment, “has Kentucky produced
any poets?”

“Of course. Why?”

“Why?” I almost shouted. Who are they?”

“What’s it to you? You are going to be a Methodist preacher and
there never was one of those men that knew a book from a beefsteak.”

“What’d you say?” I asked, in the middle of a delicious dream.

“I said: ‘What’s it to you? You are going to be a Methodist
preacher.’ ”

“Oh, yes, of course. Am I?”

“I give up,” Bob snapped, but gently and with profound under—
standing, as it turned out. He had a beautiful mind and was a
charming fellow, although at times he had a wicked slant on men,
especially me, and things. “There’s Madison Cawein and Robert
Burns Wilson, Theodore O’Hara and Henry Stanton, and a few others,
perhaps. Co to work on them and, when you have read some of their
stuff, come back for more. O.K.?”

“Oh, yes, O.K. And thanks.”

And so since that sweet night standing in front of the old charging
desk, long since destroyed, I have followed the gleam of Kentucky
letters. And it has nearly always been a very bright gleam, leading
beside the still waters and through the green pastures to perfect peace.
But so many, many times I have been compelled to cast it aside and
do what the world commands, and then the blackness of despair at the
inescapable tragedy of life fits itself about my head like a cooper band.

°Excerpts from Filson Club Historical Quarterly, Vol. 13, 1939, pages 21-36, John
P. Morton and Company, Louisville, Kentucky.

46

    

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:36, John

Since 1913 the new school of Kentucky writers has arrived. I can
not refer to all of them tonight. I have read all of their books and
magazine contributions, and I walk around with them in my head
daily. I don’t think any of them has written a more perfect piece than
Robert Browning Hamilton’s little poem “Along the Road”, to which
Edwin (‘Ned’) Carty Ranck, one of the best of our living writers,
called my attention at the time of its appearance in the Century
Magazine for February, 1918. “A little masterpiece,” Ned declared.
“I’d trade all of my books and plays for its authorship.” It’s author,
the same Bob Hamilton whom I mentioned in the beginning and who
really answered my question—Has Kentucky produced a poet?—in the
best possible manner in “Along the Road”:

I walked a mile with Pleasure.
She chattered all the way,

But left me none the wiser
For all she had to say.

I walked a mile with Sorrow,
And ne’er a word said she;

But, oh, the things I learned from her
When Sorrow walked with me!

The big new name in Kentucky letters is, of course, Miss Elizabeth
Madox Roberts. She was born near Perryville, but lives at Springfield.
When I first wrote to her for the date of her birth and other informa-
tion concerning herself she replied: “My life is my own property. I
put whatever of it I desire into my books and the rest is of no interest
to the public.” She taught a country school, attended the University
of Chicago, and wrote her first book, Under the Tree, a sheaf of ex—
cellent poems, not repeated, and then her first and finest novel, The
Time of Man.

i} a it?

Another pair of mountain poets, James Still and Don West, should
be mentioned. Still is not a Kentuckian-born, but the birthplace of a
piece of literature is more important than the birthplace of its author;
or don’t you think so? Still is librarian of the WCTU Settlement
School at Hindman. He is the author of an attractive book of moun—
tain verses, and contributor of articles and short stories to The Atlantic
Monthly, Esquire, and The Saturday Evening Post. His stories should
soon be collected and brought out in book form.

47

 

  

 

The two Binghams—not related—George, the Mayfield humorist,
who died recently, and Barry Bingham, publisher of The Courier-
]ournal and The Loui