Monday, February 27, 2012

Photo by Margaret Buffie - "Snow Flower Cave"

 

February

O Master-Builder, blustering as you go
About your giant work, transforming all
The empty woods into a glittering hall,
And making lilac lanes and footpaths grow
As hard as iron under stubborn snow,
Though every fence stand forth a marble wall,
And windy hollows drift that shall your might o’erthrow.
Build high your white and dazzling palaces,
Strengthen your bridges, fortify your towers,
Storm with a loud and portentous lip;
And April with a fragmentary breeze,
And half a score of gentle, golden hours,
Shall leave no trace of your stern workmanship.

1910



Early Canadian Poet

AGNES ETHELWYN WETHERALD (1857-1940)


The first decade of the twentieth century was A. E. Wetherald's most productive, and saw the publications of three books of poetry. A review of The Last Robin: Lyrics and Sonnets (1907) in The Globe said, “The salient quality of Miss Wetherald’s work is its freshness of feeling, a perennial freshness, renewable as spring. This has a setting of harmonious form, for the poet's ear is delicately attuned to the value of words, both as to the sound and the meaning.”

Thanks to Keryn Huenemann for introducing Agnes Ethelwyn Wetherald to me on the blog "Canada's Early Women Writers"  http://ceww.wordpress.com/ , and to this poem for my February blues!!


3 comments:

Humpty Dumpty said...

I love how the picture beautifully illustrates the poem. Thanks for sharing. I had not heard of A. E. Wetherald before this.

Rebecca Upjohn said...

I had not heard of her either, now I shall look her up. I wonder if she and Lucy Maud Montgomery ever connected. Thank you for sharing this!

Margaret Buffie said...

I hadn't heard of her until I saw this poem on Karyn's blog about early Canadian women writers. I've been researching a few of these writers now. Wetherald's parents were English Quakers which interested me, as one long line of my grandmother's (in England) were also Quakers. I thought this was such a strong poem!