Can anyone give me any information about this poet - specifically her dates and whether the poem at [www.christusrex.org] />
The Dreamers; by Theodosia Garrison.
The Gypsies passed her little gate,
She stopped her wheel to see.
A brown faced pair who walked the road,
Free as the wind is free;
And suddenly her tidy room
A prison seemed to be.

She watched the footer Gypsies pass;
She never knew or guessed,
The wistful dream that drew them close,
The longing in each heart,
Some day to know a home like hers,
Wherein their hearts might rest.

is a correct transcript. It was quoted on a radio programme here last week, sourced to the internet site above, and I looked up her poems and found three others at
[www.poemhunter.com] />
I think that there is at least one error in the one printed above because she seems such a meticulous user of rhyme schemes - the word heart in the second stanza should surely be breast. I also suspect footer should be footed. Can't find any more of her work on the Internet, (except on odd poem on bartleby) or in my books, so would be grateful for any information. Did find a reference which, from the summary appeared to find her sharing accommodation with an American female poet, so assume she is/was American and possibly a contemporary of was it Edna St Vincent Millay? but I lost that again before I got chance to open the site.

Marian2, I couldn't really find a definitive source for her, but here's what google came up with:

[www.google.com] />

Les

The only biographical information I could find was this:

Garrison, Theodosia (Mrs. Frederick J. Faulks). [1874-1944] (1)
Born at Newark, N.J. Educated at private schools in New York.
Mrs. Garrison was for several years a constant contributor to the magazines,
but has written less of late. Her volumes of verse are: "Joy o' Life", 1908,
"The Earth Cry", 1910, and "The Dreamers", 1917.


Les

Thanks very much, Les, the dates confirmation of her nationality and book titles) will help me hunt by more traditional methods (library)

some books :

The joy of life and other poems - 1909
The Earth cry - 1910
The dreamer and other poems - 1917
Et in Arcadia Ego - 1917 ( with illustr. )
As the Larks rise - 1921

Here's an interesting one, marian2.

STAINS

The three ghosts on the lonesome road
Spake each to one another,
"Whence came that stain about your mouth
No lifted hand may cover?"
"From eating of forbidden fruit,
Brother, my brother."

The three ghosts on the sunless road
Spake each to one another,
"Whence came that red burn on your foot
No dust nor ash may cover?"
"I stamped a neighbor's hearth-flame out,
Brother, my brother."

The three ghosts on the windless road
Spake each to one another,
"Whence came that blood upon your hand
No other hand may cover?"
"From breaking of a woman's heart,
Brother, my brother."

"Yet on the earth clean men we walked,
Glutton and Thief and Lover;
White flesh and fair it hid our stains
That no man might discover."
"Naked the soul goes up to God,
Brother, my brother."

MRS. FREDERIC J. FAULKS ("THEODOSIA PICKERING GARRISON")
American poet and author (1874 - 1944)


I have known sorrow--therefore I
May laugh with you, O friend, more merrily
Than those who never sorrowed upon earth
And know not laughter's worth.
I have known laughter--therefore I
May sorrow with you far more tenderly
Than those who never guess how sad a thing
Seems merriment to one heart's suffering.
- Knowledge [Laughter]

When the red wrath perisheth, when the dulled swords fail,
These three who have walked with Death--these shall prevail.
Hell bade all its millions rise; Paradise sends three:
Pity, and Self-sacrifice, and Charity.
- These shall Prevail [War]

Love Song

My love it should be silent, being deep --
And being very peaceful should be still --
Still as the utmost depths of ocean keep --
Serenely silent as some mighty hill.

Yet is my love so great it needs must fill
With very joy the inmost heart of me,
The joy of dancing branches on the hill
The joy of leaping waves upon the sea.


...
some plays :

At the Sign of the Cleft Heart, 1901
An Hour of Earth, 1903
The Literati, 1904


...
check this out :

[special.lib.gla.ac.uk] /> Ernest Archibald Taylor 1874-1951 was a painter/carpenter/illustrator,
who was married to the ( more famous...) Jessie Marion King
- illustrator

She also REVIEWED poetry. This blurb was printed in an edition of Neihardt's STRANGER AT THE GATE:


"Here is real poetry, virile and vital to a degree, a veritible man-cry. -- Mr. Neihardt's strength goes hand in hand with beauty, the beauty of stormy sunsets and thunderous seas and of wonderful women in old forgotten cities. One puts down his book thrilled and exhilerated." --Theodosia Garrison in Boston Herald

When I started this thread I also e-mailed presenter of the programme with the query about The Dreamers and he researched it and found the following - makes a much better poem!

THE DREAMERS

The gypsy passed her little gate -
She stopped her wheel to see. -
A brown-faced pair who walked the road,
Free as the wind is free;
And suddenly her tidy room
A prison seemed to be.

Her shining plates against the walls,
Her sunlit, sanded floor,
The brass-bound wedding chest that held
Her linen's snowy store,
The very wheel whose humming died, -
Seemed only chains she bore.

She watched the foot-free gypsies pass;
She never knew or guessed
The wistful dream that drew them close -
The longing in each breast
Some day to know a home like hers,
Wherein their hearts might rest.

Theodosia Garrison

(from The Home Book of Modern Verse: Second Edition 1953)

Cool! I see you were right about breast, of course. Those Home Books of Verse are huge, by the way. Many thousands of (onionskin) pages.

I guess the radio program gypsies were soccer players. "She watched the footer Gypsies pass"

pam

or maybe just the fans on their way to the next match

Ian

From what I remember:

She watched the footer Gypsies pass;
should be : She watched the 'foot-free' gypsies pass

The longing in each heart,
should be: The longing in each breast