Sybil Ludington, the Female Paul Revere

The first stanza of the poem "Sybil Ludington's Ride" (1940), by American poet Berton Braley, reads:

     Listen, my children, and you shall hear
     Of a lovely feminine Paul Revere
     Who rode an equally famous ride
     Through a different part of the countryside,
     Where Sybil Ludington's name recalls
     A ride as daring as that of Paul's.

On this day in 1777, according to a widely accepted account from the American Revolutionary War, 16-year-old Sybil Ludington (1761-1839), the eldest child of Colonel Henry Ludington, a militia commander in Dutchess County, New York, rode her horse into the night to alert her father's men of the approach of British regular troops who were sacking Danbury, Connecticut. (Ludington, sometimes referred to as "the female Paul Revere," was said to have covered forty miles, more than twice the distance of the Boston silversmith's ride.)

Statue of Sybil Ludington in Carmel, New York

by Anna Hyatt Huntington

Epigram from a Letter by Emily Dickinson

Who could be motherless

who has a Mother's Grave

within confiding reach?

~

Source: New Poems of Emily Dickinson (1993),

Edited by William H. Shurr

with Anna Dunlap & Emily Grey Shurr

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

American poet

A Poem by Emily Dickinson about Charlotte Bronte

Here is an untitled poem that American poet Emily Dickinson wrote about English writer Charlotte Bronte (1816-1855). Charlotte Bronte wrote under the name of "Currer Bell." She lived in Haworth, Yorkshire.


All overgrown by cunning moss,
All interspersed with weed,
The little cage of "Currer Bell"
In quiet "Haworth" laid.

This Bird -- observing others
When frosts too sharp became
Retire to other latitudes --
Quietly did the same --

But differed in returning --
Since Yorkshire hills are green --
Yet not in all the nests I meet --
Can Nightingale be seen --

Gathered from many wanderings --
Gethsemane can tell
Thro' what transporting anguish
She reached the Asphodel!

Soft fall the sounds of Eden
Upon her puzzled ear --
Oh what an afternoon for Heaven,
When "Bronte" entered there!

Emily Dickinson (1830-1886)

"Turn the Other Cheek": A Poem of Jesus Christ

In his April 23, 2017, letter to the editor of his local daily newspaper Ron Schoenhardt wrote in part, "I am a Christian and understand 'thou shalt not kill.' . . . Since I am a senior citizen, I remember 'an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.' Some people will certainly disagree with what I say next, but I firmly believed that whatever means a person used to kill someone, the murderer should be put to death by the same method." Jesus Christ would certainly disagree with that. Is Mr. Schoenhardt a Christian? A Christian is one who professes belief in the teachings of Jesus Christ. Here in this poem is what Jesus Christ taught about retribution in kind, "an eye for an eye" (Exodus 21:24).


TURN THE OTHER CHEEK
A Poem of Jesus Christ
from the Bible: Matthew 5:38-42 (King James Version)

Ye have heard that it hath been said,
"An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth":
But I say unto you,
That ye resist not evil:
But whosoever shall smite thee on thy right cheek,
Turn to him the other also.
And if any man will sue thee at the law,
And take away thy coat,
Let him have thy cloak also.
And whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile,
Go with him twain.
Give to him that asketh thee,
And from him that would borrow of thee
Turn not thou away.

A Reminiscence

Here is an elegy by English writer Anne Bronte (1820-1849).


A REMINISCENCE

Yes, thou art gone! and never more
Thy sunny smile shall gladden me;
But I may pass the old church door,
And pace the floor that covers thee,

May stand upon the cold, damp stone,
And think that, frozen, lies below
The lightest heart that I have known,
The kindest I shall ever know.

Yet, though I cannot see thee more,
'Tis still a comfort to have seen;
And though thy transient life is o'er,
'Tis sweet to think that thou hast been;

To think a soul so near divine,
Within a form, so angel fair,
United to a heart like thine,
Has gladdened once our humble sphere.


Source: Best Poems of the Bronte Sisters (Dover, 1997) by Emily, Anne and Charlotte Bronte

A sketch of Anne Bronte by sister Charlotte,

circa 1834

"The Fool's Song" by William Carlos Williams

Read the classic poem "The Fool's Song" by William Carlos Williams.

William Carlos Williams, 1883-1963

American poet and physician