Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1879-02-12

Journal, of New York, pays the fol-
lowing Just tribute to the ability of
Miss G. Perry, of this city, as a
poetess:
The softest of summer winds are
capable of waiting the feathered seeds
of the roses across the perfumed mead
ows, year by year, aud sometimes these
fall into hourlshing places where
Nature is afhuent with her tenderness,
and the beautiful new roses are born,
the like of which no human eyes have
ever seen before, Across the broad
rich fields of thought, winged fancies
are also forever drifting, and here and
| there they settle down into rich and
welcoming minds where they become
SO entirely ansiormed by the quail
ties that have hidden and nourlshed
them, that after they have perished,
like the seeds of other blossoms they
rise up to bloom again with new color,
sweetness tenderness and beauty, and
we call them the fresh flowers of
fertile brains. We never accuse the
blooming children of this summer of
being the roses of dead and gone
years. Nor cau we discover in the
pleasant songs, the dainty and fanci-
tul rhythms or the quaint means of a
poetic sadness in the writings OF Carlotta
Perry. single bud of fancy, nor even
the aroma of single petal that ash
ever really appeared upon the pages
OF any OF the books with wuch we are
familiar. Nor yet is she so startlingIy
ori ginaI that her readers are perplexed
by her muse, and almost pursuaded to
suspect themselves of dallyiug with an
untamed or an alien Imagination.
There Is the spirit of uuwearied
youth in her verses, even when she
supposes her sentiments are the com-
plants of tired aud disappointed soul.
La her happier moods she rIppes like
d brook that is laug hing down a plea
sant hillside, or breeze that is blow
lng eastward over prairie of bee-Iaden
bloom.
Miss Perry is young lady whose
home is 10 Watertown, Wisconsin, and
the naturalness of her verses proves
now much irleBdlicr Nature Is t. poetic
expression than are those limitations
which even the finest rhythmlcal
talent fluids and 1eels when it is sur
rounded by the walls of large cities,
'and breathes the bIeaths, aud thinks
tue thoughts OF otter men.
Her poems have been widely read
by cultivated people, both East and
West, durlug the last three or four
gears, until, while her name has be-
come pleasantly familiar, the desire to
know how and where she lives has
grown upon them, until the present
time, and even now only one half Of
the question is answered. Miss Perry
assures us, in one OF her sonnets.
which she calls Thus Far" that we
never can really know each other,
therefore We are patient:
We walk beside our friends day after day,
Sit at the same hearth, year alter year;
When sad-eyed sorrow comes, when Joy
draws near
We see them smile, or hear them sigh or
pray.
And yet, and yet we hardly dare to say
We know them; for however dear We be
Unto their heart, our love, however great.
There is a veil through which we may lnol
realm wherein we may not penetrate,
The soul's own home; W Whereinto it may 90
Closing the gates behind it, and with dumb
Obedience to the stern ''thus far" we Walt
Outside she portal, beyond which we know
Tha, only God, king of that realm, can
come.
Here close friendship with nature
would receive but small return FROM
the earth mother if the woods and ghe
winds, the dews upon the grasses, and
the bloom upon the boug..s did not
open to her the secrets of their en-
chanting. The following scrap frem
her poem, entitled apple Buds"
conveys but vague idea of the init
mdCV WuiCu CAlStS UCtWCCu ACl6Cll
aud her dumb surroundings:
Yet think, although you tightly hold
With natures art
Your pink completeness, field on fold,
Over your heart,
think, beneath my eyes you grow
Roster still. Ah, yes, you know!
For how can thing so fair be but
Insensate clay!
There's soul within your petals shut,
My queen OF May.
And by subtle sympathy, sure and fne
l claim you, soul, for kin OF mine.
Like all true poets, she enters into
many indiviiualities, aud she writes
while in each one as if this alone were
the very life Of her life, and in this
way it is easy to explain why the :.least
pretentions of her poems are so deeply
impressive.
Her verses, called "Ihe Victory"
explain this phase of her poetic charac-
ter: