News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1890-09-18

TlCh Ol DOSUi)n ldSU year, anu III lOJO.
This poet has anclever knack of hit
ting a sharp rap at common .foibles
in her verses, as in "The Text APP
piled, where the baby quotes scrip
ture:-
"Now, had he been old
Say, as /, or some other:
He the text would have known
Was to guide him alone
And not to apply to his mother"
In her poem of april" )" thesun and
shine and sparkling caprice of that
month of months is given us in a
manner all it's own. And August
glows in warm midsummer redund-
ance of word-coloring.
"In shining blue, the aster wild
Unfolds her petals fair;
The clematis upreaching, seeks
To clasp and kiss the air"
"The dusty thistle by the road,
Scatters his silvery spray;
The sun pours down his scorching beams
Upon the fainting day"
l hate to leave these charming
poems to fall into prosaic details of
where Helen Winslow earned that ac-
tual and sure income without which
the poets feet would 90 cold for lack
of fire and the heart have no time nor
impulse to sing.
Her first newspaper work was done
on The Boston Transcript, later she
became one of the regular staff of The
Advertiser, leaving this she went to
The Saturday Evening Gazette. Be
sides doing work on almost every
Boston daily, The Christian Union,
Christian at Work, The Interior,
brakes Magazine, Demorest's, Journ-
al of Education, Wide Awake Maga-
zine, Youths Companion, Cottage
Hearth. All these, and many more,
were her mediums to the public ear;
and yet with all these thousands of
readers one may hear" What does
she write?"
Five years she wrote asregular cor
respondent for the Burlington Free
Press, besides a large amount OF sum-
mer correspondence. 1t has all been
quietly done The brief space obliges
me to omit mention of much work
that has told, in histories similar to
this one, when the public demanded,
as it has for few years, to know
more of the entities hidden behind the
writings of this and that favorite
author.
Very happily for this young wom-
an, she was made ready for her pres
ent life by wise and educated moth
er, who, even in the limit of a simple
farmer-village, kept the horizon open
to her children, toward which their
thoughts and hopes might break
away from their narrow everyday
| life
81 look forward" said Miss Wins
| low, to the time when / shall own
the old homestead in the town where
my grandfather, old Squire Winslow,
still lives at ninety years of age.
When that time comes, ! shall spend
the greater part of the year there,
where some of my people have lived
ever since the town was first settled" "
Helen Winslow is a true and sincere
writer, and appeals to the great heart
of every day people like you and me,
as / fear the immortals never can.
She makes her own placefor just such
writings, as she sends out to make
the world brighter and better in a
simple fashion, clothed in beauty
chaste and true.
"My canary sings the whole day long,
Behind his gilded bars,
Shut in from all that birds enjoy
| Under the sun and stars;
The freedom, grace and action fine
Of wild birds, he foregoes,
But spite of that, with happiness
His little heart o'erfows.
The world is wide;
And birds outside
In happy cheer always abide.
Why couldn't II"
Helen Winslow is not q sad woman,
on the contrary; yet, as in all sweet
est poetry, the next verse breathes a
minor note:-
81, too, must dwell behind the bars
OF toll and sacrifice,
| From heavy heart and weary brain
| My prayer or songs arise;
But all around sad hearts abound,
| And troubles worse than mine,
| If aught of comfort can bring
To them, shall repine?
Gods world is wide;
If can hide
The crowding tears and sing beside
Why shouldn't l ?'