The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1892-06-19
The milkweed rears Its waxy spheres.
Winged with butterflies.

The milkweed rears It's waxy spheres.
Winged with butterflies
Among the llly-pads:
Like rainbows in the limpid skies
That ripple in the river.
With flashing wings the dragon flies
In airy circles qaiver
In deep translucent pools the shoals
or tiny minnows swimming,
Dart down where dewy star-grass bowls
On mimic banks are Drumming.
A remarkable facility I'm the use of words
and IN exquisite sense of rhythm make
her versiticatiOn peculiarly musical. She
has tried her hand at various forms of
verse. from the rondeau and triolet TO the
stately chant roy al. and with equal success,
but with good taste confines herself. as u
rule. TO the simpler and less artificial forms.
Miss Stcin has lived all bcr life in Lafay.
cite, Ind, and the woods, and hills, and
waters whose beauties she is 80 fond of
picturing are all Indiana scenes. Never
had poet a warmer love for the country IN
which he was raised than she for the region
with which she Is most familiar Even the
eye of the casual and indifferent stranger
may discover tho picturesque features or
the Wabash and its valley, but her afoc-
ton extends to the prairies further north,
and even includes the sluggish, sedgy
Kankakee. She has celebrated both many
times. Of Prairie Road" she gives this
glimpse:
On either side. on level sweep
OF boundless. glowing. golden miles.
The summer SKY bends blue and deep
Aud simmer sunshine srpiles.
Of Riverside in q shower she sings:
drank its beauty like dream.
Till after ftful failing.
The sun laughs gayly down the stream
And craggy clouds are sailing,
Where southwark In brilliant sky,
The litfia n no amy cnrves White and h,gb
In token OF fair weather.
But this young writer's work is so famil-
lar to Journal readers that quotations are
unnecessary In illustration of her style.
peculiarly of her work Ia It's suggestive
ness When she writes of Q wood and path.
happy hollow" q tree in bloom, or an
old garden. she brings wildly before the
mind OF the reader, not her path. or or
chard or garden. perhaps. but one that is
dear to his memory; to his awakened Sc nses
come picture OF that once familiar fern
bordered. winding road, the tangled
vines In the garden, the fragrance
OF tho bl0ssoming orchard and the hum of
the bees in the clover. It is happy fac
ulty for poet 30 have-better than max
ing new pictures, soon to be forgotten.
Miss Stein occasionally contPi butes prose
sketches to the local prees-prose that IS
quite like poetry in all but rhyme but the
Poems from her pen have appeared In ST.
Nicholas, the Boston Transcript and other
Eastern papers. and many of her contribu-
tons to the Journal have been " idely
copied. Specimen verses are included in
at least one popular collection of Ameri-
can poetry, and the readiness with which
her work lends itself to illustration has
given bits of il place in two beauti-
fully illustrated books, Issued by Lee a.
Shepard, of Boston. 1t is hoped by the
young writer's friends that she will pub
lish n volume of her own. illustrated with
her own drawings. Such work would be
an admirable addition TO Indiana literature
and art. -
OF her personality it is difficult to speak
without trespassing on the shyness and
modesty that are among her distinguishing
characteristics, vet it is a glimpse of this
person ality that the public cares for. IL is
enough to say that she Is tall, and slender
and graceful, with gracious manner that
Is none the less winning because of the
timIdity with which it Is tempered. Instead
of the dark eyes that mi sht be looked for
with the black hair and brunette complex
ion, are dreamy gray eyes that show why
the aesthetic tendencies in her nature
predominate. In all her ways she is dainti-
ness Dersonihed even to her handwriting
which has n character of its own. It Ia u
common saying among her friends that che
Is like her poems, and TO those who know
both this somewhat eniematical compari-
son Is entirely clear Further than this Ii
may be said that all her friends are her ad-
mirers, and entertain great hopes for her
future.