Song [Lady mine, so passing fair,]

1861 –

1909

Lady mine, so passing fair,
Would’st thou roses for thy hair?
Would’st thou lilies for thy hand?
Bid me pluck them where they stand.
Those are warm and red to see,
These are cold. Are both like thee?
Brow of lily, lip of rose,
Heart that no man living knows!
If one knelt beside thy feet,
Would’st thou spurn, or love him, Sweet?

Sophie Jewett, a poet, translator, and professor, was born on June 3, 1861, in Moravia, New York, to Dr. Charles Carroll Jewett, a country physician, and Ellen Ransom Burroughs. Jewett’s father died during her childhood, prompting the family, including her two sisters and brother, to move to Buffalo, New York. Around age twenty, she traveled to England and Italy, usually in the company of one of her sisters, who was an artist. Her sojourns in the latter country inspired what became Italian Sketches (Suburban Press, 1917).

About Sophie Jewett

Themes

Desire

Lust

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I Speak Your Name

I speak your name in alien ways, while yet
November smiles from under lashes wet.
In the November light I see you stand
Who love the fading woods and withered land,
Where Peace may walk, and Death, but not Regret.

Sophie Jewett

1910

Across the Fields

Across the fields, the happy fields that lay
Unfaded yet, one visionary day
We walked together, and the world was sweet.
Each heard the whisper neither might repeat,
Love's whisper underneath our light word-play.

Sophie Jewett

1910

Poems

Song [Lady mine, so passing fair,]

More by this poet

Mignonne

I Speak Your Name

Across the Fields

Poems

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Song [Lady mine, so passing fair,]

More by this poet

Mignonne

I Speak Your Name

Across the Fields

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