The parliament of birds and other poems

Foreword

Elise Emmons, whose Poems now appear for the first time in an American edition, is a mem¬ ber of a family always associated with traditions of Art and Letters. The Hon. Wayman Crow, of St. Louis, the well known patron and friend of Art¬ ists, was her maternal grandfather; it was he whose insight recognized the gift of Harriet Hosmer, and to his encouragement and aid she owed all that enabled her genius to hold its right of way and achieve success. Matthew Arnold found in Mr. Crow a sympathetic friend, who enter¬ tained the English essayist and poet in his St. Louis home.

Mrs. Lucien Carr, whose biographical memoir, (“Harriet Hosmer; Letters and Memoirs”) is a valuable contribution to literature, is the eldest daughter of Mr. Crow; and his second daughter, Mrs. Edwin Cushman, is the editor and compiler of that very unique book of occult literature, “In¬ sight,” the origin of which has baffled critics as well as Mrs. Cushman herself. She too, was a poet, and a little collection of her verse, privately printed, is treasured by many a lover of poetry.

Mr. Crow’s youngest daughter, Mrs. Robert Emmons, loved England, where her married life was chiefly spent; and when, (in 1917), she passed to the life more abundant, it is hardly strange that in the quiet days that followed, the poetic instinct of her daughter found expression. Days of illness, days of enforced inaction, were yet illumined for Miss Emmons by faith and vi¬ sion. In the lovely surroundings of her home in Leamington there were voices in the air, and the little verses fell rapidly upon her as she lin¬ gered in the garden among rose-trees, or watched for stars and sunsets. Something in their sym¬ pathy with so many phases of life, and the sweet-

FOREWORD ness and love that breathed through every line, met a wide answering response. They voiced the ideals of life on which her mother had ten¬ derly reared her, and many invalids, and others in sorrow, sent responsive thanks for some sunny gleam.

The little volumes previously published, from which the present selection is made, bear the titles of “Summer Songs Among the Birds”: Win¬ ter Songs Among the Snows”: “Spring Songs Among the Flowers”, and “Autumn Songs Among the Leaves”. Copies of all these have been gra¬ ciously accepted by Queen Mary, and Queen Alexandra, and by the royal bride, Princess Mary, Viscountess Lascelles, and the poem, “A Royal Lady,” was published by the Queen’s permission.

Poetic feeling may reveal itself in many ways, and not least among these is that sweetness and good cheer in which this little collection abounds.

Lilian Whiting.