"The Vast Hour" by Genevieve Taggard

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend May 26, 2018   The Vast Hour   Genevieve Taggard

All essences of sweetness from the white Warm day go up in vapor, when the dark Comes down. Ascends the tune of meadow-lark, Ascends the noon-time smell of grass, when night Takes sunlight from the world, and gives it ease. Mysterious wings have brushed the air; and light Float all the ghosts of sense and sound and sight; The silent hive is echoing the bees. So stir my thoughts at this slow, solemn time. Now only is there certainty for me When all the day's distilled and understood. Now light meets darkness: now my tendrils climb In this vast hour, up the living tree, Where gloom foregathers, and the stern winds brood.                This poem is in the public domain. About This Poem   "The Vast Hour" was published in For Eager Lovers (Thomas Seltzer, 1922).   Genevieve Taggard was born in Waitsburg, Washington, in 1894. She is best known as a biographer of Emily Dickinson, authoring The Life and Mind of Emily Dickinson (Alfred A. Knopf, 1930). She also wrote several poetry collections, including For Eager Lovers (Thomas Seltzer, 1922) and Not Mine to Finish: Poems 1928–1934 (Harper & Brothers, 1934). She died in New York City in 1948. "It's all I have to bring today (26)" by Emily Dickinson "Shards" by Aline Murray Kilmer "With Music" by Helen Hay Whitney May Guest Editor: Matthew Shenoda   Thanks to Matthew Shenoda, author of Tahrir Suite: Poems (TriQuarterly Books, 2014), who curated Poem-a-Day this month. Read more about Shenoda and our guest editors for the year. Help Support Poem-a-Day   If you value Poem-a-Day, please consider a monthly donation or one-time gift to help make it possible. Poem-a-Day is the only digital series publishing new, previously unpublished work by today's poets each weekday morning. The free series, which also features a curated selection of classic poems on weekends, reaches 450,000+ readers daily. Thank you! Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038