"Fame" by Charlotte Mew

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend December 1, 2018   Fame   Charlotte Mew

Sometimes in the over-heated house, but not for long,         Smirking and speaking rather loud,     I see myself among the crowd, Where no one fits the singer to his song, Or sifts the unpainted from the painted faces Of the people who are always on my stair; They were not with me when I walked in heavenly places;            But could I spare In the blind Earth's great silences and spaces,     The din, the scuffle, the long stare     If I went back and it was not there? Back to the old known things that are the new, The folded glory of the gorse, the sweet-briar air, To the larks that cannot praise us, knowing nothing of what we do     And the divine, wise trees that do not care Yet, to leave Fame, still with such eyes and that bright hair! God! If I might! And before I go hence           Take in her stead           To our tossed bed, One little dream, no matter how small, how wild. Just now, I think I found it in a field, under a fence— A frail, dead, new-born lamb, ghostly and pitiful and white,           A blot upon the night,           The moon's dropped child!                This poem is in the public domain. About This Poem   "Fame" was published in Saturday Market (Macmillan, 1921).   Charlotte Mew was born on November 15, 1869, in London, England. Her poetry collections include Saturday Market (Macmillan, 1921) and the posthumously published The Rambling Sailor (Poetry Bookshop, 1929). She died on March 24, 1928, in London. Poetry by Mew   Saturday Market (Forgotten Books, 2018) "Maiden Lane" by Louise Morgan Sill "Secrets" by Lola Ridge "The Light of the House" by Louise Imogen Guiney December Guest Editor: Carmen Giménez Smith   Thanks to Carmen Giménez Smith, author of Cruel Futures (City Lights Publishers, 2018), who curated Poem-a-Day for this month's weekdays. Read more about Giménez Smith and our guest editors for the year. 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