Flowers For Socrates

by NONA BLYTH CLOUD

Elizabeth Coatsworth (1893-1986) is mostly remembered now as a very successful and honored children’s author. She won the 1931 Newbery Medal
from the American Library Association for The Cat Who Went to Heaven, and in 1968 she was a highly commended runner-up for the prestigious biennial international Hans Christian Andersen Award for children’s writers. She wrote stories and books for adults as well.

Elizabeth Coatsworth was also a poet, who published three poetry collections for adults, and two books of poems for children. In all, she published over 90 books between 1910 and 1976. Many of her books are out-of-print, but some have been re-issued in newer editions, including Poems, one of her books for children, and Fox Footprints, her first poetry collection, originally published in 1912.

Her poetry has been almost forgotten, regarded as old-fashioned. The majority of the poems rhyme, they often tell a story, and many are mythical, even macabre. I enjoy poems which tell a story, especially ones that give readers the shivers. I grew up reading “The Raven” by Edgar Allen Poe, “The Highwayman” by Alfred Noyes, “The Little Ghost” by Edna St. Vincent Millay, and “The Listeners” by Walter de la Mare. If you like story poems, and tales of things that go bump in the night, then you’re very likely to enjoy Elizabeth Coatsworth’ s poems too.

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Wise Sarah and the Elf

“Is there anything,”
asked the goblin,
“you would like for yourself?
Should you like a little pony
or a gold ring?”
asked the elf.
“Should you like a jewelled bird
or a pair of magic shoes?
I like your looks extremely,
and you have only to choose.”

But Sarah, very wisely,
kept walking down the path.
She fixed her eyes upon the ferns,
she would not look to see
where step by step beside her
walked the little gentleman
with a feathered cap upon his head
and buckles at his knee.

But still his voice
came coaxingly,
“A pretty child like you
must surely know a thousand things
that she would like to do.
Should you care to dance with a fairy prince
or see the stars at play?
I like your looks extremely,
and you have only to say.”

But Sarah, very wisely,
said nothing in reply.
She saw the house beyond the woods
with her mother at the door
and walked a little faster
till soon she walked alone —
but those pretty foolish questions
Sarah heard forevermore.

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