Frederick Shea Jesson. North Ohio Village. Harriet Monroe, ed. Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912-22

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22.

North Ohio Village

By Frederick Shea Jesson


QUIETNESS over my spirit, like
The shadows of an old dead town:
Grass between the flagstone-walks,
Yellow houses fading to brown,
Lawns and streets growing to weeds and dust,	5
And the intolerable rust
Of barren souls.

Beyond the reach of time,
Last year’s leaves have covered all the lawns.
The piercing beauty of many dawns	10
Strikes at the day;
Yet old stone walls and empty garden-pools
Have a stale odor of gradual decay.

This is the quietness of an old dog’s nose—
Not too much heat,	15
Sometimes a chill that through the garden goes:
Eternal beauty fading in
An agony of uncommitted sin.