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222
A New England Girlhood, Outlined from Memory (Beverly, MA)
·
Lucy Larcom
104
This
was
written
in
the
measure
which
I
afterwards
learned
was
called
Spenserian.
It
was
Byron's
"Vision
of
Judgment,"
and
Southey's
also
was
bound
up
with
it.
Southey's
hexameters
were
too
much
of
a
mouthful
for
me,
but
Byron's
lines
jingled,
and
apparently
told
a
story
about
something.
St.
Peter
came
into
it,
and
King
George
the
Third;
neither
of
which
names
meant
anything
to
me;
but
the
scenery
seemed
to
be
somewhere
up
among
the
clouds,
and
I,
unsuspicious
of
the
author's
irreverence,
took
it
for
a
sort
of
semi-Biblical
fairy
tale.
There
was
on
my
mother's
bed
a
covering
of
pink
chintz,
pictured
all
over
with
the
figure
of
a
man
sitting
on
a
cloud,
holding
a
bunch
of
keys.
I
put
the
two
together
in
my
mind,
imagining
the
chintz
counterpane
to
be
an
illustration
of
the
poem,
or
the
poem
an
explanation
of
the
counterpane.
For
the
stanza
I
liked
best
began
with
the
words,--
"St.
Peter
sat
at
the
celestial
gate,
And
nodded
o'er
his
keys."
I
invented
a
pronunciation
for
the
long
words,
and
went
about
the
house
reciting
grandly,--
"St.
Peter
sat
at
the
kelestikal
gate,
And
nodded
o'er
his
keys."
That
volume,
swept
back
to
me
with
the
rubbish
of
Time,
still
reminds
me,
forlorn
and
half-clad,
of
my
childish
fondness
for
its
mock-magnificence.
John
Calvin
and
Lord
Byron
were
rather
a
peculiar
combination,
as
the
foundation
of
an
infant's
library;
but
I
was
not
aware
of
any
unfitness
or
incompatibility.
To
me
they
were
two
brother-books,
like
each
other
in
their
refusal
to
wear
limp
covers.
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
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Unmarker
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Scalpel
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