Lab
Library
Journal
Shop
Sign in
to keep
Share image
1
222
A New England Girlhood, Outlined from Memory (Beverly, MA)
·
Lucy Larcom
180
In
the
above,
a
reminiscence
of
my
German
studies
comes
back
to
me.
I
was
an
admirer
of
Jean
Paul,
and
one
of
my
earliest
attempts
at
translation
was
his
"New
Year's
Night
of
an
Unhappy
Man,"
with
its
yet
haunting
glimpse
of
"a
fair
long
paradise
beyond
the
mountains."
I
am
not
sure
but
the
idea
of
trying
my
hand
at
a
"prose-poem"
came
to
me
from
Richter,
though
it
may
have
been
from
Herder
or
Krummacher,
whom
I
also
enjoyed
and
attempted
to
translate.
I
have
a
manuscript-book
still,
filled
with
these
youthful
efforts.
I
even
undertook
to
put
German
verse
into
English
verse,
not
wincing
at
the
greatest--Goethe
and
Schiller.
These
studies
were
pursued
in
the
pleasant
days
of
cloth-room
leisure,
when
my
work
claimed
me
only
seven
or
eight
hours
in
a
day.
I
suppose
I
should
have
tried
to
write,--perhaps
I
could
not
very
well
have
helped
attempting
it,--under
any
circumstances.
My
early
efforts
would
not,
probably,
have
found
their
way
into
print,
however,
but
for
the
coincident
publication
of
the
two
mill-girls'
magazines,
just
as
I
entered
my
teens.
I
fancy
that
almost
everything
any
of
us
offered
them
was
published,
though
I
never
was
let
in
to
editorial
secrets.
The
editors
of
both
magazines
were
my
seniors,
and
I
felt
greatly
honored
by
their
approval
of
my
contributions.
One
of
the
"Offering"
editors
was
a
Unitarian
clergyman's
daughter,
and
had
received
an
excellent
education.
The
other
was
a
remarkably
brilliant
and
original
young
woman,
who
wrote
novels
that
were
published
by
the
Harpers
of
New
York
while
she
was
employed
at
Lowell.
The
two
had
rooms
together
for
a
time,
where
the
members
of
the
"Improvement
Circle,"
chiefly
composed
of
"Offering"
writers,
were
hospitably
received.
Marker
Marker
Fine marker
White-out
Fine white-out
Circle
Paint
Unmarker
Hand
Scalpel
Dice
Sieve
Purify
Undo
Redo
Start over
