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222
A New England Girlhood, Outlined from Memory (Beverly, MA)
·
Lucy Larcom
6
Rich
or
poor,
every
child
comes
into
the
world
with
some
imperative
need
of
its
own,
which
shapes
its
individuality.
I
believe
it
was
Grotius
who
said,
"Books
are
necessities
of
my
life.
Food
and
clothing
I
can
do
without,
if
I
must."
My
"must-have"
was
poetry.
From
the
first,
life
meant
that
to
me.
And,
fortunately,
poetry
is
not
purchasable
material,
but
an
atmosphere
in
which
every
life
may
expand.
I
found
it
everywhere
about
me.
The
children
of
old
New
England
were
always
surrounded,
it
is
true,
with
stubborn
matter
of
fact,--the
hand
to
hand
struggle
for
existence.
But
that
was
no
hindrance.
Poetry
must
have
prose
to
root
itself
in;
the
homelier
its
earth-spot,
the
lovelier,
by
contrast,
its
heaven-breathing
flowers.
To
different
minds,
poetry
may
present
different
phases.
To
me,
the
reverent
faith
of
the
people
I
lived
among,
and
their
faithful
everyday
living,
was
poetry;
blossoms
and
trees
and
blue
skies
were
poetry.
God
himself
was
poetry.
As
I
grew
up
and
lived
on,
friendship
became
to
me
the
deepest
and
sweetest
ideal
of
poetry.
To
live
in
other
lives,
to
take
their
power
and
beauty
into
our
own,
that
is
poetry
experienced,
the
most
inspiring
of
all.
Poetry
embodied
in
persons,
in
lovely
and
lofty
characters,
more
sacredly
than
all
in
the
One
Divine
Person
who
has
transfigured
our
human
life
with
the
glory
of
His
sacrifice,--all
the
great
lyrics
and
epics
pale
before
that,
and
it
is
within
the
reach
and
comprehension
of
every
human
soul.
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