POEM BY A LITTLE GIRL

POEM BY A LITTLE GIRLI love this gorgeous little poem, written by Hilda Conkling, most likely between the ages of seven and nine! Poem-a-day put this up recently and said—

Hilda Conkling was born in New York State in 1910. Her poetry, which she composed between the ages of four and fourteen, is collected in Poems by a Little Girl.

In her preface to the collection, Amy Lowell writes, after listing “Gift” among the book’s most successful poems, that “She probably hardly thought at all, so natural was it, to say that three pinks ‘smell like more of them in a blue vase,’ but the expression fills the air with so strong a scent that no superlative could increase it. ‘Gift’ is a lovely poem, it has feeling, expression, originality, cadence. If a child can write such a poem at eight years old, what does it mean?"

I adore this poem for all of its sensory deliciousness! Love Susie. x


Gift


This is mint and here are three pinks

I have brought you, Mother.

They are wet with rain

And shining with it.

The pinks smell like more of them

In a blue vase:

The mint smells like summer

In many gardens.


By Hilda Conkling