This poem placed first in the 1929 Butler Literary Contest, Poetry Division

Young, Marguerite

English

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Jonathan's HouseMARGUERITE YOUNG(This poem placed first in the 1929 Butler LiteraryContest, Poetry Division.)They used to plan their house long, long ago,And giving of their strength to fragile things,Erected with the dreams that would not goA house with few of hoofs and many wings,With cloistered garden where a fountain sings,With stepping stones worn thin, a low brown door,A fireplace of blue tiles, and sunlight on the floor.They knew all shapes a fountain may assumeIn winter when the trees are starkly cold.There would be great, fire-spitting logs in gloom,And book backs shining red and green and gold, .And beauty. never cast in form nor moldAnd Jonathan would muse, with just an airOf pride, how there would be ooncealed beneath the stairA door, built like a panel, that she mightEscape from petty callers. On the wallOf their old garden would be vines with lightAnd silver mooded leaves, and over allThe shadows of pale, gleaming leaves would fall.But that was long ago. That was a dream.And Jonathan was gone. But he would never seemLike one who died. He was more like the rain,Recurring in a way that she had known.But still, when Thomas asked, she knew againHer woman's loss. Made certainly of stoneHis house, to trade for what was hers alone.Now, on a quiet street which had not changed,Was this, the house which Thomas cheerfully arranged.And now the moss-grown stepping stones she found,The low brown door, the fireplace tiled in blue,And through the rooms the swaying silver soundOf water stabbing through the air anew,And old, familiar shadows. These were true.But when, at last, she groped beneath the stair,No panel gave. The wide, unyielding stone was there.-4-

Jonathan\u27s House

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Jonathan\u27s House

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