Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). The New Poetry: An Anthology. 1917.

Belated

Elizabeth J. Coatsworth

AT dusk a fox had run across my path,

And disappeared with smiling, wicked eyes.

It was so dark I could not see my way

Though all the fields were filled with fireflies.

And every tree had but one thing to breathe

Among its leaves—the words of an old song,

“At fifteen even a devil’s a thistle-bloom.”

The rice was murmurous as I went along;

Then in the darkness something brushed my sleeve,

White hands reached out to touch me in the gloom.

Her words were like the bright quick fireflies,

“At fifteen even a devil’s a thistle-bloom.”