Classic Poem

" NOTHING to eat; neither pork nor crock, —
We must sell the old tall Clock! "
Dandy Grimes with a tear in his eye
Kissed wife Freddie a smug good-bye.

She was used to being alone;
Only the Clock she could call her own:
Its two cherubs, the Sun and Moon,
Her sole babies, would leave her soon.

'Twixt them, upside, rode a ship;
'Twixt them, downside, a house did slip;
Human-faced were the Moon and Sun:
Save these babies, Freddie had none.

Everything had been sold to live:
Dandy was shiftless and fugitive.
Now he had gone away in the snow:
How the wind on the cape did blow!

Middletown valley the snowdrifts block
From the creek to the high White Rock;
Midst the mountains the old frame house
Was going down, like her ruined spouse.

Orphan child, she had married him, —
So parental, important, prim, —
Cradle he gave her but nothing to rock,
Only the twins in the old tall Clock.

Now he was old and she was young;
Over a Poor House fate she hung:
Faithful, filial, never at times
Saw she a life beyond Dandy Grimes,

Close to the old tall Clock she stood,
In its coffin of cherry wood,
Varnished, respectable and plumb;
Staid as she to her pendulum.

Round its fading dial of white,
Gold and colors remained as bright
As the face of Freddie in tears,
Midst her dial of golden years.

Tall as the minute hand her stand:
Dandy was shrunk like the hour hand.
Merry as Dandy, full of his swig,
Clicked the second hand's thingumagig.

But the Moon with its hairless brow
Wondered, black-eyed, at Freddie now;
Red its cheek as an apple's blush,
Ticking to hear from her: " Baby, hush!

" O, how lonely I will be,
Children, dear, when ye go from me!
Time I will know by the farmers' bells
When my little ones Dandy sells.

" Down in the Poor House of Montevue
Frederick's bells, I will think, are you, —
By-o-babies! " was Freddie's cry —
Sobs were choking her lullaby.

Fire went out and Freddie, wrapped
In her last thin coverlets, napped, —
Feeling the old house tremble and rock,
Hearing the notes of the old house Clock.

Dreaming of officers fetched from far,
Friends of her father in the great War, —
Some she nursed, in her child's short frock:
" Tick! tick! tick! " said the old tall Clock.

There was one, who had called her " Wife " ;
Saying her beauty would scent his life:
Saying her youth was his hollyhock:
" Tick! tick! tick! " said the old tall Clock.

" Where is Dandy? I hungry grow;
He is feeble and deep the snow!
Dandy has neither a glove nor a sock. "
" Tick! tick! tick! " said the old tall Clock.

Sudden, sleigh bells trembled a-cold:
Stood in the doorway a stranger bold,
Saying, " Pardon me not to knock! "
" Tick! tick! tick! " said the old tall Clock.

" Are they dead like the old man here,
I have fetched in my sleigh, his bier?
Frozen woman! no fire! no sock! "
" Tick! tick! tick! " said the old tall Clock.

Making a fire of the farmer's fence,
Chafing her body without pretence, —
Fair as a child in her frozen smock,
( " Tick! tick! tick! " said the old tall Clock.)

The good stranger performed his task,
Warmed her throat from his brandy flask,
Called her " Freddie, his hollyhock " —
" Tick! tick! tick! " said the old tall Clock.

She arose in a fine man's arms,
Bare as the house were her tingled charms:
" Dandy is frozen! " she cried with a shock:
" Tick! tick! tick! " said the old tall Clock.

" Child! who nursed me out of my death!
Take back from me the warmth and breath
I remembered from thy limbs' lock!
( " Tick! tick! tick! " said the old tall Clock.)

" Not thy face, though it is as sweet:
I remember thy beautiful feet,
Straight as the corn ere the battle's shock:
( " Tick! tick! tick! " said the old tall Clock.)

" Far have I come, in a widower's glow,
To thy bloom, in the pure, white snow;
Round thy poverty snowbirds flock.
( " Tick! tick! tick! " said the old tall Clock.)

" I have the blessing men call wealth;
Thou hast the riches of beauty and health:
Take my name and adorn my gold! "
Freddie clasped him, it was so cold:
" Do not sell my Clock from me! —
Its dear babies will honor thee.
They are the last of Dandy's stock: "
" Tick! tick! tick! " said the old tall Clock.