Lives of Girls Who Became Famous

by Sarah Knowles Bolton

Studious health, and merry leisure,
The first dew on the first flower!

But the first of all my losses was the losing of the bower.

* * * * *

"Is the bower lost then? Who sayeth
That the bower indeed is lost?

Hark! my spirit in it prayeth
Through the sunshine and the frost,--

And the prayer preserves it greenly, to the last and uttermost.

"Till another open for me
In God's Eden-land unknown,

With an angel at the doorway,
White with gazing at His throne,

And a saint's voice in the palm-trees, singing, 'All is lost ... and won!'"

Elizabeth Barrett wrote poems at ten, and when seventeen, published an Essay on Mind, and Other Poems. The essay was after the manner of Pope, and though showing good knowledge of Plato and Bacon, did not find favor with the critics. It was dedicated to her father, who was proud of a daughter who preferred Latin and Greek to the novels of the day.