“Go further up this craggy steep, and seaward look, I pray—”
His faithful servant goes, and strains his vision towards that way,
But says “there’s nothing.”—“Go sev’n times,” the prophet says “for me,—”
And on the seventh time, behold! arising from the sea,
A little cloud, as ’twere, no bigger than a human hand,—
But swiftly, darkly spreading o’er the parched, thirsty land,
It widely displays its threatening armies thro’ the sky,
Its lurid lightnings flash in forked streaks upon the eye.
Like countless fiery serpents thro’ the troubled air,
Whilst loud the roaring thunder bursts amid the flaming glare;
And rage the winds, uprooting mountain oaks before the view,—
Refreshing show’rs descend, and quick the fainting earth renew.
Scarcely could Israel’s monarch in his chariot reach his court,
Ere nature’s pent up elements broke forth in airy sport,
And to earth (which for three long years had known nor rain nor dew,)
The long desired drops, their welcome downward course pursue.
Once more Samaria’s people gladly tune their harps and sing
The praises of Jehovah, God, the everlasting King:—
Once more, the voice of gladness sounds where naught but anguish dwelt;
There, once again, the gush of rapture, absent long, is felt!
[Mrs. Alice Coale Simpers.]
Mrs. Alice Coale Simpers was born in the old brick mansion known as “Traveler’s Repose,” a short distance south of Harrisville, in the Sixth district of Cecil county, on the first day of December, 1843.
The Coale family of which Mrs. Simpers is a member, trace their descent from Sir Philip Blodgett, a distinguished Englishman, who settled in Baltimore shortly after its foundation, and are related to the Matthews, Worthingtons, Jewetts, and other leading families of Harford county. On her mother’s side she is related to the Jacksons, Puseys, and other well-known Friends of Chester county, Pennsylvania, and Wilmington, Delaware.
Mrs. Simpers’ early education was received at Waring’s Friends’ School, near the village of Colora, which was kept up by a few families of Friends in the neighborhood. She also attended the State Normal School in Baltimore, and qualified herself for teaching in the public schools of the State, in which she taught for about ten years in Cecil county, and also in Dorchester county. She also taught school in the State of Illinois with great acceptability and success.
When Mrs. Simpers was quite young her father removed his family to the banks of the romantic Octoraro, near Rowlandville, and within less than two miles of the birth-place of the two poetic Ewings and the late John Cooley, and the romantic spot where Mrs. Hall lived when she wrote the poems which are published in this volume. The soul-inspiring beauty of this romantic region seems to have had the same effect upon her mind as it had upon the other persons composing the illustrious quintette, of which she is a distinguished member, and when only seventeen years of age she began to write poetry. At the solicitation of her friend, E.E. Ewing, she sent the first poem she published to him, who gave it a place in The Cecil Whig, of which he was the editor and proprietor.