Their colours are felt, but never seen.
Also in the first poem entitled Miscast, where she speaks of her mind as
So keen, that it nicks off the floating fringes of passers-by,
So sharp, that the air would turn its edge
Were it to be twisted in flight.
To help her imagination, Miss Lowell possesses a faculty which belongs only to the happy few: the gift of words. The astonishing description of arms and vases in the first poem is but one example, if one of the best, of this rare gift.
It is necessary also, in order to study thoroughly this interesting and complex personality, to mention the great dramatic quality of some of the long poems in the book. From that point of view, The Great Adventure of Max Breuck seems to me the most interesting. And there is much to be said of the sincerity and depth of sentiment in such poems as A Gift, Stupidity, Patience, Absence. All these short poems have something unique about them and constitute one of the greatest charms, and an important part of the value, of the book. It is almost incredible that a little poem like Obligation, for example, should contain such a world of thought and restrained sentiment in its ten short lines. I have chosen this poem as the type of this genre, because it characterizes perhaps better than any other this very special trait of Miss Lowell’s talent:
Hold your apron wide
That I may pour my gifts into it,
So that scarcely shall your two arms hinder them