The Girl With Bright Hair by Warren Gilbert.

This is a poem written by Warren Gilbert. It is about a girl and her falling for nature while she waits for her date to show up. The poem was published in 1924 and appeared in The Best Poems of 1924, a compilation of poems published by Boston. Small and Maynard and Company Publishers. It was edited by L. A. G. Strong.

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                <publisher>Cooper Rohde</publisher>
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                    <name>Cooper Rohde</name>
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                <date>2019</date>
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                    <p>Copyright &#169; 2019 by Cooper Rohde, all rights
                        reserved. Redistribution or republication in any medium, except as allowed
                        under the Fair Use provisions of U.S. copyright law, requires express
                        written consent from the editors and advance notification of the publisher,
                        the University of Nebraska&#8211;Lincoln.</p>
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                    <author>Warren Gilbert</author>
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            <note type="editorial" place="margintopleft" resp="hand1">96</note>
            <note type="editorial" place="margintopcenter" resp="hand2">3</note>
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            <lg type="stanza">
                <l>The girl with bright hair</l>
                <l>sat down at the basae of a tree</l>
                <l>and looked at her torn sleeve.</l>
                <l>She wondered if he would notice it</l>
                <l>She blushed when she thought of her appearance</l>
                <l>as she crawled through the fence.</l>
                <l>Someone might have been looking.</l>
                <l>He might have been looking.</l>
                <l>It was her first experiment in indecorum,</l>
                <l>and not unpleasant.</l>
                <l>It was time he came.</l>
                <l>They had met only twice before.</l>
                <l>The first time they didnt go far.</l>
                <l>The next time they naturally went farther.</l>
                <l>She didn't know how far they would go this time,</l>
                <lb></lb> <l>       naturally.</l>
                <l>She fanned her flushed face with her handkerchief,</l>
                <l>and tried to look unconcerened.</l>
            </lg>
            <lg type="stanza">
               <l>At some distance</l>
               <l>an elderly white horse</l>
                <l>stood and looked at her.</l>
                <l>He had stopped eating when she first appeared.</l>
                <l>She wanted to tell him to go on with his eating.</l>
                <l>A bird came to watch her,</l>
                <l>A bird with a blue coat and</l>
                <l>and hard, inquisitive eyes.</l>
                <l>She wanted to tell it to go away.</l>
                <l>She had an idea that birds as a rule</l>
                <l>do not sit long on a branch</l>
                <l>without saying something.</l>
            </lg>
            <lg type="stanza">
                <l>A ground squirrel glided through the grass</l>
                <l>not far from her.</l>
                <pb n="83"/>
            </lg>
            <lg>
                <l>It went a little way and stopped.</l>
                <l>It stood up on its hind legs and turned about</l>
                <l>eyeing her impudently</l>
                <l>She flung up her hand in sheer nervousness,</l>
                <l>and the squirrel ran away.</l>
                <l>It was incredibly swift and graceful.</l>
                <l>She wondered what sort of life it could live</l>
                <l>in that lithe, alert little body.</l>
                <l>She didn't know its name.</l>
                <l>She knew nothing of animals,</l>
                <l>not even dogs and cats.</l>
                <l>They kept none at her city home,</l>
                <l>only two motor cars.</l>
            </lg>
   
            <lg type="stanza">
                <l>The girl with bright hair</l>
                <l>stretched her comely silk-clad legs</l>
                <l>into a more comfortable position</l>
                <l>(she had been sitting with one foot under her), </l>
                <l>and began kicking with her heels in the soft sod.</l>
                <l>It seemed astonishingly pleasant to do this.</l>
                <l>She wondered why people didn't do it oftener.</l>
                <l>The earth is good, she thought,</l>
                <l>Just common earth, dry and dusty on top,</l>
                <l>wrinkled, pittied, gray (like the cheek of an old</l> <lb></lb>
            <l> woman</l>
                <l>who has had many experiences),</l>
                <l>the home of innumerable insects</l>
                <l>struggling among the grass blades</l>
                <l>or burrowing beneath the surface.</l>
                <l>She prodded deeper,</l>
                <l>with a stick this time,</l>
                <l>making quite a hole,</l>
                <l>turning up living organisms</l>
                <l>imbedded in the black, moist dirt—</l>
            </lg>
             <lg type="stanza">
                <l>an indecently white grub</l>
                <l>curled into a ring,</l>
                 <pb n="84"></pb>
                 <l>a bundle of brown angle-worms</l>
                    <l>lasciviously intertwisted,</l>
                    <l>a beetle that lay on its back</l>
                    <l>showing a lewd underside</l>
                    <l>red, sensitive, shrinking.</l>
                    <l>She felt a queer shame</l>
                    <l>before the amazing mystery of the soil.</l>
                    <l>She smoothed the place over quickly,</l>
                    <l>smiling at her folly.</l>
                    <l>She felt as though she had been caught at a</l>
                     <lb></lb>
             <l>keyhole</l>
                 <l>looking at forbidden things</l>
             </lg>
              
            <lg type="stanza">
              <l>Yet here was the source, she argued,</l>
                <l>here the bare breast of the mother.</l>
                <l>Everything had come from this —</l>
                <l>tree, grass, bird, animal,</l>
                <l>man, and the consciousness of man,</l>
                <l>the girl herself and the bright hair!</l>
            </lg>
            <lg type="stanza">
              <l>She turned from this thought</l>
                <l>to the August sunlight with relish.</l>
                <l>It beat through the thick foliage over her head,</l>
                <l>it pushed thhe leaves aside to get at her,</l>
                <l>it dazzled her eyes pleasantly</l>
                <l>it induced an agreeable suffocation.</l>
                <l>Again she thought,</l>
                <l>The earth is good,</l>
                <l>the earth is alive.</l>
                <l>And by some odd miracle</l>
                <l>she entered into the life of the grass</l>
                <l>and the trees and the countless breathing</l>
                <lb></lb> 
                <l> organisms</l>
                <l>thick all about her —</l>
                <l>leaping, flying, crawling, squirming,</l>
                <l>bumming, singing, droning, chirping, mute,</l>
                <pb n="85"></pb>
                <l>snout and bill and lip and fang and mandible,</l>
                <l>food and pleasure, food and pleasure,</l>
                <l>bridals and births and funerals,</l>
                <l>the mid-summer pageant</l>
                <l>of a fierce and foreign little people.</l>
                
            </lg>
            
            <lg type="stanza">
                <l>A thousand images</l>
                <l>detached, muddled, glowing,</l>
                <l>flowed through her mind.</l>
                <l>She felt the fertility of the soil</l>
                <l>as she crumbled it in her fingers;</l>
                <l>there was something reminiscent,</l>
                <l>something profoundly movingi</l>
                <l>in the mere contact of her skin with the soil</l>
                <l>The sun grew heavy and hot ;</l>
                <l>it pressed down upon her,</l>
                <l>it pulled at her heart strings ;</l>
                <l>the fecund moment came;</l>
                <l>the wild flowers made their magic at her feet</l>
                <l>with waving impudent stamens;</l>
                <l>two butterflies united swam through the air</l>
                <l>in long exquisite spirals;</l>
                <l>there was a commotion close to the ground,</l>
                <l>a breathing, a pushing, a sucking throughout the</l>
                <l>   soil.</l>
                <l>She began to ache all over;</l>
                <l>te earth sent out insatiable small fingers</l>
                <l>that gripped her;</l>
                <l>she was enveloped in draining magnetisms;</l>
                <l>her breathing became quick again;</l>
                <l>she felt as if she were bursting;</l>
                <l>her body seemed to rise and fall with the pulse of</l>
                <lb/> <l>  the earth;</l>
                <pb n="86"></pb>
                <l>she loosened her dress at the throat and the waist;</l>
                <l>her eyes closed;</l>
                <l>she lay very still;</l>
                <l>behind her closed lids the colors came and went,</l>
                <l>orange and amethyst,</l>
                <l>sapphire and purple,</l>
                <l>and cool spaces of darkness</l>
                <l>advancing and receding.</l>
                <l>And through it all</l>
                <l>the piercing sweetness of the aching cells.</l>
                <l>Presently her body relazed,</l>
                <l>every cell became quiescent,</l>
                <l>she slumbered inert on the ground</l>
                <l>her hand clutching at clumps of blue grass,</l>
                <l>one knee raised high,</l>
                <l>her skirt fallen back</l>
                <l>in unseemly fashion.</l>
            </lg>
           
            <lg type="stanza">
                <l>She was awakened by the brushing of feet</l>
                <l>through the grass.</l>
                <l>she sat up quickly,</l>
                <l>and pulled down her dress.</l>
                <l>A young man in faultless summer gear</l>
                <l>hastened towards her.</l>
                <l>The young man threw away his cigarette</l>
                <l>and ran forward.</l>
                <l>"Darling," he said, with arms outstretched.</l>
                
            </lg>
            
            <lg type="stanza">
                <l>She got up coolly,</l>
                <l>a polite smile killing enthusiasm.</l>
                
            </lg>
            
            <lg type="stanza">
                <l>"You are a thousand years late</l>
                <l>at least," she answered.</l>
                <l>"I am in love with another."</l>
                <l>-Warren Gilbert.</l>
            </lg>
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The Girl With Bright Hair 2019 Cooper Rohde Cooper Rohde 2019

Copyright © 2019 by Cooper Rohde, all rights reserved. Redistribution or republication in any medium, except as allowed under the Fair Use provisions of U.S. copyright law, requires express written consent from the editors and advance notification of the publisher, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

 The Girl With Bright Hair Warren Gilbert 1924 Boston Small, Maynard and Company Publishers

Your Name Here view page image(s) 1 96 2 3 3 1 The girl with bright hair sat down at the basae of a tree and looked at her torn sleeve. She wondered if he would notice it She blushed when she thought of her appearance 5 as she crawled through the fence. Someone might have been looking. He might have been looking. It was her first experiment in indecorum, and not unpleasant. 10 It was time he came. They had met only twice before. The first time they didnt go far. The next time they naturally went farther. She didn't know how far they would go this time, 15 naturally. She fanned her flushed face with her handkerchief, and tried to look unconcerened. At some distance an elderly white horse stood and looked at her. He had stopped eating when she first appeared. She wanted to tell him to go on with his eating. 5 A bird came to watch her, A bird with a blue coat and and hard, inquisitive eyes. She wanted to tell it to go away. She had an idea that birds as a rule 10 do not sit long on a branch without saying something. A ground squirrel glided through the grass not far from her. It went a little way and stopped. It stood up on its hind legs and turned about eyeing her impudently She flung up her hand in sheer nervousness, and the squirrel ran away. 5 It was incredibly swift and graceful. She wondered what sort of life it could live in that lithe, alert little body. She didn't know its name. She knew nothing of animals, 10 not even dogs and cats. They kept none at her city home, only two motor cars. The girl with bright hair stretched her comely silk-clad legs into a more comfortable position (she had been sitting with one foot under her), and began kicking with her heels in the soft sod. 5 It seemed astonishingly pleasant to do this. She wondered why people didn't do it oftener. The earth is good, she thought, Just common earth, dry and dusty on top, wrinkled, pittied, gray (like the cheek of an old 10 woman who has had many experiences), the home of innumerable insects struggling among the grass blades or burrowing beneath the surface. 15 She prodded deeper, with a stick this time, making quite a hole, turning up living organisms imbedded in the black, moist dirt— 20 an indecently white grub curled into a ring, a bundle of brown angle-worms lasciviously intertwisted, a beetle that lay on its back 5 showing a lewd underside red, sensitive, shrinking. She felt a queer shame before the amazing mystery of the soil. She smoothed the place over quickly, 10 smiling at her folly. She felt as though she had been caught at a keyhole looking at forbidden things Yet here was the source, she argued, here the bare breast of the mother. Everything had come from this — tree, grass, bird, animal, man, and the consciousness of man, 5 the girl herself and the bright hair! She turned from this thought to the August sunlight with relish. It beat through the thick foliage over her head, it pushed thhe leaves aside to get at her, it dazzled her eyes pleasantly 5 it induced an agreeable suffocation. Again she thought, The earth is good, the earth is alive. And by some odd miracle 10 she entered into the life of the grass and the trees and the countless breathing organisms thick all about her — leaping, flying, crawling, squirming, 15 bumming, singing, droning, chirping, mute, snout and bill and lip and fang and mandible, food and pleasure, food and pleasure, bridals and births and funerals, the mid-summer pageant 20 of a fierce and foreign little people. A thousand images detached, muddled, glowing, flowed through her mind. She felt the fertility of the soil as she crumbled it in her fingers; 5 there was something reminiscent, something profoundly movingi in the mere contact of her skin with the soil The sun grew heavy and hot ; it pressed down upon her, 10 it pulled at her heart strings ; the fecund moment came; the wild flowers made their magic at her feet with waving impudent stamens; two butterflies united swam through the air 15 in long exquisite spirals; there was a commotion close to the ground, a breathing, a pushing, a sucking throughout the soil. She began to ache all over; 20 te earth sent out insatiable small fingers that gripped her; she was enveloped in draining magnetisms; her breathing became quick again; she felt as if she were bursting; 25 her body seemed to rise and fall with the pulse of the earth; she loosened her dress at the throat and the waist; her eyes closed; she lay very still; 30 behind her closed lids the colors came and went, orange and amethyst, sapphire and purple, and cool spaces of darkness advancing and receding. 35 And through it all the piercing sweetness of the aching cells. Presently her body relazed, every cell became quiescent, she slumbered inert on the ground 40 her hand clutching at clumps of blue grass, one knee raised high, her skirt fallen back in unseemly fashion. She was awakened by the brushing of feet through the grass. she sat up quickly, and pulled down her dress. A young man in faultless summer gear 5 hastened towards her. The young man threw away his cigarette and ran forward. "Darling," he said, with arms outstretched. She got up coolly, a polite smile killing enthusiasm. "You are a thousand years late at least," she answered. "I am in love with another." -Warren Gilbert.

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The Girl With Bright Hair 2019 Cooper Rohde Cooper Rohde 2019

Copyright © 2019 by Cooper Rohde, all rights reserved. Redistribution or republication in any medium, except as allowed under the Fair Use provisions of U.S. copyright law, requires express written consent from the editors and advance notification of the publisher, the University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

 The Girl With Bright Hair Warren Gilbert 1924 Boston Small, Maynard and Company Publishers

Your Name Here 96 3 1 The girl with bright hair sat down at the basae of a tree and looked at her torn sleeve. She wondered if he would notice it She blushed when she thought of her appearance as she crawled through the fence. Someone might have been looking. He might have been looking. It was her first experiment in indecorum, and not unpleasant. It was time he came. They had met only twice before. The first time they didnt go far. The next time they naturally went farther. She didn't know how far they would go this time, naturally. She fanned her flushed face with her handkerchief, and tried to look unconcerened. At some distance an elderly white horse stood and looked at her. He had stopped eating when she first appeared. She wanted to tell him to go on with his eating. A bird came to watch her, A bird with a blue coat and and hard, inquisitive eyes. She wanted to tell it to go away. She had an idea that birds as a rule do not sit long on a branch without saying something. A ground squirrel glided through the grass not far from her. It went a little way and stopped. It stood up on its hind legs and turned about eyeing her impudently She flung up her hand in sheer nervousness, and the squirrel ran away. It was incredibly swift and graceful. She wondered what sort of life it could live in that lithe, alert little body. She didn't know its name. She knew nothing of animals, not even dogs and cats. They kept none at her city home, only two motor cars. The girl with bright hair stretched her comely silk-clad legs into a more comfortable position (she had been sitting with one foot under her), and began kicking with her heels in the soft sod. It seemed astonishingly pleasant to do this. She wondered why people didn't do it oftener. The earth is good, she thought, Just common earth, dry and dusty on top, wrinkled, pittied, gray (like the cheek of an old woman who has had many experiences), the home of innumerable insects struggling among the grass blades or burrowing beneath the surface. She prodded deeper, with a stick this time, making quite a hole, turning up living organisms imbedded in the black, moist dirt— an indecently white grub curled into a ring, a bundle of brown angle-worms lasciviously intertwisted, a beetle that lay on its back showing a lewd underside red, sensitive, shrinking. She felt a queer shame before the amazing mystery of the soil. She smoothed the place over quickly, smiling at her folly. She felt as though she had been caught at a keyhole looking at forbidden things Yet here was the source, she argued, here the bare breast of the mother. Everything had come from this — tree, grass, bird, animal, man, and the consciousness of man, the girl herself and the bright hair! She turned from this thought to the August sunlight with relish. It beat through the thick foliage over her head, it pushed thhe leaves aside to get at her, it dazzled her eyes pleasantly it induced an agreeable suffocation. Again she thought, The earth is good, the earth is alive. And by some odd miracle she entered into the life of the grass and the trees and the countless breathing organisms thick all about her — leaping, flying, crawling, squirming, bumming, singing, droning, chirping, mute, snout and bill and lip and fang and mandible, food and pleasure, food and pleasure, bridals and births and funerals, the mid-summer pageant of a fierce and foreign little people. A thousand images detached, muddled, glowing, flowed through her mind. She felt the fertility of the soil as she crumbled it in her fingers; there was something reminiscent, something profoundly movingi in the mere contact of her skin with the soil The sun grew heavy and hot ; it pressed down upon her, it pulled at her heart strings ; the fecund moment came; the wild flowers made their magic at her feet with waving impudent stamens; two butterflies united swam through the air in long exquisite spirals; there was a commotion close to the ground, a breathing, a pushing, a sucking throughout the soil. She began to ache all over; te earth sent out insatiable small fingers that gripped her; she was enveloped in draining magnetisms; her breathing became quick again; she felt as if she were bursting; her body seemed to rise and fall with the pulse of the earth; she loosened her dress at the throat and the waist; her eyes closed; she lay very still; behind her closed lids the colors came and went, orange and amethyst, sapphire and purple, and cool spaces of darkness advancing and receding. And through it all the piercing sweetness of the aching cells. Presently her body relazed, every cell became quiescent, she slumbered inert on the ground her hand clutching at clumps of blue grass, one knee raised high, her skirt fallen back in unseemly fashion. She was awakened by the brushing of feet through the grass. she sat up quickly, and pulled down her dress. A young man in faultless summer gear hastened towards her. The young man threw away his cigarette and ran forward. "Darling," he said, with arms outstretched. She got up coolly, a polite smile killing enthusiasm. "You are a thousand years late at least," she answered. "I am in love with another." -Warren Gilbert.