| Harriet Monroe, ed. (1860–1936). Poetry: A Magazine of Verse. 1912–22. | | | | Atavism | | By Elinor Wylie |
| | From “Still Colors”
I ALWAYS was afraid of Somes’s Pond: | |
| Not the little pond, by which the willow stands, | |
| Where laughing boys catch alewives in their hands | |
| In brown, bright shallows; but the one beyond. | |
| There, when the frost makes all the birches burn | 5 |
| Yellow as cow-lilies, and the pale sky shines | |
| Like a polished shell between black spruce and pines, | |
| Some strange thing tracks us, turning where we turn. | |
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| You’ll say I dream it, being the true daughter | |
| Of those who in old times endured this dread. | 10 |
| Look! Where the lily-stems are showing red | |
| A silent paddle moves below the water, | |
| A sliding shape has stirred them like a breath; | |
| Tall plumes surmount a painted mask of death. | | | | |
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