Nora Perry (writer)
Encyclopedia
Nora Perry was an American
poet, journalist, and writer of juvenile stories, and for some years Boston correspondent of the Chicago
Tribune
. She was born in Dudley
, Mass.
Her verse is collected in After the Ball (1875), Her Lover's Friend (1879), New Songs and Ballads (1886), Legends and Lyrics (1890). Her fiction, chiefly juvenile, includes The Tragedy of the Unexpected (1880), stories; For a Woman (1885), a novel; A Book of Love Stories (1881); A Flock of Girls and their Friends (1887); The New Year's Call (1903); and many other volumes. These are briskly told and, like her verses, appeal to the sentiment of the broader reading public.
The following eulogy on Vasco Nunez de Balboa, first European to see the Pacific Ocean from the isthmus of what is today Panama,
exemplifies her poetic style:
BALBOA
(probably written 1887/1888)
With restless step of discontent,
Day after day he fretting went
Along the old accustomed ways
That led to easeful length of days.
But far beyond the fragrant shade
Of orange groves his glances strayed
To where the white horizon line
Caught from the sea its silvery shine.
He knew the taste of that salt spray,
He knew the wind that blew that way;
Ah, once again to mount and ride
Upon that pulsing ocean tide,
To find new lands of virgin gold,
To wrest them from the savage hold,
To conquer with the sword and brain
Fresh fields and fair for royal Spain!
This was the dream of wild desire
That set his gallant heart on fire,
And stirred with feverish discontent
That soul for nobler issues meant.
Sometimes his children s laughter brought
A thrill that checked his restless thought;
Sometimes a voice more tender yet
Yould soothe the fever and the fret.
Thus day by day, until one day
Came news that in the harbor lay
A ship bound outward to explore
The treasures of that western shore,
Which bold adventurers as yet
Had failed to conquer or forget ;
" Yet where they failed, and failing died,
My will shall conquer ! " Balboa cried.
But when on Darien s shore he stept,
And fast and far his vision swept,
Lie saw before him, white and still,
The Andes mocking at his will.
Then like a flint he set his face;
Let others falter from their place,
His hand and foot, his sturdy soul
Should seek and gain that distant goal!
With speech like this he fired the land,
And gathered to his bold command
A troop of twenty score or more,
To follow where he led before.
They followed him day after day
O'er burning lands where ambushed lay
The waiting savage in his lair,
And fever poisoned all the air.
But like a sweeping wind of flame
A conqueror through all he came;
The savage fell beneath his hand,
Or led him on to seek the land
That richer yet for golden gain
Stretched out beyond the mountain chain.
Steep after steep of rough ascent
They followed, followed, worn and spent,
Until at length they came to where
The last peak lifted near and fair ;
Then Balboa turned and waved aside
His panting troops. "Rest here," he cried,
"And wait for me." And with a tread
Of trembling haste, he quickly sped
Along the trackless height, alone
To seek, to reach, his mountain throne.
Step after step he mounted swift;
The wind blew down a cloudy drift;
From some strange source he seemed to hear
The music of another sphere.
Step after step; the cloud-winds blew
Their blinding mists, then through and through
Sun-cleft, they broke, and all alone
He stood upon his mountain throne.
Before him spread no paltry lands,
To wrest with spoils from savage hands;
But, fresh and fair, an unknown world
Of mighty sea and shore unfurled
Its wondrous scroll beneath the skies.
Ah, what to this the flimsy prize
Of gold and lands for which he came
With hot ambition s sordid aim!
Silent he stood with streaming eyes
In that first moment of surprise,
Ihen on the mountain-top he bent,
This conqueror of a continent,
In wordless ecstasy of prayer,
Forgetting in that moment there,
With Nature s God brought face to face,
All vainer dreams of pomp and place.
Thus to the world a world was given.
Where lesser men had vainly striven,
And striving died, this gallant soul,
Divinely guided, reached the goal.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
poet, journalist, and writer of juvenile stories, and for some years Boston correspondent of the Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
Tribune
Chicago Tribune
The Chicago Tribune is a major daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, and the flagship publication of the Tribune Company. Formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" , it remains the most read daily newspaper of the Chicago metropolitan area and the Great Lakes region and is...
. She was born in Dudley
Dudley, Massachusetts
Dudley is a town in Worcester County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 11,390 at the 2010 census.-History:Dudley was first settled in 1714 and was officially incorporated in 1732...
, Mass.
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
Her verse is collected in After the Ball (1875), Her Lover's Friend (1879), New Songs and Ballads (1886), Legends and Lyrics (1890). Her fiction, chiefly juvenile, includes The Tragedy of the Unexpected (1880), stories; For a Woman (1885), a novel; A Book of Love Stories (1881); A Flock of Girls and their Friends (1887); The New Year's Call (1903); and many other volumes. These are briskly told and, like her verses, appeal to the sentiment of the broader reading public.
The following eulogy on Vasco Nunez de Balboa, first European to see the Pacific Ocean from the isthmus of what is today Panama,
exemplifies her poetic style:
BALBOA
(probably written 1887/1888)
With restless step of discontent,
Day after day he fretting went
Along the old accustomed ways
That led to easeful length of days.
But far beyond the fragrant shade
Of orange groves his glances strayed
To where the white horizon line
Caught from the sea its silvery shine.
He knew the taste of that salt spray,
He knew the wind that blew that way;
Ah, once again to mount and ride
Upon that pulsing ocean tide,
To find new lands of virgin gold,
To wrest them from the savage hold,
To conquer with the sword and brain
Fresh fields and fair for royal Spain!
This was the dream of wild desire
That set his gallant heart on fire,
And stirred with feverish discontent
That soul for nobler issues meant.
Sometimes his children s laughter brought
A thrill that checked his restless thought;
Sometimes a voice more tender yet
Yould soothe the fever and the fret.
Thus day by day, until one day
Came news that in the harbor lay
A ship bound outward to explore
The treasures of that western shore,
Which bold adventurers as yet
Had failed to conquer or forget ;
" Yet where they failed, and failing died,
My will shall conquer ! " Balboa cried.
But when on Darien s shore he stept,
And fast and far his vision swept,
Lie saw before him, white and still,
The Andes mocking at his will.
Then like a flint he set his face;
Let others falter from their place,
His hand and foot, his sturdy soul
Should seek and gain that distant goal!
With speech like this he fired the land,
And gathered to his bold command
A troop of twenty score or more,
To follow where he led before.
They followed him day after day
O'er burning lands where ambushed lay
The waiting savage in his lair,
And fever poisoned all the air.
But like a sweeping wind of flame
A conqueror through all he came;
The savage fell beneath his hand,
Or led him on to seek the land
That richer yet for golden gain
Stretched out beyond the mountain chain.
Steep after steep of rough ascent
They followed, followed, worn and spent,
Until at length they came to where
The last peak lifted near and fair ;
Then Balboa turned and waved aside
His panting troops. "Rest here," he cried,
"And wait for me." And with a tread
Of trembling haste, he quickly sped
Along the trackless height, alone
To seek, to reach, his mountain throne.
Step after step he mounted swift;
The wind blew down a cloudy drift;
From some strange source he seemed to hear
The music of another sphere.
Step after step; the cloud-winds blew
Their blinding mists, then through and through
Sun-cleft, they broke, and all alone
He stood upon his mountain throne.
Before him spread no paltry lands,
To wrest with spoils from savage hands;
But, fresh and fair, an unknown world
Of mighty sea and shore unfurled
Its wondrous scroll beneath the skies.
Ah, what to this the flimsy prize
Of gold and lands for which he came
With hot ambition s sordid aim!
Silent he stood with streaming eyes
In that first moment of surprise,
Ihen on the mountain-top he bent,
This conqueror of a continent,
In wordless ecstasy of prayer,
Forgetting in that moment there,
With Nature s God brought face to face,
All vainer dreams of pomp and place.
Thus to the world a world was given.
Where lesser men had vainly striven,
And striving died, this gallant soul,
Divinely guided, reached the goal.