Poems

In Short

Josephine Daskam Bacon’s volume gathers verses that span domestic intimacy, folklore, and spiritual crisis. The collection moves from quiet nursery lullabies to dark narrative ballads of drowning cities and supernatural encounters. Through tender portrayals of lost children alongside dramatic monologues of rebellious souls, the collection captures the friction between duty and freedom. Its enduring appeal rests in its sharp emotional honesty, balancing the comforting rhythms of Victorian lullabies with a haunting, modern undercurrent of grief, solitude, and untamed desire.

The Story

The volume opens in the quiet precincts of the home, exploring the delicate architecture of early childhood and maternal devotion. Songs of gentle bedtime rituals like counting sheep give way almost immediately to the devastating realities of loss. In the opening poem, a grieving mother begs God to return her deceased child, refusing divine comfort because the boy is too small to understand heaven and knows only his mother’s arms. This tension between safe domestic sanctuaries and sudden, irreversible loss establishes the central arc of the collection.

As the collection unfolds, the setting expands beyond the nursery into mythic and coastal landscapes where domestic security collapses entirely under the weight of wilder forces. In a tragic ballad, a burgher’s daughter marries a mysterious sea-man and promises to bury him in the ocean upon his death. When her stern family dishonors her vow and buries him in the churchyard instead, the ocean rises in vengeance, sweeping away the entire city into five-fathom depths. Other poems take up the plight of isolated figures: a deserted queen weeping over lost love, a captive sailor pining for the open sea while trapped in silent inland hills, and a dying man whose forgotten childhood spirit visits his window as his life ebbs away.

The middle section delves into spiritual conflict and the burden of destiny. In a dramatic dialogue between a soul and God, the reluctant mortal begs to be spared from leadership and battle, preferring a life of quiet ease, only to be told that once the eye sees truth, it can never unsee it. This internal struggle yields to dynamic portraits of natural destruction, most vividly in a monologue spoken by Mount Pelée as it erupts, scorching the earth and wiping out the unsuspecting human settlements below in a torrent of volcanic fury.

Towards the end, the volume turns back to the world of children, though now viewed through a lens of memory, phantom playmates, and subtle dread. Children whisper about shadows sliding down halls, ponder the cold reality of death when a playmate passes away, and weave elaborate fantasy worlds beneath the branches of a pear tree. The collection culminates in a verse play where a young prince, on the eve of his coronation, rejects the dull, scheming court life. Learning he was born in the forest to a dying queen, he slips into the woods with a loyal man-at-arms and a wandering gypsy, choosing the wild freedom of the open road over a heavy crown.

How It Unfolds

The sanctuary of home The collection opens with soft nursery songs and intimate domestic scenes, only to be shattered by the raw grief of a mother pleading with God for the return of her lost child.

The call of the sea Folklore and tragedy take hold as a woman’s failure to bury her sea-born husband in the ocean leads to a catastrophic deluge that swallows her entire town.

The reluctant soul In a stark spiritual dialogue, a tired mortal begs to avoid a life of sacrifice and leadership, but God insists that those who see the truth must lead despite their exhaustion.

The fury of nature The perspective shifts dramatically to a fiery volcanic peak that vents its rage, obliterating the oblivious humans who built their homes upon its slopes.

Shadows of childhood A sequence of child perspective poems explores dark playmates, mysterious shadows in hallways, and the chilling confusion of losing a young friend to death.

Flight into the wild The volume concludes with a dramatic scene where a young prince abdicates his throne on coronation eve to wander the forest alongside a gypsy and a faithful companion.

The People

• The Grieving Mother longs only to hold her deceased infant again, resisting divine authority and heavenly promises because she believes her child is too small and frightened to exist without her specific maternal care.
• The Sea Man is a mysterious stranger who requires a burial at sea as a condition of his earthly marriage; his wife’s failure to enforce this vow brings utter ruin to her community.
• The Reluctant Prophet seeks warmth, quiet, and ordinary human comforts, but finds himself relentlessly pushed into leadership and spiritual exile by a demanding Creator.
• Mount Pelée is a vengeful, personified volcano that views humanity as mere ants crawling over its fiery heart, unleashing catastrophic lava to reclaim its primal freedom.
• The Prince fears the cramped, false formalities of the royal court, desiring instead the wild independence of his forest birth, which leads him to abandon his kingdom forever.
• The Man-at-Arms is a devoted guardian whose deep love for the young prince forces him to choose between obedience to the state and following his master into self-imposed exile.

In Its Own Voice

When a bereaved mother demands the return of her child, she challenges the heavens directly:

"All his lips had learned / Was to hold fast my kisses in the night."

A captive sailor imprisoned by inland hills remembers the wild expanse of his past:

"To hear once more the thunder of the surf, / To breathe once more the salt and stinging wind!"

A young prince rejects the crown to embrace a life among the trees:

"The wind and rain shall be our councilors, / Nor urge us to do war, nor press the poor."

What It's Really About

Beneath its accessible rhythms and varied poetic forms, the collection wrestles with the conflict between domestic duty and the wild, unpredictable forces that threaten to break it. It explores how human structures—whether cities, royal courts, or cozy homes—are fragile barriers against loss, nature, and mortality. Grief is presented not as a quiet, accepted sadness, but as an active, protesting force that demands answers from God. The poems continuously ask whether true safety can ever exist, suggesting that peace is found either in accepting the pain of human love or in surrendering entirely to the untamed wilderness.

Why Read It Today

This collection appeals to readers who enjoy late-nineteenth and early-twentieth-century poetry that balances traditional formal verse with striking emotional depth. It captures a historical moment when standard Victorian sentimentalism was beginning to give way to darker, more psychologically complex themes. The language is clear, melodic, and accessible, avoiding overly dense obscurity while maintaining a refined technique.

Readers should be prepared for period conventions, including traditional ballad structures, archaic phrasing ("thou," "ye"), and formal metrical schemes that reflect the era's taste. The emotional landscape moves rapidly between sweet nursery songs and intense depictions of grief and natural disaster, which can feel jarring if read straight through. What stays with the reader, however, is the collection's surprisingly sharp edge—its refusal to offer easy comfort in the face of death and its enduring fascination with those who choose the risky, open road over a safe, predictable life.