VALHALLA And Other Poems
By
A long narrative poem in blank verse forms the title piece. It recounts the life and death of a Vermont family on a lonely homestead, where the father isolated them to avoid the struggle of present-day life. It is the story of his struggle to hold them, by the beauty of the woods, the changing scene, etc., and of how one daughter married and left, an only son went to sea and to his death, and the youngest daughter died at home. Short lyrics in the same vein follow. Simple, rustic verse, with occasional vigor, but lacking any marked distinction.