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Vintage Colorado Poetry

Poem of the Week

October 27, 2003

Edith Colby Banfield lived in Colorado Springs at her death in 1903.  She was 33 years old.  A few poems had been published before her death, in Atlantic Monthly, Dial, and elsewhere.  A collection of her poetry was published posthumously.

In the Rockies

I am a lover of New England ways, Of country roadsides and familiar flowers, Of haunts that I have known from early days, How may I look on the gigantic West? How understand these mountains and ravines? How cease from saying, But my heart loves           best The quiet East and all its wooded scenes? These are the mighty ones that I know not Of ancient race and kingly lineage--- Too great for me, still holding unforgot The lesser hillsides of my heritage, Like one of lowly birth who homesick clings To humble memories 'mid halls of kings.                                --Edith Colby Banfield

Reprinted from My Place of Desire and Other Poems, Boston, 1904