Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


GOSSIP AT BOW MILLS by GERALD CHITTENDEN

First Line: BLUE PINES EMBRACE THE LITTLE CHURCH AT BOW
Last Line: TALKING ME OVER, CLUSTERED ROUND THE MILL.
Subject(s): GOSSIP;

Blue pines embrace the little church at Bow
Where four roads tumble down the untrodden hill,
And half a dozen houses in the snow
Cluster and gossip round the silent mill.

They stood there silent in New England wise.
One smoked its chimney like a corncob pipe,
And one looked at me with unblinking eyes,
Testing ironic comment, not yet ripe.

And two or three, more female than the rest,
Twinkled their attic windows as I passed,
Watching, amused, the crazy winter guest
Who snowshoed where the deepest drifts were massed.

Keen but not hostile was the town of Bow,
Breaking its silence as I climbed the hill,
Gathered and chuckling in the shadowed snow,
Talking me over, clustered round the mill.



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