University of Northern Iowa

Wild IrisAuthor(s): Virginia MooreSource: The North American Review, Vol. 230, No. 2 (Aug., 1930), p. 178Published by: University of Northern IowaStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25113613 .

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178 THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW

a round dozen and no more. Finally twelve select copies

were sent to

Dumbarton Grange to receive the

kind offices of the creator of the sonnets. Back they came, each care

fully autographed and numbered in the neat, small hand which the author

of the lively Poictesme romances has

cultivated. The original nine mem

bers of the club have scattered widely and are not likely to gather again, but

each treasures, along with pleasant memories of evenings profitably spent

in the old inn, a bit of Cabellana sufficient to arouse the cupidity of

any collector. Nor was autograph itch responsible for its creation. One

thought, however, tortures me and

will not let me rest: What became of

that library copy of Retractions? We really had no library, properly

speaking, but kept our meagre as

sortment of books on a single long

shelf, surrounded by odds and ends

of stuff, most of it worthless. Has this

little document been scribbled over

by some later student and tossed

away, to be swept up and burned on

the ash-pile by Uncle Jeff, the vener

able negro janitor? Or will it turn up one day in a sale, to be purchased by someone ignorant of the pleasant

days which brought it forth? I wonder.

Wild Iris

By Virginia Moore

To

make a perfect iris The heavens proffered tears,

And all of nature practised A hundred thousand years.

So now it blossoms thickly Along

a country stream,

Blue enough for hurting, Tender in extreme.

And greedily I take it With grown-up eyes that look To summer and to winter, To desolated brook.

How long must I be waiting For iris in a string? An age? A Buddhic cycle? Or just another spring?

This content downloaded from 195.78.108.199 on Sun, 15 Jun 2014 23:25:30 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions