‘Purely to the heavens’

Typical New England-style church steeple.

— Photo by Mangoe

“In this wind to wrench the eye

And curdle the ear,

The church steeple rises purely to the heavens;

The sky is clear.’’

— From “Fiend’s Weather,’’ by Louise Bogan (1897-1970), a native of Livermore Falls, Maine, and a U.S. poet laureate

Depressing Depot Street in Livermore Falls in 1909, when the place was a busy mill town like so many others in New England.

‘Facing a sheer sky’

“Medusa,’’ by Arnold Böcklin, circa 1878

“I had come to the house, in a cave of trees,

Facing a sheer sky.

Everything moved, — a bell hung ready to strike,

Sun and reflection moved wheeled by.’’

— From “Medusa,’’ by Louise Bogan (1897-1970), a native of Livermore Falls, Maine, who became, in 1945, the first woman U.S. poet laureate. She also wrote fiction and criticism, and was the regular poetry reviewer for The New Yorker.

The Jonathan Fairbanks House, in Dedham, Mass., built circa 1641, is the oldest surviving timber-frame house in North America.

'More than the fruit'

“Eat it; and you will taste more than the fruit:

The blossom, too,

The sun, the air, the darkness at the root,

The rain, the dew….’’

—From “The Crossed Apple,’’ by Louise Bogan (1897-1970). She was a native of Livermore Falls, Maine, where her father was a mill worker. She served as U.S. poet laureate.

1909 postcard