Verses

by Susan Coolidge

Verses is a poetic collection that reflects the emotional and spiritual depth of human experience through graceful and contemplative language. The work captures the delicate balance between joy and sorrow, love and loss, and the enduring beauty of nature as a source of solace and renewal. Each poem resonates with introspection, revealing the poet’s sensitivity to the rhythms of life and the quiet strength found in reflection and connection. The collection opens with dedications that express admiration and gratitude, setting a tone of warmth and sincerity that extends throughout the verses. As the poems unfold, they explore the transience of earthly experiences and the immortality of affection and memory, weaving together personal sentiment and universal truth. The poet’s ability to transform simple emotions into enduring reflections gives the collection a timeless quality, one that celebrates human tenderness and the serenity that comes from acceptance and hope. Verses becomes not only an expression of feeling but a meditation on the beauty of existence and the soul’s quiet endurance.

Genres: Poetry

151 pages, Kindle Edition

First published February 1, 2007

About the author

Sarah Chauncey Woolsey was an American children's author who wrote under the pen name Susan Coolidge.

Woolsey was born January 29, 1835, into the wealthy, influential New England Dwight family in Cleveland, Ohio. Her father was John Mumford Woolsey (1796–1870) and mother was Jane Andrews. She spent much of her childhood in New Haven Connecticut after her family moved there in 1852.

Woolsey worked as a nurse during the American Civil War (1861–1865), after which she started to write. The niece of the author and poet Gamel Woolsey, she never married, and resided at her family home in Newport, Rhode Island, until her death.

She edited The Autobiography and Correspondence of Mrs. Delaney (1879) and The Diary and Letters of Frances Burney (1880). She is best known, however, for her classic children's novel, What Katy Did (1872). The fictional Carr family was modeled after the author's own, with Katy Carr inspired by Susan (Sarah) herself, and the brothers and sisters modeled on Coolidge's four younger Woolsey siblings.

Reviews

[Kate Callen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Tiresome. There are basically two poems that are enjoyable, and the rest are very samey apart from another two I find objectionable.

Read (SC is long dead and her work out of copyright so you can easily find these online):
- The Cradle Tomb in Westminster Abbey (search for a photo of the tomb; the poem is sentimental but in a good way)
- Ginevra Degli Amieri (great story)

Avoid:
- The Legend of Kintu (racist)
- My Rights (sexist & anti women's suffrage)

The rest are treacle, full of flowers and overblown metaphors. Read any three to get a sense of what the rest of the book is like and be done. I strongly suspect they were all written to sell to Christian journals that didn't want women or children thinking too hard.

I only read the second half of this because I'm stubborn. I liked Coolidge's "Katy" books as a child and was hoping for more from this.

[Duckpondwithoutducks · Rating 4 out of 5]

This short volume of poetry is a good example of Victorian Romantic poetry. Many of the poems have love, nature, or scriptural themes. The messages maybe aren't particularly profound, but the poems sound beautiful.