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Show 214 these pieces, titled Life Lines. Sister Wells provided the introduction, and Ellis dedicated the book to her children: To my beloved children who though all their lives have been the strongest incentive to my best thought and endeavor: my purest, tenderest, truest joy, my highest inspiration, my lifeline linking with Eternity, these heart-throbs are lovingly dedicated by their mother. THE AUTHOR.6 In her foreword to her mother's diary, Ellis Musser mentions this book of poems. Many of them are sentimental verses, typical of the era. Others are deep and poignant. Among the latter is one written on a scrap of paper held on her knees as she returned in her horse-drawn buggy from a midnight call to the bed of a child who had died before she reached her.7 The piece alluded to is three stanzas long and is titled, "Midnight Musings" In the first stanza she acknowledges God's power and expresses thankfulness. In the second, she feels his love in the moonlight, the stars, the river's flow; and in the third, concludes: Again, I hear it in the quiv'ring trees, Perceive it in the fragrant flow'rets' breath. I sense it in the sighing, passing breeze, In blessed life-and even solemn death.° Ellis' range of topics and choices of style are represented in the following random samplings, quatrains extracted from individual poems throughout the book: Ah, my soul is full of discord With life and nature's song, I chafe beneath my burdens Of drudging all day long... __Two Sunbeams, p. 71 In the dawn of life's mornings, with angels of light, From thy Father's fair mansion thy spirit took flight. -Three Score and Ten, p. 73 (to Emmeline B. Wells) |