Sarah N. Cleghorn

Sarah Norcliffe Cleghorn was born at Norfolk, Virginia, February 4, 1876. She came North early in her youth and was graduated from Burr and Burton Seminary in Manchester, Vermont (in 1895), in which town, after a year at Radcliffe, she has lived ever since.

An ardent worker for lost causes, Miss Cleghorn’s fiery spirit shines through Portraits and Protests (1917), the first half of which is coolly descriptive and the second half, hotly insurrectionary verse.

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THE SURVIVAL OF THE FITTEST

“The unfit die: the fit both live and thrive.”

Alas, who say so?—They who do survive.

So when her bonfires lighted hill and plain,

Did Bloody Mary think on Lady Jane.

So Russia thought of Finland, while her heel

Fell heavier on the prostrate commonweal.

So Booth of Lincoln thought: and so the High

Priests let Barabbas live, and Jesus die.

THE INCENTIVE

I saw a sickly cellar plant

Droop on its feeble stem, for want

Of sun and wind and rain and dew—

Of freedom!—Then a man came through

The cellar, and I heard him say,

“Poor, foolish plant, by all means stay

Contented here: for—know you not?—

This stagnant dampness, mould and rot

Are your incentive to grow tall

And reach that sunbeam on the wall.”

—Even as he spoke, the sun’s one spark

Withdrew, and left the dusk more dark.

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