  Edith Matilda Thomas was born at Chatham, Ohio, August 12, 1854. She was educated in the Normal Institute at Geneva, Ohio, and has been living in New York since 1888. Miss Thomas is the author of some dozen books of verse, most of them lightly lyrical in mood, although many of her individual poems have a spiritually dramatic quality. The best of her work may be found in Lyrics and Sonnets (1887) and The Flower from the Ashes (1915). “FROST TO-NIGHT”Apple-green west and an orange bar; And the crystal eye of a lone, one star ... And, “Child, take the shears and cut what you will, Frost to-night—so clear and dead-still.” Then I sally forth, half sad, half proud, And I come to the velvet, imperial crowd, The wine-red, the gold, the crimson, the pied,— The dahlias that reign by the garden-side. The dahlias I might not touch till to-night! A gleam of shears in the fading light, And I gathered them all,—the splendid throng, And in one great sheaf I bore them along. · · · · · · In my garden of Life with its all late flowers I heed a Voice in the shrinking hours: “Frost to-night—so clear and dead-still” ... Half sad, half proud, my arms I fill. |
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