Poem by Elinor Wylie

The Crooked Stick

First Traveller: What’s that lying in the dust? 
Second Traveller: A crooked stick. 
First Traveller: What’s it worth, if you can trust to arithmetic? 
Second Traveller: Isn’t this a riddle? 
First Traveller: No, a trick. 
Second Traveller:It’s worthless, leave it where it lies. 
First Traveller: Wait; count ten; 
Rub a little dust upon your eyes; 
Now, look again. 
Second Traveller: Well, and what the devil is it, then? 
First Traveller: It’s the sort of crooked stick that shepherds know. 
Second Traveller: Someone’s loss! 
First Traveller: Bend it, and you make of it a bow. 
Break it, a cross. 
Second Traveller: But it’s all grown over with moss!

1. The Pekingese
2. In Our Content, before the Autumn Came
3. Upon Your Heart, Which Is.the Heart of All
4. Absent Thee from Felicity Awhile
5. The Broken Man

Samuel Lover The Crooked Stick ("Julia was lovely and winning")

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