Nathalia Crane (1913 – 1998)
Poet and novelist who became famous as a child prodigy after the publication of her first book of poetry at age 10.
He found the harem filled with rocking maids
Surrendered to the orgies of the sob.
I linger on the flathouse roof, the moonlight is divine.
But my heart is all aflutter like the washing on the line.
A thousand ardent oilers swung the long spout 'twixt their nods,
And tried to glimpse a meaning in the challenge of the gods.
Across the downs a hummingbird
Came dipping through the bowers,
He pivoted on emptiness
To scrutinize the flowers.
Finally she faltered;
Saw at last, forsooth,
Every gaudy color
Is a bit of truth.
Then the gates were opened;
Miracles were seen;
That instructed damsel
Donned a gown of green;
It seems impossible to me that a girl so immature could have written these poems. They are beyond the powers of a girl of twelve. The sophisticated viewpoint of sex ... knowledge of history and archeology found in these pages place them beyond the reach of any juvenile mind.
The very serpents bite their tails; the bees forget to sting,
For a language so celestial setteth up a wondering.
I remember that Bob had bought several books during the trip, and they were in sight. One was a collection of verse by a talented child named Nathalia Crane, then making a sizable splash in the American literary world.
The world is growing gentle,
But few know what she owes
To the understanding lily
And the judgment of the rose.
Some of the critics explained the work by insisting that the child was some sort of medium, an instrument unaware of what was played upon it; others, considering the book a hoax, scorned the fact that any child could have written verses so smooth in execution and so remarkable in spiritual overtones. ... The appeal of such lines is not that they have been written by a child but by a poet.