Blanche Shoemaker Wagstaff

Blanche Shoemaker Wagstaff (née Shoemaker, later Carr; July 10, 1888 – December 15, 1967) was an American poet.

Quotes

You, Beloved, are the silvery lake shimmering in the desert of my youth.

• You, Beloved, are the silvery lake shimmering in the desert of my youth.
  • The Book of Love (1917), p. 3

• She stands, a guardian of the endless sea,
     Her garb is golden, and her lips are flame,
  She is the portal of Eternity
     And Beauty is the realm from whence she came!
  She is the voice of many bleeding lands—
     America, she calls! To Arms! Arise!
     For like a shimmering sabre in the skies
  In scarlet glow she stands
  A guardian of the earth and sea—
           Liberty!
  • "America, To Arms!", Fifes and Drums (1917), p. 91

• Bring me a languid woman, perfumed, young,
  Her dusky body hung with dazzling gems
  And strange, exotic iridescent stuffs —
  Her wanton eyes like thirsty summer moons.
• Bring me a pale flower-boy,
  White-limbed like a young heifer in a field,
  His lips a-quiver with unknown desire....
  His soft throat virgin beneath my kiss,
  His bosom like a bower of stars.
  • "Bacchante", Narcissus and Other Poems (1918), p. 80

• There is a little place in me
     That cries like any child,
  To be as forest things are, free,
     Lonely, and strange and wild!
  • "Wilderness", st. 3, in The Smart Set, vol. 69, no. 4 (December, 1922), p. 38

• All paths lead to you
     Where e'er I stray,
  You are the evening star
     At the end of day.
  All paths lead to you
     Hill-top or low,
  You are the white birch
     In the sun's glow.
  All paths lead to you
     Where e'er I roam.
  You are the lark-song
     Calling me home!
  • "All Paths Lead To You", Quiet Waters (1921), p. 76

• I shall go smiling
  Into the great beyond,
  Looking upon the silence as release,
  Looking upon the darkness as a dream,
  Looking upon the deep unknown as rest.
  • "Mortality", in The New York Times, vol. 78, no. 25,915 (January 6, 1929), sec. 3, p. 1