Page:History of Oregon Literature.djvu/703

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CONTEMPORARY POETS
651

Two will die as many must, And fitly dust will welcome dust; But dust has nothing to do with one— She dies as soon as her dream is done.

13

ELEANOR HANSEN

Eleanor Hansen's verse has appeared in various magazines and in such anthologies as Northwest Verse and Harper's Best College Verse for 1931. She was born in Portland. She received her bachelor of arts degree from Pacific University in 1931 and her master of arts degree from the University of Oregon in 1935. From 1931 to 1935 she was an instructor in Corvallis High School and is now a mem ber of the English staff of the Girls' Polytechnic High School in Portland.


GRowN-UP

One day when I had passed beyond the stage Of childish dolls and toys I found a box Of trinkets I had hidden once; some rocks Shining with mica flakes; a yellow page Of Mother Goose; a toy canary’s cage. And, seated on the topmost attic stair, I paused a moment in the dusty air, Musing on this pathetic heritage. Today when I was cleaning out a drawer I found a poem I once wrote for you, A fragment of a letter torn in two, A crumbling petal from a withered flower, And l e t my swift brain for a moment pause I n gentle pity for the child I was.

14

ADA HASTINGS HEDGES

Mrs. Ada Hastings Hedges, author o f Desert Poems, published i n 1930, lived for eight years i n the Malheur County desert a t Juntura. “The desert region,” she says, “ fascinated me always, and still does. I found i t full o f mystery and beauty i n i t s own bleak fashion, with a certain collective consciousness, strangely haunting and baffling, a s a forest surely has a consciousness different from that o f a moun-