Page:Our Poets of Today (1918).djvu/241

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CHAPTER XVII


FLORENCE EARLE COATES, AMELIA JOSEPHINE BURR, EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY, LIZETTE WOODWORTH REESE, BENJAMIN R. C. LOW, HAROLD COOK


Florence Earle Coates


"The Smile of Reims," by Florence Earle Coates, published in "The Bellman," is one of the most admirable poems yet to come from this talented poet.


"The smile," they called her,—"La Sourire"; and fair—
A sculptured angel on the northern door
Of the Cathedral's west façade—she wore
Through the long centuries of toil and care
That smile, mysteriously wrought and rare,
As if she saw brave visions evermore—
Kings, and an armored Maid who lilies bore,
And all the glories that had once been there.

How like to thee, her undefeated Land!
Wounded by bursting shells, a little space
Broken she lay beneath her ancient portal;
But lifted from the earth with trembling hand,
Victorious, still glowed upon her face
Thy smile, heroic France, love-given and immortal!


Florence Earle Coates was born in Philadelphia and educated at private schools and at the Convent of the

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