|
|
|
|
|
Mary Webb. “Anne’s Book.” “Nation. July. 1921.” written in ink in bottom margin. Typescript poem, one leaf, 6″ x 5¾″, off-white wove paper, mounted on white ruled paper. Thirty-two lines, five ink corrections. Cut from a larger sheet, with a few minor wrinkles. The title is written in brown ink and may have been added to the sheet at a later date. Penciled number “63” in upper-right corner. One of the books in Mary Webb’s small library was a Thompson’s Seasons bearing the signature of Anne Everard on the front flyleaf. In this poem, which moves fluently to its melancholy close, Mary imagines Anne Everard, aged nine, working at her sampler, stitching during long hours indoors when she would have preferred to be outdoors playing (a frustration and yearning young Mary Meredith herself experienced while at lessons with her Governess, Miss Lory).