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ES in IN

Poets from Indiana, Evaleen Stein


So, I'm going way back for this one, but Evaleen Stein is one of most Indiana poets featured yet. She lived and died in Lafayette. And what's more, she's pretty amazing. She's probably best known for writing novels for children, but she wrote hundreds of poems. Many of them are aimed at children, but many are observations of local nature. In addition, she translated poems from Italian and Japanese, no small feat.

Just consider this excerpt from "Showery Time" (you can find the whole poem here):

In countless fluted creases
The little elm-leaves show,
While white as carded fleeces
The dogwood blossoms blow.

A rosy robe is wrapping
The early red-bud trees;
But still the haws are napping,
Nor heed the honey-bees.

And still in lazy sleeping
The apple-buds are bound,
But tulip-tips are peeping
From out the garden ground. 

This is a peaceful little poem with natural images that still scream Indiana, and it's really just about the joy of nature. 

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