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The Old Road to Paradise
Margaret Widdemer (1884-1978) was an American author who won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (known then as the Columbia University Prize) in 1919 for her collection The Old Road to Paradise (1918). She shared the prize with Carl Sandburg, who won for his collection Corn Huskers (1916). Margaret Widdemer was born in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. She grew up in Asbury Park, New Jersey. She graduated from the Drexel Institute Library School in 1909. She came to public attention with her poem The Factories (1917), which treated the subject of child labour. In 1919 she married Robert Haven Schauffler (1879-1964), a widower five years her senior. Schauffler was an author and cellist who published widely on poetry, travel, culture, and music. Widdemer's memoir Golden Friends I Had (1964) recounts her friendships with eminent authors such as Ezra Pound, F. Scott Fitzgerald, T. S. Eliot, Thornton Wilder, and Edna St. Vincent Millay.
- GenresPoetry
96 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1918
About the author
Margaret Widdemer
123 books15 followersMargaret Widdemer (1884-1978) was an American author who won the Pulitzer Prize for Poetry (known then as the Columbia University Prize) in 1919 for her collection The Old Road to Paradise (1918). She shared the prize with Carl Sandburg, who won for his collection Corn Huskers (1916). Margaret Widdemer was born in Doylestown, Pennsylvania. She grew up in Asbury Park, New Jersey. She graduated from the Drexel Institute Library School in 1909. She came to public attention with her poem The Factories (1917), which treated the subject of child labor. In 1919 she married Robert Haven Schauffler (1879-1964), a widower five years her senior. Schauffler was an author and cellist who published widely on poetry, travel, culture, and music. Widdemer's memoir Golden Friends I Had (1964) recounts her friendships with eminent authors such as Ezra Pound, F. Scott Fitzgerald, T. S. Eliot, Thornton Wilder, and Edna St. Vincent Millay.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
March 2, 2016
The Old Road to Paradise is, somewhat incredibly, a Pulitzer Prize winning poetry collection from a writer who was a friend of the likes of F. Scott Fitzgerald, T. S. Eliot and Ezra Pound - though clearly not any kind of peer on this pleasing enough but entirely conventional evidence.
The ten poems banded under the same title as the overall collection touch on the Great War, evoking the celestial armies of Charlemagne and Joan of Arc while offering prayers to God to stop the fighting.
The Pulitzer panel must have noticed a tour de force that a modern reader would find hard to locate amongst the simple rhyming schemes and equally simple sentiments.
The subsequent sub-set of poems plunder the paganism of Greece and the land of Fairy for their imagery, such as this verse from 'The Singing Wood'
Once I met a satyr,
Once I was with a faun,
Once I spoke with a woman o' doom
Spinning from dusk till dawn,
Once I followed a will-o'-the-wisp
Dancing along the fen . . .
Never the sun in the Singing Wood
Never a bird-loud glen!
None of these poems are outstanding by any means, but they have a wistful charm to them that makes me wonder if this was the kind of thing Widdemer was naturally more at home with.
Poems gathered under the heading 'Womanfolk' cover many female concerns, from different aspects of the mothering instinct ('Mother-Prayer', 'Woman-Lore') through to the effects of aging and the loss of youth ('Departure'), such as those moments when you see the lines of your forbears in your own face ('Discovery') and finally death itself ('The Dark Cavalier').
The rhymes again have elementary schemes, but the meters are sometimes more sophisticated, like the unresolved quatrains included in 'Toys':
'She loves the flowers, the wind that bends the fir;
When the Spring comes she dances; and her mirth
Comes always when the water laughs to her.
She holds the little daily sweets of earth'
After that the rest of the collection largely comes from a selection of 'Love Songs', all short and again covering a range of emotions.
Agreeable enough, but difficult to get too excited about alongside the 'Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.'
The ten poems banded under the same title as the overall collection touch on the Great War, evoking the celestial armies of Charlemagne and Joan of Arc while offering prayers to God to stop the fighting.
The Pulitzer panel must have noticed a tour de force that a modern reader would find hard to locate amongst the simple rhyming schemes and equally simple sentiments.
The subsequent sub-set of poems plunder the paganism of Greece and the land of Fairy for their imagery, such as this verse from 'The Singing Wood'
Once I met a satyr,
Once I was with a faun,
Once I spoke with a woman o' doom
Spinning from dusk till dawn,
Once I followed a will-o'-the-wisp
Dancing along the fen . . .
Never the sun in the Singing Wood
Never a bird-loud glen!
None of these poems are outstanding by any means, but they have a wistful charm to them that makes me wonder if this was the kind of thing Widdemer was naturally more at home with.
Poems gathered under the heading 'Womanfolk' cover many female concerns, from different aspects of the mothering instinct ('Mother-Prayer', 'Woman-Lore') through to the effects of aging and the loss of youth ('Departure'), such as those moments when you see the lines of your forbears in your own face ('Discovery') and finally death itself ('The Dark Cavalier').
The rhymes again have elementary schemes, but the meters are sometimes more sophisticated, like the unresolved quatrains included in 'Toys':
'She loves the flowers, the wind that bends the fir;
When the Spring comes she dances; and her mirth
Comes always when the water laughs to her.
She holds the little daily sweets of earth'
After that the rest of the collection largely comes from a selection of 'Love Songs', all short and again covering a range of emotions.
Agreeable enough, but difficult to get too excited about alongside the 'Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock.'
March 17, 2013
lyrical and sweet. that you read for music, joy and smiles of knowing.
July 15, 2022
Sometimes, the arduous journey, poetry
I confess that I am typically inclined to read poetry for pleasure which is strange considering my love of music and writing. It is perhaps because, often, I feel like I am not getting what the poet wants me to hear or see. I believe it is that way with many people who feel intimidated by poetry or glaze over sensing the overwrought pathos of the poet. This, I have encountered, is particularly true of so many works of the late 19h and early 20th Century which has been the period in which much of my recent reading had been centered.
In truth, where it not for the fact that #theoldroadtoparadise by #margaretwiddemer and had shared the #1919 #pulitzerprizeforpoetry with #cornhuskers by #carlsandburg , I would not have sought out the work. But one of the challenges I presented for myself when taking up the #pulitzerprizereadingchallenge was to expose myself to works to which I would not naturally gravitate. This perfectly for the bill. And, that in its time, it was considered to be notable enough to warrant literary praise, I would further challenge myself to try to see what others saw in the work.
Suffice it to say, with all the qualifiers, it takes me a little longer than it should to get through a spare book of poetry. And, while most of the work in the first few sections of the book were a bit over the, the top, one work, "Old Books" was particularly gratifying as it made me think of my librarian mother-in-law who just recently passed away. A few of the poems in the last section were also a little smoldering and I could feel the girlish passion of an estranged young woman who had a more than Victorian familiarity with the long lost paramour. That was a smart way to end the collection. According to her biography, she wrote rather extensively, both poetry and novels, and ran in company with the likes of such as Ezra Pound, F. Scott Fitzgerald, T.S. Elliot and Thornton Wilder with a long writing career that spanned decades. That she won a Pulitzer alongside Carl Sandburg puts her in excellent company and her work as worthwhile of review.
While there is a lot of filler to flesh out the book, there are a few that justify consideration.
#readtheworldchallenge #readtheworld #globalreadingchallege #pulitzerprize #americanpoetry #widdemer #poetry
I confess that I am typically inclined to read poetry for pleasure which is strange considering my love of music and writing. It is perhaps because, often, I feel like I am not getting what the poet wants me to hear or see. I believe it is that way with many people who feel intimidated by poetry or glaze over sensing the overwrought pathos of the poet. This, I have encountered, is particularly true of so many works of the late 19h and early 20th Century which has been the period in which much of my recent reading had been centered.
In truth, where it not for the fact that #theoldroadtoparadise by #margaretwiddemer and had shared the #1919 #pulitzerprizeforpoetry with #cornhuskers by #carlsandburg , I would not have sought out the work. But one of the challenges I presented for myself when taking up the #pulitzerprizereadingchallenge was to expose myself to works to which I would not naturally gravitate. This perfectly for the bill. And, that in its time, it was considered to be notable enough to warrant literary praise, I would further challenge myself to try to see what others saw in the work.
Suffice it to say, with all the qualifiers, it takes me a little longer than it should to get through a spare book of poetry. And, while most of the work in the first few sections of the book were a bit over the, the top, one work, "Old Books" was particularly gratifying as it made me think of my librarian mother-in-law who just recently passed away. A few of the poems in the last section were also a little smoldering and I could feel the girlish passion of an estranged young woman who had a more than Victorian familiarity with the long lost paramour. That was a smart way to end the collection. According to her biography, she wrote rather extensively, both poetry and novels, and ran in company with the likes of such as Ezra Pound, F. Scott Fitzgerald, T.S. Elliot and Thornton Wilder with a long writing career that spanned decades. That she won a Pulitzer alongside Carl Sandburg puts her in excellent company and her work as worthwhile of review.
While there is a lot of filler to flesh out the book, there are a few that justify consideration.
#readtheworldchallenge #readtheworld #globalreadingchallege #pulitzerprize #americanpoetry #widdemer #poetry
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May 1, 2020This book shared the 1919 Pulitzer (Columbia prize in poetry) with Carl Sandberg's Cornhuskers. Widdemer seems pretty well forgotten, despite that award. These poems fairly often tripped me up metrically (and I'm a "rhymester") but I'd be interested to spend more time with some of them to see if the variations add to the meaning (on first read I didn't usually think so, but sometimes thought they might). Her fantastical, imaginative descriptions of the natural world locate most of the "nature" poems more in the mind than on Earth. Most of these poems exist in relationships between people, often in the distance between reality and memory or fantasy. Many of these poems are from an explicitly female perspective. Some are dedicated to other people, including one to Amy Lowell and one to Jessie Rittenhouse (a Columbia poetry prize judge--I'll research if that's cheating). I think there could be a lot to discover with deeper reading here, but many of the poems didn't grab me, so whether I'll return to analyze more is to be seen.
April 9, 2023
I love discovering writers that have faded from fame and being like, oh! Now I get to know about this person! Bonus points when they were obviously thoughtful about society and friendships and women's lives... and honestly I'm thinking maybe my gal Margaret Widdemer was a little witchy, good for her.
There are a few poems in this collection that sneak up on you, with their flowing words and rhyme schemes and then all of a sudden bam! A what are you doing with your life? theme.
She palled around with lots of famous writers and got divorced and won the poetry prize that technically was not the Pulitzer yet but a Columbia-awarded-precursor in 1919 and I would have wanted to be her friend, methinks.
Yay, Margaret.
There are a few poems in this collection that sneak up on you, with their flowing words and rhyme schemes and then all of a sudden bam! A what are you doing with your life? theme.
She palled around with lots of famous writers and got divorced and won the poetry prize that technically was not the Pulitzer yet but a Columbia-awarded-precursor in 1919 and I would have wanted to be her friend, methinks.
Yay, Margaret.
February 7, 2020
Conventional, rhyming poetry, very much of its time. Most of it is rather forgettable, if pleasant enough, but her war poems struck a chord and are well worth reading.
June 24, 2009
Margaret Widdemer (September 30, 1884 – July 14, 1978) in 1919 was the second recipient of a Pulitzer Prize for poetry for her collection titled “The Old Road to Paradise”. It was an honor which she shared with Carl Sandburg’s “Cornhuskers”. As with the previous award in 1918, the award itself was made possible by a grant from The Poetry Society. The collection is arranged in seven sections titled “The Old Road to Paradise”, “The Singing Wood”, “Being Young”, “Womenfolk”, “People”, “Wistfulness”, and “Love Songs”.
“The Old Road to Paradise” section deals with religious themes, and Margaret draws on Jeanne d’Arc several times in these poems which seem to contrast faith and war to a great degree, nor should this be surprising considering that this was the period of the first World War and one can still hear the echoes of the war in poems like “Next Year”, “Good-By, My Lover”, and “Poem for a Picture”.
“The Singing Wood” moves away from the Christian images of the first section and into mythology. “The Gray Magician” makes me wonder if Tolkien borrowed from Widdemer, given her use of the term Middle Earth and of course the term Gray Magician itself reminds one of Gandolf. Widdemer also looks to Rome and Greece for her imagery in this section, as well as creating her own images such as in “Dream-House”.
“Being Young” not surprisingly focuses on the joys of youth as well as some of the sorrows. The feeling one got hearing a train in the distance at night in “Whistle-Fantasy”, the anticipation of getting a Valentine along with the fear of not getting one in “Once When We Bought Valentines”. There is also the yearning to be older which she artfully discusses in “Song: I Wish I Were Old Now”.
“Womenfolk” puts a female perspective on things with poems like “Tea”, “Mother-Prayer”, and “Discovery”, which is short enough to include here:
Within my mirror I could see
Last night as I gazed steadfastly
An old strange thing look out at me;
The smile my grandame used to wear;
Line on proud line it faced me there . . .
I had not known it meant Despair.
“People” includes poems where she is looking at others, and so they are not so connected with her. This includes poems like “In An Office Building”, and “A Boy of the Ghetto”.
“Wistfulness” describes very well the poems in its section. Poems like “Prescience”, and “Once I Met Happiness” are among my favorites from this section.
The last section is also the longest section, and that is “Love Songs”. There is a beautiful simplicity to poems like “Denial”, and “Other People”, and one’s heart aches for the writer in a poem such as “And If You Came-“, and perhaps the saddest of poems is “Wise People” which is again short enough to include:
I think that we are very strong and wise,
Mocking at love and at the grief thereafter, . . .
For sometimes I forget him in your eyes
And sometimes you forget her in my laughter.
I was not familiar at all with Margaret Widdemer before reading this collection, but I came away with an appreciation for her. I think perhaps the poems which reference the War probably had an impact on this work being chosen at the time, but even without that this is a very strong collection of poems. It will be interesting to look closely at Sandburg’s “Cornhuskers” to see how it compares.
“The Old Road to Paradise” section deals with religious themes, and Margaret draws on Jeanne d’Arc several times in these poems which seem to contrast faith and war to a great degree, nor should this be surprising considering that this was the period of the first World War and one can still hear the echoes of the war in poems like “Next Year”, “Good-By, My Lover”, and “Poem for a Picture”.
“The Singing Wood” moves away from the Christian images of the first section and into mythology. “The Gray Magician” makes me wonder if Tolkien borrowed from Widdemer, given her use of the term Middle Earth and of course the term Gray Magician itself reminds one of Gandolf. Widdemer also looks to Rome and Greece for her imagery in this section, as well as creating her own images such as in “Dream-House”.
“Being Young” not surprisingly focuses on the joys of youth as well as some of the sorrows. The feeling one got hearing a train in the distance at night in “Whistle-Fantasy”, the anticipation of getting a Valentine along with the fear of not getting one in “Once When We Bought Valentines”. There is also the yearning to be older which she artfully discusses in “Song: I Wish I Were Old Now”.
“Womenfolk” puts a female perspective on things with poems like “Tea”, “Mother-Prayer”, and “Discovery”, which is short enough to include here:
Within my mirror I could see
Last night as I gazed steadfastly
An old strange thing look out at me;
The smile my grandame used to wear;
Line on proud line it faced me there . . .
I had not known it meant Despair.
“People” includes poems where she is looking at others, and so they are not so connected with her. This includes poems like “In An Office Building”, and “A Boy of the Ghetto”.
“Wistfulness” describes very well the poems in its section. Poems like “Prescience”, and “Once I Met Happiness” are among my favorites from this section.
The last section is also the longest section, and that is “Love Songs”. There is a beautiful simplicity to poems like “Denial”, and “Other People”, and one’s heart aches for the writer in a poem such as “And If You Came-“, and perhaps the saddest of poems is “Wise People” which is again short enough to include:
I think that we are very strong and wise,
Mocking at love and at the grief thereafter, . . .
For sometimes I forget him in your eyes
And sometimes you forget her in my laughter.
I was not familiar at all with Margaret Widdemer before reading this collection, but I came away with an appreciation for her. I think perhaps the poems which reference the War probably had an impact on this work being chosen at the time, but even without that this is a very strong collection of poems. It will be interesting to look closely at Sandburg’s “Cornhuskers” to see how it compares.
December 12, 2016
Very simple poetry. Pretty straight forward. Some of it is about friends going off to war and the author having to grow up. Some prayers. Some memories of lost loves.
March 27, 2016
There were some good quotes to be found among the lines in this book
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews