Voices from the Past: Ellen Kimberly McElhone (1909)

This is a neat poem from Field & Stream by Ellen Kimberly McElhone entitled "The Pool."

The Pool
By Ellen Kimberly McElhone

I know full well,
But will not tell.
Where lies a pool
All limpid, cool,
Fed by a rushing mountain stream
That o'er each hind'ring boulder leaps,
Or through a crevice silent creeps;
Then stops to rest with sunny gleam,
And forms a pool all still and deep and wide,
With gold and silver birches at the side,
And gold and silver flecks upon its brim.
And in its heart, all silvery and slim,
Unknowing any food that hides a hook,
Unfrightened by man's shadow in the brook,
Translucent in their crystalline abode
And safely hidden from the King's Highroad,
The red-flecked trout dart in and out
And spurning crumbs I cast about,
They feed on moths, pure snowy white,
That drop upon the surface bright.
Where lies this pool
So limpid, cool,
I know full well
But will not tell.

-- Dr. Todd