Voices from the Part: Ray Clarke Rose (1901)

This nifty fishing poem by popular turn-of-the-century poet Ray Clarke Rose comes from his book At the Sign of the Ginger Jar (1901). Rose was a member of that fraternity sometimes called "the humbler poets," those writers who regularly penned poetry for newspapers and magazines, and is remembered chiefly (if he is remembered at all) for his light verse. He was a reporter for the Chicago Record, the Sunday editor of The New York Press, and during his lifetime published over 1000 poems in newspapers and magazines.

WITH ROD AND REEL

by Ray Clarke Rose

With rod and reel the toiler plays,
And dreams of long vacation days, 

When he shall float on grassy deeps
And cast the gleaming lure that sweeps
Athwart the hungry bass's gaze.

Once more he scorns the careful phrase,

The irksome yoke of urban ways, 

And scents the joy the sportsman reaps 

With rod and reel.

He sees far, forest-girted bays

Reflect dawn's iridescent grays; 

For there he knows the fierce bass keeps 

A constant vigil—there it leaps 

And takes the lures the sportsmen raise 

With rod and reel.

-- Dr. Todd