Voices from the Past: Ruth Bassett Eddy (1921)

The following poem was published in The American Angler for July 1921. It was penned by Ruth Bassett Eddy, a poet of some note who published Altar Fires, a book of her best poems, in 1919. It's a charming piece.

Worms

By RUTH BASSETT EDDY

After the rain to-day,

I saw such lovely worms;

Such oozy ones and shiny ones,

Such crawly ones and slimy ones,

All full of crooks and turns.

And O, I sighed for rod and line

And trout streams far away.

For I had still in mind

That day we stopped to fish;

Close to the wood, the handy wood,

The barren wood, the sandy wood,

Where we for worms did wish:

The stream was all a stream should be.

But worms we could not find.

Our rod was useless quite;

Our appetites were keen.

We saw the trout, the speckled trout,

The silvered, gleaming, freckled trout.

As we above did lean.

But tho' we dug 'neath sand and stone,

A worm ne'er came in sight.

So when I saw to-day,

Upon the pavement there,

The sleek worms and the haughty ones. 

The meek worms and the naughty ones,

I had to stand and swear.

What good are worms,

when rod and line

And streams are far away?

-- Dr. Todd