The Swearing-in of Calvin Coolidge
Plymouth Notch, Vermont, 1923
Strange, the postman's loud, insistent knock
(The nearest phone, in town, two miles away)
Which roused them out of bed at nine o'clock,
Tired from bringing in the August hay.
And stranger still, two telegrams they read
By lantern light: official ones, and both
With urgent news from Washington, that said,
"The President is dead. Please take the oath."
But in Vermont--where even summer skies
Can whisper that it's time to stack the wood,
And every breath on northern air implies
You're running out of days to do some good--
No one would be surprised, or think it odd
To see a man look up and say "So help me God."
I had admired this one on an earlier thread. It has the feel of a Norman Rockwell painting, and I like the qualities of time--time of day and of season--that work metaphorically in the poem.
I'd suggest checking a couple of historical details:
"postman"? or "courier" perhaps?
The words from the two telegrams are given as a direct quote. Why two telegrams? Were they identical? And did either of them say this exactly?
Was Grace Coolidge at the farm when this happened? I assume that she's the other part of "they," or are we speaking of more than two? I do miss the fact that Coolidge was sworn in, I recall, by his father, a justice of the peace or county judge.
I wonder a little about "every breath on northern air." Should it be "of"?
The poem shows great respect for the English sonnet's structure, with "Strange" and "stranger" holding the first two quatrains together and "But" initiating the turn.
The "odd/God" rhyme is a tough one to bring off, but it works pretty well here, maybe because the enjambment and final alexandrine keep it a little off balance and unpredictable.
A very fine sonnet.
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