- Hilda Conkling
Hilda Conkling (1910 – 1986) was an American
poet . She was the daughter of Grace Hazard Conkling, a poet in her own right and Assistant Professor of English atSmith College ,Northampton, Massachusetts . Hilda was born inNew York state. [The Bookman Anthology of Verse, 1922.] Her father died when she was four years old, and she had one sister, Elsa, two years her senior.Hilda is notable for having composed most of her poetry as a young
child , between the ages of four and ten years old. She never wrote them down herself; instead, they came out in conversation with her mother, who would write down Hilda's words either in the moment, or from memory later. If the latter, she would read the lines back to Hilda, who would then correct any deviation from her original words. As Hilda grew up, her mother stopped recording the poems, and Hilda is not known to have written any herself as an adult. [ [http://www.iblist.com/author7025.htm Author Information: Hilda Conkling] , Internet Book List]Poetry
Most of Hilda's poetry is concerned with
nature ; sometimes simply descriptive, sometimes mixed with elements offantasy . Other common themes are love for her mother, stories and daydreams, and pictures or books that pleased her. Often these themes intertwine, and she often makes use ofmetaphor in her descriptions of plants and animals. [Conkling, Hilda. "Poems by a Little Girl." Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1920.]Three collections of Hilda's poetry were published during her life: "Poems by a Little Girl" (1920, preface by
Amy Lowell ), "Shoes of the Wind" (1922), and "Silverhorn" (1924). Her poems were also included in the anthologies "Silver Pennies" (1925) and "Sing a Song of Popcorn" (1988). Prior to her first book, she was published in a number of magazines, including "", "The Delineator ", "Good Housekeeping ", "The Lyric ", "St. Nicholas Magazine ", and "Contemporary Verse ".Modern influence
Three of Hilda Conkling's poems--"Evening", "Moonsong", and "Water"--were used as the text for a choral piece called [http://www.sbmp.com/SSA.html#anchor626431 Three Nightsongs] by American
composer Joshua Shank .References
See also
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Poetry of the United States External links
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* [http://oldpoetry.com/oauthor/show/Hilda_Conkling Hilda Conkling at OldPoetry.com] More information and over a hundred poems
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