Odell Shepard

Odell Shepard Poems

Odell Shepard Biography

Odell Shepard (July 22, 1884 Sterling, Illinois - 1967) was an American professor, poet, and politician who was the Lieutenant Governor of Connecticut from 1941 to 1943. He graduated from Harvard University, and taught at the English department of Yale University. A professor of English at Trinity College from 1917 to 1946, he was a mentor to Abbie Huston Evans. He edited the works of Henry David Thoreau, Louisa May Alcott, and Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. He wrote Pedlar's Progress, a biography of Bronson Alcott, the father of writer Louisa May Alcott, and one of the foremost Transcendentalists. His papers are held at Trinity College. He died in New London, Connecticut on the 19 June 1967.)

The Best Poem Of Odell Shepard

A Nun

One glance and I had lost her in the riot
   Of tangled cries.
She trod the clamor with a cloistral quiet
   Deep in her eyes
As though she heard the muted music only
   That silence makes
Among dim mountain summits and on lonely
   Deserted lakes.

There is some broken song her heart remembers
   From long ago,
Some love lies buried deep, some passion's embers
   Smothered in snow,
Far voices of a joy that sought and missed her
   Fail now, and cease . . .
And this has given the deep eyes of God's sister
   Their dreadful peace.

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