Orleans County Poetry

Academy in Vermont

by Isabel Fiske Conant

from The Vermonter, Poetry Section, September 1935

An old stone house in Brownington, Vermont

Stands earnest of the past in all four stories

And of the future, in its sturdy wont,

With a rich treasure-store of sunset glories,

Of early sunrise over its hidden lakes

And of the constant grandeur of the notch

Of Willoughby, and, when the elm-branch shakes,

Of nested orioles, cradled in the crotch.

The Reverend Alexander Twilight wrought these stones

Into a school of learning for the young;

Athenian hall, of classic undertones

Beneath a sterner, more laconic tongue;

The light of knowledge. Though his twilight came,

This old stone house perpetrates his fame