Famous Single Poems
would ever penetrate. On the other hand, her verses were printed in The Sunday Magazine, Good Words, and The Churchman’s Family Magazine, and were widely read and copied in America as well as in England.
“The Lesson of the Water-Mill” was especially well-known for, besides being often reprinted, it was for many years a favorite recitation. Strangely enough, as a recitation it was usually given in German dialect, which was supposed to add to its pathos, and with a musical accompaniment (preferably on the ’cello) to enhance the general effect. It was so recited by George S. Knight in a comedy called “Fifth Avenue,” produced at the old Booth Theatre in New York in the early ’seventies. Mr. Henry S. Blake, of Clinton, Conn., who has himself recited the poem hundreds of times during the past thirty-five years, possesses an old stage copy with the musical accompaniment used by Mel. B. Spurr, an English entertainer, published by Reynolds & Co., 13 Berners Street, London. This gives the author’s name on the cover as Sarah Doudney, and at the foot of the first page is the line, “By permission, from Psalms of Life, by Miss Sarah Doudney.”
Still further proof, if any were needed, is found in the poem itself. It is evident that Miss Doudney’s version is the first one; it is simple and direct. What General McCallum
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