FRANCES LOUISA BUSHNELL
THIS collection of the occasional poems of Frances Louisa Bushnell gives the fitting opportunity for a word upon the character and work of one who was long prominent in the intellectual and social life of Hartford. The place she occupied cannot be filled, but while to those who knew her well her loss is irreparable, her memory will always have in it something of inspiration. Miss Bushnell had intellectual capacities, which would have given her a considerable place in literature if her ambition had equalled her ability, but she shrank from notoriety and seemed quite content to exercise her wit and her singular powers in the immediate circle in which she was thrown. She was a true poet; she wrote, or at least published, a very small amount of verse, yet this was of a pure and high quality. She had the delicacy of fancy and the sudden gleam of imaginative insight into the world about her that, if exercised to any extent, would have given her a high position among poets. From her father she inherited great verbal facility; words to him were things so vital that they were able to express the most subtle thought, and this power of expression, which is rare and goes only with the power of thinking clearly, always characterized Miss Bushnell's language, spoken or written. It was an intellectual gift with Dr.
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