Autograph Poem

MANUSCRIPT POEM WRITTEN IN CHINA

BENSON, Stella (1892-1933). English novelist, feminist, author of The Man Who Missed the Bus; Tobit Transplanted (published in the US as The Far-Away Bride),and others. AMsS poem, Wild Trees in February. To Spring. 1p., 8vo, 18 lines on lined paper + original stamped and postmarked mailing envelope addressed to Henry W. Winslow, R.R.Y.M.C.A. [Young Mens Christian Association], Island Pond, Vermont, tipped to verso. Mengtsz, Yunnan, China [December, 1922].

Written in China after Benson returned there with her husband who was in the Customs service. She died young in the Chinese province of Tongking, now part of Vietnam. She first settled in Mengtsz (1922-1925), then Shanghai, followed by Lung Ching Tsun, Nanking, Hong Kong, and Pakhoi. She wrote Winslow a poem in two 9-line verses: "In a panic forlorn/ I am haunting my corner./ I am dead without mourners,/ I am dead yet unborn./ You will come to me later,/ You will come very late./ Ah-must I wait,/ Must I wait,/ You unhurrying satyr?/ My sisters shall make/ Of their exquisite acres/ Carved aisles for the breakers/ Of sleep, when they wake./ They are strung to an answer,/ They are strong to a trance./ Ah, must they dance,/ must they dance,/ You importunate dancer? Stella Benson/ Mengtez, Yunnan/ China." Published in The Bookman, Vol. LV, March, 1922-August, 1922, p. 611.