Mary Elizabeth Jefferson

​Mary Elizabeth Jefferson
 
Mary Elizabeth Jefferson
Went to the school-house on the hill
In a little town called Talcotville,
And her face was thin, and her shoes were worn,
And her clothes were faded and patched and torn,
And the children laughed at her with scorn -
And Mary Elizabeth always heard,
But never answered a single word.
 
Mary Elizabeth Jefferson
Hadn’t an extra share of looks,
But she knew a lot when it came to books.
And she used to dream of the things she read
When she lay at night in her wooden bed,
With an arm beneath a tousled head;
And her heart was sad, and her thoughts were old,
But Mary Elizabeth never told.
 
Mary Elizabeth Jefferson
Plodded on till the dreams came true,
And she did the things that she planned to do
By the very force of her brain and will,
And those from the school-house on the hill
Are talking about the wonder still,
And credit the town with what was done
By Mary Elizabeth Jefferson.
 
Mary Elizabeth Jefferson
Has plenty of fame and riches now,
But the hurt of life is there somehow
For a child too thin, with shoes too worn;
With clothes that were faded and patched and torn;
Lonely, and treated with bitter scorn -
A child so sad, with thoughts so old
Who never answered and never told.
 
-Nan Terrell Reed: “Prose and Poems” (1919), pages 27 and 28
 
Nan Terrell Reed was born in Connecticut, United States of America. She was a poet and a songwriter. Her poems were widely published in periodicals.