The Dudley Sisters - 5 Short Poems (1914-1923)

Forgotten Poems #63: Dorothy, Helen, Caroline, & Katherine

Katherine Dudley - ‘Sisters’ (1916)

The Dudley sisters were “famous in Chicago’s literary circles for their wit, exuberance, and talent.” (Poetry Foundation, 2024) Dorothy and Helen were poets, Caroline also wrote poetry and worked in the theatre, while Katherine was an illustrator and painter. Dorothy and Helen were published in the first issue of Harriet Monroe’s Poetry magazine in 1914, and were part of the first-wave of post-1913 ‘new’ and ‘free verse’ poets.

  
              Branch (1923)
                  —Dorothy Dudley

       Dreams are not enough.
       Dreams are too much.
       I want surfaces, curves, bone, structure.
       These blossoms on each drift of wind,
       These fireflies in and out of the corn,
       These fairies, are too much,
            are not enough.
       Why not the red branch of life now?
       Why not the red arrow,
            pinning close to earth,
       Sending speech to the stars?
  

Dorothy Dudley was, “Born in 1884 in Chicago. Her poems, and reviews, have appeared in Poetry and in other magazines. To Emanuel Carnevali's book of fiction and poetry, she contributed the preface,” (The Dial, 1927) and Carnevali dedicated the poem ‘The Return’ to Dudley. Recently, “returned from New York to her former residence in Geneva, Illinois.” (Poetry, 1923) Also lived in Paris for a time, with her family. Friends with Harriet Monroe, through whom she befriended and corresponded with fellow poets Marianne Moore, Edwin Arlington Robinson, Edgar Lee Masters, Gertrude Stein, Carl Sandburg, et al. (Elisa Rolle, Queer Places) Became close with Theodor Dreiser, and in 1932 published a biography about him.

“Art begins to be born. Once rid of the religions and the philosophers, art is the one thing that can save the world. Art is the plank after the shipwreck, that saves someone . . .” (‘Brancusi’, in The Dial, 1927)

   
              Chaotic Peace (1916)
                  —Caroline Dudley

       I think of nothing—
       My mind leaps from mountain to mountain,
       Then drifts upon calm water.
       I hear nothing—
       Only the waves and the winds,
       Violent and caressing.
       I feel nothing—
       My blood runs under my skin
       Like a forest-fire underground.
  

Alfred Steiglitz - ‘Katherine Dudley’ (1922)

  
              The Creative Fire (1914)
                  —Caroline Dudley

       If I cannot make out of words
       Verses eternal, enduring all death;
       If I cannot blend out of color
       Tones to liven the eyes,
       To quicken the heart
       With their various contrasts;
       If I cannot carve out of marble
       Beautiful breathing bodies;
       God give me the power
       To mould in my womb
       Women and men.
       May beauty be born of my breath,
       Whether to live like a star,
       Whether to die like a flower—
       Some beautiful breathing form.
  

Caroline Dudley was; “A graduate of [the women's liberal arts college] Radcliffe. She has contributed occasionally to poetry magazines, but makes her chief work the art of costume and decoration” in the theatre. (The Poetry Journal, 1915)

   
              Song (1914)
                  —Helen Dudley

       A few more windy days
       Must come and go their ways,
       And we will walk
       My love and I
       Beneath the amber-dripping boughs.

       Then on the stars we'll tread,
       On purple stars and red,
       And wonder why
       The while we talk
       Men sing so much of broken vows.
 

Vanessa Bell - ‘Helen Dudley’ (1915)

  
              Cootham Lane (1920)
                  —Helen Dudley

       Twilight has encircled
       The flowers in the garden,
       And the sky is dim and faint.
       The flowers are as cold as alabaster,
       And luminous like paint
       Of an old Venetian master.
       In the church across the fields
       They are asking pardon.

       And in twilight
       Comes the echo
       Of an ancient door that closes,
       And the echo of their voices.
       For now they go, the villagers—
       Along the road they go again,
       Under the unrepentant stars,
       Across the fields and through the lane.
   

Helen Dudley studied at Bryn Mawr College, and then Oxford University; published in Poetry magazine, and the landmark anthologies The Answering Voice: Love Lyrics By Women (ed. Sara Teasdale, 1917), and The New Poetry (ed. Harriet Monroe & Alice Corbin, 1917).

   
                    Haikai Sonnet
              For the Dudley Sisters
                     by Dick Whyte

       released
       & set to spinning
       in waves

       atom
       after atom
       after atom

       makers
       of the all folded
       sound—

       akin
       to wind leaving
       the trees,
       sparrows
       already asleep
   

NOTE: This form combines the 14-line structure of the sonnet, with stanzas modelled on haikai (three haiku/tercets, finished with a tanka/cinquain; which is itself comprised of a tercet and couplet). Please feel welcome to try it out yourself, and make sure to let me know if you do!

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