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The Root

By Helen Hoyt 1887–1972 Helen Hoyt

Love faded in my heart—

I thought it was dead.

Now new flowers start,

Fresh leaves outspread.

Why do these flowers upstart

And again the leaves spread?

Oh, when will it be dead—

This root that tears my heart!

Originally published in Poetry, December 1918.

Source: Poetry (December 1918).

Biography

Poet Helen Hoyt, who also used the name Helen Hoyt Lyman, was born in 1887 in Norwalk, Connecticut. The daughter of former Pennsylvania governor Henry Hoyt, she was educated at Barnard College. She wrote her most well-known poem, “Ellis Park,” while living in Chicago and working as an associate editor for Poetry. Hoyt also edited an issue of Others: A Magazine of the New Verse (1916). In that issue, Hoyt addressed her interest . . .

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