Lola Ridge (1873-1941) was born in Ireland but lived much of her adult life in the United States. She’s not read much now, but she was a pioneer of what some call ‘Anarchist poetry’, though her style might be co-opted more broadly under the banner of modernism. ‘The Dream’, a short poem by Ridge, shows why she’s worth reading.
‘The Dream’ by Lola Ridge
I have a dream
to fill the golden sheath
of a remembered day….
(Air
heavy and massed and blue
as the vapor of opium…
domes
fired in sulphurous mist…
sea
quiescent as a gray seal…
and the emerging sun
spurting up gold
over Sydney, smoke-pale, rising out of the bay….)
But the day is an up-turned cup
and its sun a junk of red iron
guttering in sluggish-green water –
where shall I pour my dream?
‘The Dream’ is just one Lola Ridge poem we’ve shared. If you enjoyed ‘The Dream’, you might also enjoy her poem about her mother, which we’ve written about here.
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