Old Letters by Poet, Norman Rowland Gale

OLD LETTERS

Last night some yellow letters fell
From out a scrip I found by chance;
Among them was the silent ghost,
The spirit of my first romance:
And in a faint blue envelope
A withered rose long lost to dew
Bore witness to the dashing days
When love was large and wits were few.

Yet standing there all worn and grey
The teardrops quivered in my eyes
To think of Youth's unshaken front,
The forehead lifted to the skies;
How rough a hill my eager feet
Flung backward when upon its crest
I saw the flutter of the lace
The wind awoke on Helen's breast!

How thornless were the roses then
When fresh young eyes and lips were kind
When Cupid in our porches proved
How true the tale that Love is blind!
But Red-and-White and Poverty
Would only mate while shone the May;
Then came a Bag of Golden Crowns
And jingled Red-and-White away.

Grown old and niggard of romance
I wince not much at aught askew,
And often ask my favorite cat
What else had Red-and-White to do?
And here's the bud that rose and sank,
A crimson island on her breast--
Why should I burn it? Once again
Hide, rose, and dream. God send me rest.

Norman Rowland Gale

Norman Rowland Gale was an English poet and story-teller. He served as a reviewer, and spent some time as a schoolmaster. He must have lived a rather private life from March 4, 1862 until October 7, 1942 as there are few biographical details available for us to learn. From about 1885 until his death, he published many books, with his most famous work being the poem The Country Faith, which made publication in the immediate classic Oxford Book of English Verse 1250–1918 (1939 edition). This photograph is purportedly of Norman Rowland Gale, the poet.

The melancholy poem featured in this post is titled Old Letters, and is a constituent of the book
Love Letters of Great Men Vol. 2.

The beautiful painting of the forlorn lady opening this post is from an antique postcard featured on Metropolitan Postcard Club of New York City. The artist is not named, and I see no identifying mark on the image. If you have any information about the artist, please contact me.

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Recapturing the Lost Art of the Handwritten Letter

Even before Great-Grandfather was toddling years ago, the only way to communicate with far away family and friends was to create a handwritten letter and send it away en post. The letter was crafted to be deserving of its cost to create. The expense of paper, ink, envelope and postage were occasionally proven to be a hindrance to the communication of isolated families with their folks. US postage rates in 1792 were at 6 cents per one sheet letter to a recipient not exceeding 30 miles away. Prices then increased incrementally until one was paying 25 cents for single letters to go to recipients more than 400 miles away.

In 1850, farming wages are estimated to have been as low as a paltry $0.40 per day in some of the more depressed areas of the country. In such cases, when the family trade garnered so little income, the stipend for entertainment was simply nonexistent. Certainly, postage allotted for casual letters to family or friends was regarded as a luxury with a prohibitive price.

By 1851, the cost of posting a letter was lowered to 3 cents per ½ ounce and could be sent up to 3000 miles away. This proved more affordable, but still, on a farm income, which had the potential to be meager and infrequent, postage stamps, stationery, and supplies were not guaranteed sundries. On occasion, more affluent relatives would send writing supplies and postage to help ease the prohibitive costs, which would otherwise inhibit the flow of precious correspondence.

Current postal rates do not demand nearly as large a percentage of our daily income as they once had. Yet, the fierce competition the Internet has waged with the postal service has given consumers a considerable edge with regard to the speed of delivery of their communications, and “snail mail” has become the widely accepted offending slang term used for the current US postal service. Crafting a note and sending it via digital means is certainly faster than old fashioned habits, but letters received in such a manner are robbed of some of the most charming personal aspects that are present in a handwritten letter. The rewards of a personal letter in the mail box are innumerable, and sadly, those rewards are largely missing today.

Dear Readers,

The challenge is to recapture the lost art of the handwritten letter.

Sincerely,
Tracey Elaine

P.S. The image is of the first general issue United States 10 cent Postage stamp from July 1, 1847.

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