The Courier
Volume 30, No. 2 (2006)
Lucy Larcom's Bethel
by
Stanley R. Howe
Lucy Larcom (1824-1893)
Observing nature was a major focus of the life of Lucy Larcom
(1824-1893), who spent much time in the White Mountain region and
especially in the western Maine town of Bethel. That town, with
its spectacular vistas and easy access to mountain views and river
valleys, was a special place for this woman, who in the 19th century
became one of the best known poets in New England.
According to Shirley Marchelonis, in her book, The Worlds of Lucy Larcom (Athens,
Georgia: University of Georgia, 1989), Larcom came to know Bethel in
1876 when she decided to venture into the mountains. Miss Larcom
came from Beverly by steamboat as far as Portland, Maine, then by rail
to the Bethel station, and from there by carriage to John Russell’s
Riverside Cottage, which then stood on the site of the present home of
Randy and Cathy Autry on Intervale Road. In back of the house, a
hill rose steeply and on the crest was a little glen shaded by
evergreens. Here was a latticed summer house, which came to be
known as “Miss Larcom’s Retreat,” where she sat, read and wrote her
poetry. From this level, she enjoyed a splendid view of the
Androscoggin River and the majestic intervale elms. Mount Moriah
in Shelburne and several peaks of the Presidentials, including Madison,
Adams and Washington, were also part of this visual “feast.”
Shirley Marchelonis has observed that Bethel came to be the ideal place
for Larcom. As a mountain town, it appeared “delightful” in every
way. The poet was apparently captivated by the Androscoggin River
and its surroundings, the mountains, and most particularly the
outstanding sunsets, which seemed to call her back each year. Not
even pleas from her friends in New Hampshire could get her to move from
her Bethel resting place.
Born in Beverly, Massachusetts, in 1824, Lucy Larcom was a sensitive
and precocious child, early in life developing a fascination with
poetry and religion. After her father’s death due to the family’s
straited circumstances, she, her mother and siblings moved to Lowell,
where she began working in the textile mills of that city. It was
here that she began writing for several literary magazines.
In 1846, Larcom journeyed to Looking Glass, Illinois, to begin a
teaching career, where for several years she learned “what education
really is.” This experience led to more teaching in Monticello,
Illinois, and later at Wheaton Seminary (now Wheaton College) in
Norton, Massachusetts. Her enthusiasm for all things literary and
interest in history plus her genuine fondness for her students extended
her influence beyond the classroom. She published her first book
of poetry in 1869 and by 1884 had become a very popular poet. Her
poetry was often uneven in quality, simple and unadorned with flexible
rhythms and easy rhymes. It can also be characterized by a strong
moral tone and numerous spiritual visions which make it appear to
today’s readers as quaint and lifeless.
The same is not true of her autobiography, A New England Girlhood, Outlined from
Memory, which was published four years before her death in
1893. This work contains detailed descriptions of life in New
England mill villages, focusing particularly on the world of a Lowell,
Massachusetts, factory girl. Larcom’s insights into this 19th
century work experience make this book a significant contribution to
American social and labor history. It also deserves praise for
its literary quality. Larcom’s experience as a mill worker left
her with a lifelong aversion to loud noises. It also created in
her, according to biographer Marchalonis, a continuous struggle between
“stillness and stir,” an alternating penchant for solitude followed by
a period of intense activity. Moreover, her romantic interest in
Dr. Frank Spaulding was complicated and only
resolved by her realization that she would be better off living her
life alone among good friends such as John Greenleaf Whittier and James
and Annie Fields.
Throughout her later adult life, Bethel always remained a favored place
where, as she wrote Whittier in 1884, she could “read . . . proof and
escape hay fever.” It is clear from reading some of her Bethel
poems that she was familiar with many of the natural landmarks of the
town, as is indicated in one poem included in William B. Lapham’s 1891 History of Bethel. In what is
perhaps her best Bethel poem, “On the Ledge,” one finds references to
“Paradise,” the “mountainous West” (the Presidential Range), and,
finally, the “beautiful meadows and mountains of Maine.” This
devotion to her Bethel setting knew few limits, and the restorative
qualities of the place served her well for the last twenty years of her
time on earth. She always departed Bethel with regret, but full
of new energy to face the rigors and demands of the literary life.