Days of the Gristmill

"October ends with a delicious Indian-summer day. Drive with Fields to the old Howe Tavern in Sudbury,–alas, no longer an inn! A lovely valley; the winding road shaded by grand old oaks before the house. A rambling, tumble-down old building..."
   – Longfellow, Journal from Oct. 31, 1852







3.


At present time of data and speed
we might ask of the Romantic,
what of these candlelit memories,
of times gone by of the stagecoach
rider carrying its suited passengers
from Cambridge down Old Post Road
the poet of the American century,
to Howe's rambling, tumble-down,
the Wayside Inn near Mt. Holyoke.
The poet's verse so steady and slow,
taking down the silver maker Revere's
presumed ride from Lexington
"A cry of defiance and not of fear"'
the coming of the marching Redcoat.
To a letter composed 1863,
"The Wayside Inn had more foundation
in fact than you may suppose.
The musician is Ole Bull;
the Spanish Jews, Israel Edrehi."