Isabel Fiske Conant
American poet
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Isabella Howe Fiske Conant (April 29, 1874 – November 12, 1953) was an American poet and playwright based in Massachusetts. She wrote pageants to be performed by large casts, and published several collections of her poetry.
April 29, 1874
Isabel Fiske Conant | |
|---|---|
Conant, from a 1936 publication | |
| Born | Isabella Howe Fiske April 29, 1874 Wellesley, Massachusetts, U.S. |
| Died | November 12, 1953 (aged 79) Jacksonville, Florida, U.S. |
| Other names | Isabella Fiske Conant |
| Occupations | Poet, playwright |
Early life and education
Conant was born in Wellesley, Massachusetts, the daughter of Joseph Emery Fiske and Abby Sawyer Hastings Fiske. Her father was a Union Army veteran of the American Civil War and served in the Massachusetts legislature.[1] He also wrote a history of Wellesley, which her older sister Ellen Ware Fiske expanded.[2][3] She graduated from Wellesley College in 1896, and completed a master's degree there in 1905.[4][5]
Career
Conant wrote poetry, plays, and pageants. Her poetry was published in national periodicals including Ainslee's,[6][7] Lippincott's Monthly,[8][9] Photo-Era,[10] The Craftsman,[11] Poetry,[12][13] and Opportunity.[14] In 1920, a cast of 300 (including 40 mounted horsemen) performed her Acropolis: A Masque of a City in Central Park.[15] Her Clouds of the Sun was performed in 1922 at a New York benefit for French war orphans, at The Cloisters.[16][17] She also lectured on poetry and judged poetry contests.[18][19]
Fiske's poetry was widely reviewed,[20][21][22] but not always fondly. "In A Field of Folk by Isabella Howe Fiske, there are one hundred and ten pieces of verse, none of any particular merit or demerit," began a 1903 review in The Los Angeles Times, commenting further that "there is no great quantity of thought crowded into the foreground."[23]
Publications
Poetry and hymns
- "Retribution" (1896, poem in college yearbook)[4]
- Verses (1900, poetry collection)[24]
- "Ideas", "In the Orchard", "Premonitions" and "In Manuscript" (1903, poems)[6][7][25][26]
- A Field of Folk (1903, poetry collection)[27]
- "Chatterton", "Kaleidoscopic Fancies", "Reproof", "Rough Dry", and "The Valley" (1905, poems)[8][9][28][29][30]
- "The End of the Day", "A Swallow's Flight", "A Bird Walk", "Mirage", and "Babel" (1906, poems)[10][31][32][33][34]
- "In Season" (1908, poem)[11]
- "The House Remembers" (1916, poem)[35]
- "Somewhere in France" (1918, poem)[12]
- "Death Stays the Hand of the Sculptor" (1922, poem in tribute to Solon Borglum)[36]
- "Little History" and "Eleonora Duse" (1924, poems)[13][37]
- Many Wings (1924, poetry collection)[21][38]
- Frontier (1925, poetry collection)
- "Anesthetic", "Sane", and "Portrait" (1925, poems)[39][40]
- "Our Lady and Her Knight" (1927, poem)[41]
- "At Thomas Mosher's", "Carpenter", "On the Levee", and "A Revederla" (1928, poems)[42][43]
- "Seventh Avenue" (1929, poem)[14]
- "Dark Outlook" and "Loom of Time" (1931, poems)[44]
- Aisle-Seat (1937, poetry collection)[22]
- Orange Feather (1940, poetry collection)[45]
- "Lord of the Sunlight, Lord of the Starlight" (hymn)[46]
- "Upstairs in the Pine Boughs" (hymn)[46]
Plays and pageants
- Clouds of the Sun (1904, short play)[47][16]
- A Comedy of the Exile (1906, short Biblical play)[48]
- Gabriel: A pageant of vigil (1912, pageant)[49]
- Pageant of the Charles River (1914, pageant)[50]
- Persephone (1914, pageant)[51]
- Will o the World: A Shakespearean tercentenary masque (1916, pageant)[52]
- Acropolis: A Masque of a City (1920, pageant)[53]