Amanda Elizabeth Dennis (1841-1923) was born in Powellville, Maryland (now part of Wicomico County). During her younger years, she lived in Baltimore City, where she attended the Western Female High School. After graduating, she returned to the Eastern Shore to pursue a teaching career at St. John’s School near Powellville. She proceeded to teach there for more than 25 years. Remembered as a poet, many of her poems were published in the Baltimore Sun and by Lippincott. In the later part of her life, she lived near St. Martins, Maryland, with her niece. Dennis is buried in Buckingham Cemetery in Berlin, Maryland. In 1888, she published a collection of 200 poems titled "Asphodels and Pansies".
Enjoy an original copy of her poem, "For Dannie", written in her own handwriting ~1880. View the finding aid for this collection HERE
For Dannie by Amanda Elizabeth Dennis
As Time goes by, and years grow old
Pull many a sheaf from the fields of gold
You’ll cull from the plenteous reaping
Ah! Gather the grain with a tender hand!
T’was sown perchance at Fate’s command
In bittersweet pain and weeping.
For off, we know, the Poet’s song,
‘Though sweet and clear and brave and strong,
Holds hints of deepest sorrow;
And the saddest lips are those that pray,
In the sweet, wan light of yesterday.
For the beautiful to-morrow.
Culling the bud and golden sheaf
Full many a tiny fragrant leaf
Of mine may bring you gladness
Some wistful dream, some tender thought
Whose chiefest sweetness has been caught
From the heart’s unspoken sadness.
And in the years to come, dear friend
Their wistful sweetness aye may tend
To draw our hearts still nearer:
Fulfilled, or unfulfilled, each dream
Will add to life a fairer gleam
And make our friendship dearer
You’ll read these lines with clearer sight
In the after-gleam of vanished light,
And hold me truer, dearer
For the wistful hope that reaches out
Through veiling mists of pain and doubt
To a day whose skies are clearer.
To a day whose tender light may bring,
Fulfilled, beneath its scented wing,
The wistful hope’s full sweetness;
And the vanished years may lose their pain
In the happy thought of another’s gain
Of another life’s completeness.
Powellville - Your faithful and affectionate friend, Amanda Elizabeth Dennis