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| [a] Dusk in Venice RF |
Today's Guest Contributor on Round and Square is Amara Pugens. Amara is from Brookfield, Wisconsin, and recently graduated from Beloit College with a B.A. in history and anthropology and a minor in museum studies. She is currently working with four other Beloit College graduates to digitize, process, and research the William Edgar Geil Collection at the Doylestown Historical Society in Pennsylvania.
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Please
note that all items marked "DHS" are property of the Doylestown
Historical Society, and used with DHS permission. If you wish to use an
image, you need permission of the Society. Please contact Robert LaFleur
(lafleur@beloit.edu), and he will put you in contact with the
appropriate people.
Today was a momentous day—we finished digitizing the newspaper clippings, all 911 of them (not counting duplicates). We knew we were getting near to the end when the dates started climbing into the 1920s, near the time of Geil's death (in Venice) in April 1925. It was in this time period that I discovered a very intriguing article. Published in May 1925 in the local paper, only a month after Geil's death, the article pays tribute to the explorer in the form of a poem.
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| [b] Varied DHS |
Mrs. Findley Braden took great care in writing "One
of Earth's Travelers : An Appreciation of the Arduous and Varied Life Work of
Dr. William Edgar Geil." It is
long, six stanzas with eight lines each for a total of twenty-four lines, with
each stanza ending in a rhyme pattern of ababcdcd. While poetically written, her imagery is
fairly straightforward, conveying the significance of the theme. Because this poem illustrates people's great
respect for Geil and his many admirable qualities, it can be defined as an ode
to Geil. She begins by describing his
travels "far and oft, to view
strange scenes/ And study races, climes and things remote," romanticizing
him as a world adventurer. Continuing, she
writes of his religious work, "his missionary spirit yearned to
aid." By noting "his name and
fame an honor to his town," she emphasizes many people shared her thoughts
about Geil.
With phrases such as "wise and unafraid" and
"strength to do the work of ten," Braden creates a tone of appreciation
for his life's work. She also, however,
expresses a great sadness in his passing.
Transitioning the ode to a more poetic despair, she notes Geil
"halted now,/ to never more go out, or enter in." These two ideas--a reader's admiration and sorrow
for Geil—create the poem's conflict.
The lines "Pennsylvania's gifted son is laid/ for quiet resting, in
her long-loved soil" exemplify this tension. She finishes her poem in fantastical fashion
discussing Geil's "higher tasks" in "the Almighty plan."
After reading and analyzing the poem (a feat I have not
done since high school), it is amazing to think how well-known and popular Geil
became in his lifetime. His story could
not be shared in a traditional biography; it seems only poetry could fully
express Doylestown's thoughts and emotions about Geil's life and work.
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| [c] Fantastical DHS |
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