Joyce Mary Horner

(1903 – 1980)

Professor of English

 Mount Holyoke College

She twitted Chaucer like a little bird

shuffling into class

grey in a cardigan too long in spring

and shoes with soles so thick

she could have floated upright in the flood.

Insulted like a fool at every turn

still she kept the vowels broad and clear:

every line a self-answered question

reaffirming the right to sing

despite the slouch and crippling of old age.

She sang as they carried her off,

sings her little Chaucer-bird song

still.