Sarah Chauncey Woolsey

Sarah Chauncey Woolsey Poems

Sarah Chauncey Woolsey Biography

Sarah Chauncey Woolsey (January 29, 1835 – April 9, 1905) was an American children's author who wrote under the pen name Susan Coolidge. Woolsey was born January 29, 1835 into the wealthy, influential New England Dwight family, in Cleveland, Ohio. Her father was John Mumford Woolsey (1796–1870) and her mother Jane Andrews, and author and poet Gamel Woolsey was her niece. She spent much of her childhood in New Haven Connecticut after her family moved there in 1852. Woolsey worked as a nurse during the American Civil War (1861–1865), after which she started to write. She never married, and resided at her family home in Newport, Rhode Island, until her death. She edited The Autobiography and Correspondence of Mrs. Delaney (1879) and The Diary and Letters of Frances Burney (1880). She is best known for her classic children's novel What Katy Did (1872). The fictional Carr family was modeled after her own, with Katy Carr inspired by Woolsey herself. The brothers and sisters were modeled on her four younger siblings: Jane Andrews Woolsey, born October 25, 1836, who married Reverend Henry Albert Yardley; Elizabeth Dwight Woolsey, born April 24, 1838, who married Daniel Coit Gilman and died in 1910.;Theodora Walton Woolsey, born September 7, 1840; and William Walton Woolsey, born July 18, 1842, who married Catherine Buckingham Convers, daughter of Charles Cleveland Convers.)

The Best Poem Of Sarah Chauncey Woolsey

How The Leaves Came Down

'I'll tell you how the leaves came down,'
The great Tree to his children said:
'You're getting sleepy, Yellow and Brown,
Yes, very sleepy, little Red.
It is quite time to go to bed.'
'Ah!' begged each silly, pouting leaf,
'Let us a little longer stay;
Dear Father Tree, behold our grief!
'Tis such a very pleasant day,
We do not want to go away.'
So, for just one more merry day
To the great Tree the leaflets clung,
Frolicked and danced, and had their way,
Upon the autumn breezes swung,
Whispering all their sports among—
'Perhaps the great Tree will forget,
And let us stay until the spring,
If we all beg, and coax, and fret.'
But the great Tree did no such thing;
He smiled to hear their whispering.
'Come, children, all to bed,' he cried;
And ere the leaves could urge their prayer,
He shook his head, and far and wide,
Fluttering and rustling everywhere,
Down sped the leaflets through the air.
I saw them; on the ground they lay,
Golden and red, a huddled swarm,
Waiting till one from far away,
White bedclothes heaped upon her arm,
Should come to wrap them safe and warm.
The great bare Tree looked down and smiled.
'Good-night, dear little leaves,' he said.
And from below each sleepy child
Replied, 'Good-night,' and murmured,
'It is so nice to go to bed!'

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