The Sign by Marie Van Vorst (1908)
The speaker recalls feeling a beloved’s kisses upon the face, comparing them to soft wind-flowers, summer rain, and fragrant southern breezes. When the speaker reaches to return the kiss, a thin veil suddenly separates them. Standing among ordered trees and trembling green leaves through midsummer days, the speaker waits for God to part that veil and reveal the beloved in His house, holding the seven-sparred star named Love. The remembered kisses are taken as a sweet sign that this reunion, though long delayed, will come.
By Marie Van Vorst · First published 1908 · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Love Poetry, Elegy · 213 words
First lines
Last night I felt your kisses on my face, / Softer than April fall of wind-flowers; / Sweeter than summer rain upon the grass; / Sweeter than the light wind, that in the South / Wakes, and in groves of myrrh and cassia stirs. / I bent with parted lips to kiss your mouth -- / Straightway there fell a fine thin veil between. / There stood the trees in level rows, / The sunlight filled the trembling green / Of the leaf-sea, in the fair close.
What this Textopian page supports
The Sign is listed on Textopian as a poem by Marie Van Vorst, dated 1908 CE.
This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.
- Work type: Poem
- Author: Marie Van Vorst
- Date: 1908 CE
- Language: English
- Genres: Lyric Poetry, Love Poetry, Elegy, Religious Poetry, Devotional Poetry
- Length: 213 words
- Structure: 1 section, 2 paragraphs
- Reading fit: Fairly Easy (7th Grade)
Good citation fit
- Work identity for The Sign by Marie Van Vorst
- Canonical title URL and first readable passage URL
- Genre and topic classification from the Textopian catalog
- Readability and classroom-planning context
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Genres
- Lyric Poetry — The work is a short, intensely personal poem centered on the speaker's emotional response to an intimate spiritual experience.
- Love Poetry — Its central subject is enduring romantic love, expressed through remembered kisses, longing, and the beloved's association with the star named Love.
- Elegy — The veil separating the speaker from the beloved and the hope of reunion in God's house strongly suggest mourning for a deceased loved one.
- Religious Poetry — The poem frames grief and reunion through explicitly Christian imagery, including God, heaven, and a divinely parted veil.
Tags
fiction · romance · drama · early twentieth century · social realism · society life · love · marriage · relationships · family · American literature · historical fiction