Three Years! by Marie Van Vorst
The speaker sits alone through a night of wind and rustling white birches, absorbed in memory until dawn reaches the fields and a dull red line appears in the East. Time does not proceed for the speaker as it does in almanacs: during that single night, thought carries the speaker three years into the past and three years into the future. These swiftly passing years are symbolized and marked by a lock of white hair.
By Marie Van Vorst · First published 1908 · Genre: Lyric Poetry, Meditative Poetry, Elegiac Poetry · 125 words
First lines
I heard the wind in the trees / The stir of the leaves in the white birch tops / Then sat alone with my past till dawn / Crept over the edge of the leas / And a dull red line was drawn / In the East. There memory stops.
We do not follow our lives / As the almanacs run. I lived that night / Three years in the past and three to be. / As foam that the sea-wind drives / My thoughts sped on -- three years and three, / Marked by this lock of white.
What this Textopian page supports
Three Years! 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, Meditative Poetry, Elegiac Poetry, Nature Poetry, Romantic Poetry
- Length: 125 words
- Structure: 1 section, 2 paragraphs
Good citation fit
- Work identity for Three Years! 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
- Passage-specific claims should cite the exact /read/ URL for the relevant chapter or paragraph
Similar titles
- Winter by Marie Van Vorst
- The Years End by Marie Van Vorst
- Evening Time by Marie Van Vorst
- The Boon by Marie Van Vorst
- Song by Marie Van Vorst
- Fantasy by Marie Van Vorst
Genres
- Lyric Poetry — The work is a short, highly musical first-person poem centered on a single reflective emotional moment rather than narrative action.
- Meditative Poetry — Its speaker sits alone through the night contemplating memory, the passage of time, and an imagined future.
- Elegiac Poetry — The imagery of a white lock of hair, arrested memory, and years passing gives the poem a subdued, mournful awareness of loss and aging.
- Nature Poetry — Wind, trees, birches, sea foam, dawn, and the eastern sky provide the poem's sensory setting and mirror the speaker's inner state.
Tags
fiction · novel · American literature · early twentieth century · romance · social drama · women's fiction · relationships · love · marriage · family life · domestic life