Maria Mitchell In Her Own Words

Jascin N. Leonardo Finger • September 19, 2022

Sept. 19, 1853. I am surprised to find the verse which I picked up somewhere and have always admired


Oh, reader, had you in your mind

Such stores as silent thought can bring,

Oh, gentle reader, you would find

A tale in everything


Belonging to Wordsworth and to one of Wordsworth’s simple, I am almost ready to say silly poems. I am in doubt of what to think of Wordsworth I should be ashamed of some of his poems if I had written them myself, and yet there are points of great beauty, and lines which once in the mid will not leave.


The poem she quotes here is from “Simon Lee: The Old Huntsman.” I wouldn’t call it a silly poem and while Maria could make her own silly rhymes and enjoy them, she appreciated serious writing and poetry as well so I am surprised by her initial reaction to finding this piece she saved or wrote down. She was a lover of literature and poetry – not just astronomy, mathematics, and science. She was a well-rounded individual who was multi-talented and had many interests. She was constantly learning and educating herself.



JNLF

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Lynn, Ap. 25 1869  My dear President, I am not sure I told you how long I must be away from the College. If I took only the Sunday’s rest, it would be possible for me to reach the Obs. By Tuesday, but I feel the need of more than one day of quiet, before I enter upon the new and incomprehensible life before me . . . William Mitchell died on April 19, 1869 and for the first time, Maria Mitchell was alone. Save for her trip to the southern United States and Europe in 1857 and 1858, her father was always by her side. She did not know much of a day in her life without him nearby and she knows that. It was difficult for her – and her siblings worried about her and this new world she was now in. She had been – expect for that trip – the caregiver for both of her parents. Her mother, Lydia Coleman Mitchell, died in 1861 on Nantucket and Maria had cared for her as well. She was the child who became the caregiver of the family – both in her youth as her siblings sought her out for care, humor, love, and adventures while their mother was busy with younger children and household duties – and then her parents as the only child who did not marry and remained by their sides. JNLF
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