Adelaide Crapsey
Overview
Brooklyn
Brooklyn is the most populous of New York City's five boroughs, with nearly 2.6 million residents, and the second-largest in area. Since 1896, Brooklyn has had the same boundaries as Kings County, which is now the most populous county in New York State and the second-most densely populated...
, New York, she was raised in Rochester, New York
Rochester, New York
Rochester is a city in Monroe County, New York, south of Lake Ontario in the United States. Known as The World's Image Centre, it was also once known as The Flour City, and more recently as The Flower City...
, daughter of Episcopal priest Algernon Sidney Crapsey
Algernon Sidney Crapsey
Algernon Sidney Crapsey was an Episcopal priest and father of poet Adelaide Crapsey. In 1879, he was transferred from Trinity Church in New York City to Rochester, New York to become the pastor of St...
, who had been transferred from New York City to Rochester, and Adelaide T. Crapsey
Adelaide T. Crapsey
Adelaide Trowbridge Crapsey was the wife of American Episcopal priest and social reformer Algernon Sidney Crapsey and mother of American poet Adelaide Crapsey....
.
She attended public school in Rochester, and then Kemper Hall, an Episcopal girls' preparatory school in Kenosha, Wisconsin
Wisconsin
Wisconsin is a U.S. state located in the north-central United States and is part of the Midwest. It is bordered by Minnesota to the west, Iowa to the southwest, Illinois to the south, Lake Michigan to the east, Michigan to the northeast, and Lake Superior to the north. Wisconsin's capital is...
, before entering Vassar College
Vassar College
Vassar College is a private, coeducational liberal arts college in the town of Poughkeepsie, New York, in the United States. The Vassar campus comprises over and more than 100 buildings, including four National Historic Landmarks, ranging in style from Collegiate Gothic to International,...
in Poughkeepsie
Poughkeepsie (town), New York
Poughkeepsie is a town in Dutchess County, New York, United States. The population was 42,777 at the 2000 census. The name is derived from the native term, "Uppu-qui-ipis-in," which means "reed-covered hut by the water."...
, New York, where she was class poet for three years and editor-in-chief of the Vassarion in 1901, the year she graduated.
That same year her sister Emily died, and Adelaide delayed starting her teaching career for a year.
Quotations
These beThree silent things:The falling snow...the hourBefore the dawn...the mouth of oneJust dead.
"Triad"
Listen.With faint dry sound,Like steps of passing ghosts,The leaves, frost-crisp'd, break from the treesAnd fall.
"November Night"
I knowNot these my handsAnd yet I think there wasA woman like me once had handsLike these.
"Amaze"