No Vermonters in Heaven
(Revisited)
We were given a lead about a great website,
Log Cabin Chronicles. During our
visit, we ran across this piece submitted by one of their readers/visitors. After asking
permission, we reproduced it here for your enjoyment.
Since then, the great, great grandchildren of the author's poem, sent
us corrected information about the poem. The author, certainly no
longer "Anonymous", was Dr. Ernest Fenwick Johnstone. We
bring you the corrected poem by Dr. Johnstone. Please see our History
section for more details about the good doctor.
No Vermonters in Heaven
I dreamed that I went to the City of Gold,
To Heaven, resplendent and fair,
and after I entered that beautiful fold,
By one in authority there I was told
That not a Vermonter was there!
"Impossible," said I. "A host
from my town
Have
sought this delectable place,
And each must be here with a harp and a crown,
A conqueror's palm and clean linen gown
Received through merited grace."
The Angel replied: "All Vermonters come here
When first they depart from the earth,
But after a day or a month or a year
They restless and lonesome and homesick appear
And sigh for the land of their birth."
"They tell of its many and beautiful hills
Where forest majestic appear;
Its rivers and lakes and its streams and its rills
Where nature the purest of water distills,
And they soon get dissatisfied here."
"They tell of ravines, wild, secluded and deep
Of clover-decked landscapes serene,
Of towering mountains, imposing and steep
Adown which the torrents exultingly leap
Through forests perennially green."
We give them the best that the Kingdom
provides,
They have everything here that they want;
But not a Vermonter in Heaven abides,
A very short time period here he resides,
Then hikes his way back to Vermont."
E. F. Johnstone
Source: Kathryn
Arnold-Stauffer,
December 2001.
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