Puritan in Manhattan
by Hugh Richardson Fitch
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Puritan in Manhattan by Hugh Richardson Fitch (1895-1969), No. 8498, son of Rev. John Ashley Fitch, No. 6124. (New York, NY: Comet Press Books, 1957, 94 pp.) The book is a collection of poetry on China (where he was born), the home, the garden, the sea, the schoolroom, and the arts. Hugh Fitch taught at New York University, the United States Naval Academy at Annapolis, and City College of New York.
Many of the poems are named for, and elicit the spirit of, great literary figures Fitch clearly admired. Here is the first verse of Gay Chaucer:
He carved the Middle Age of England in
A living frieze; fierce thought did not stylize
The figures; all had life and were life size--
Grave bookish Clerk, whose book-fed nag was thin;
Hot Som'nour with scrap Latin and pimply skin;
Neat Nun; loud gat-toothed Wife, quite husband-wise;
Staunch Ploughman; and fresh Squire in May-month guise--
Old Chaucer loved to see the sly world spin.