Walking Where Others Have Found Inspiration
Forest Pond : A Lost Landscape Remembered Through the Art it Inspired
A Treasured Source of Inspiration
Walking Where Others Have Found Inspiration
Jessie Brown , Writer
“ I don ’ t remember a time when I didn ’ t know about Mount Auburn ,” says Jessie Brown , a writer who lives in Arlington , Massachusetts .“ For my first five years I lived within walking distance of the Cemetery . As far as I was concerned it was just the most beautiful park , far more beautiful than any of the ones with playground equipment on them . So I was used to playing here . It ’ s always been part of my experience ; there ’ s never been a time when I didn ’ t come here . Even when we moved to Belmont , and it was a little more of a hike , I would bicycle here . I brought my friends from school , as a kid . I never understood why they thought it was a little strange to play in a cemetery . They hadn ’ t grown up with it like I had .”
Brown has written in every place she ’ s lived , including Oberlin , Ohio , where she received her Bachelor ’ s degree ; the University of Córdoba , Spain ; and Palo Alto , California , where she received her Master ’ s degree from Stanford University . She studied poetry there with Denise Levertov , and received an American Academy of Poets prize . Her poems have appeared in various journals , and her prize-winning chapbook , Lucky , is forthcoming this spring from Anabiosis Press . Currently she works as a poet-in-residence in schools and libraries in the Boston area , both on her own and with Troubadour , an arts education collaborative . Fifteen years ago she helped found the Alewife Poets , a group of women writers who give frequent readings in the Boston area . But it ’ s safe to say that she got her start at Mount Auburn .
“ Well , I have always found that it ’ s easier to write outdoors . I don ’ t want to sound too mystical , but I think it makes a difference to write in a place that ’ s not only full of beauty , but full of history . It makes a difference to walk where others have found inspiration . It makes a difference to walk between other people ’ s griefs and loves . And the monuments are reminding us of that all the time .”
Above : Jessie Brown Right : Her son Ben , now a college freshman , on one of his childhood visits to Mount Auburn .
“ The landscape also plays a part . There ’ s the inspiration of its natural resources . It ’ s hard not to come to Mount Auburn and see amazing things growing , or animal life that anyone would want to write about . It ’ s in front of you all the time . You don ’ t have to look for it at Mount Auburn ; it comes to you .”
Brown has several favorite spots within the Cemetery that she likes to visit , often sitting and writing for hours . When she was still in school she frequented the Dell . “ I would sit down opposite one of the monuments and
Forest Pond : A Lost Landscape Remembered Through the Art it Inspired
Mount Auburn ’ s rolling landscape of hills , dells , ponds , and meadows has always inspired its visitors , especially those artists who come to capture a vibrant glimpse of a season , preserving a living moment forever . Today there are a few areas that seem particularly popular among those seeking inspiration : lily-clad Auburn Lake , the untamed wildflower meadow at Washington Tower , and the earthen core of the Cemetery , the Dell .
In the earliest decades of Mount Auburn , however , no spot in the Cemetery rivaled Forest Pond in the affections of the public . The small figure-eight shaped pond , quietly nestled in the valley between Beech and Willow avenues , was celebrated for its picturesque qualities in paintings , daguerreotypes , romantic engravings , chalk illustrations , and poems alike . Though the Cemetery filled in Forest
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Pond in 1919 , we know much about this lost landscape due to the numerous accounts , both written and visual , of this beloved spot .
One depiction of Forest Pond , painted by Thomas Chambers in the 1840s , graces the cover of this magazine . Among their many photographs of the Cemetery , daguerreotypists Southworth and Hawes captured the Winchester Tomb proudly overlooking the pond ( see page 6 ). In her poem “ Mount Auburn ,” Caroline Frances Orne describes the scene ,
“… When all the tree-tops bathed in splendor glow , And a deep shadow rests on all below ; Or as , like golden bars , the struggling rays Pierce through the fretted leaves ’ entwining maze , As Forest Pond , that , sleeping tranquilly , From its clear depths gives back each leaf and tree , Each tomb , each monument that ’ s mirrored there …”