Page:The Poets and Poetry of the West.djvu/666



There is a beautiful tenderness in all the poems that I have seen from the pen of "Mabel St. Clair," which must already have endeared her to many hearts that have "loved and lost." For me, there is overmuch odor of graves and coffon-varnish in her verse ; she seems to have gathered nearly all her flowers from a place of tombs. But she has a genuine poetic feeling, and a rare felicity of expression, that counterbalance her funereal tendency, and her occasional want of art. The excellencies and faults of her poetry are too obvious for comment. She always seems to " look into her heart and write."

Miss Hibbard was born at Millefield, Athens county, Ohio, in 1833, and now resides at Spring Hill, Fulton county. Under the nom de plume, "Mabel St. Clair," she has contributed to the Ohio State Journal, Toledo Blade, and Athens Messenger.