Anvil of Roses

Thomas Hornsby Ferril

Thomas Hornsby Ferril, 1896–1988, was a major figure in literary circles of the American West for nearly half a century. Winner of the 1926 Yale Younger Poets award for High Passage, and honored by such poets as Carl Sandburg and Robert Frost, Ferril created poetry that is musical, metrical, and meant to be read aloud. Anvil of Roses was Ferril’s sixth collection of poetry and demonstrates his comprehension of and love for the landscape and mythology of the West. With clarity, precision, and, above all, music, Ferril's work speaks of love, war, the world, and all things human. Ahsahta Press published Anvil of Roses in 1983, and also carries the reprint of Ferril’s 1934 book Westering, originally published by Yale University Press.

A sample poem from the book

Desert Epilog

Implausible, that naked night,

I still am not quite sure

of what we used for words

for being there.

I seem to think you were saying something about

a madonna dark with candle smoke

and wasn’t I trying to tell you how to tell

the white death-camas from false asphodel?

No matter,

my invention year by year

contrives new overtures and afterways

to that far passion.

Here alone in this hot afternoon

I almost touch but do not touch

these tortured torques and splines

of desert lava worn by slow abrasions

of old old winds

that blow and blow forever.

I close my eyes,

I hear our wooded river.

I see our first new moon.