Anne Campbell

              ANNE CAMPBELL
Figure


The Poet of the Home




Redpath





ANNE CAMPBELL



Thousands of people know and love Anne Campbell, the only woman in this country who writes a poem a day.  Here is a woman who is essentially a poet of the

 common-place.  Her verses dramatize the contacts of every day.  She writes of the home and all that it implies.  She writes of children and does so with understanding, having two boys and a girl of her own (in private life she is Mrs. George W. Stark, wife of the dramatic critic of the Detroit News).  In fact, her children's poems, while they always possess an appeal for little ones, are written with the adult viewpoint.  And she writes authoritatively of the farm and country, for she was born and reared in the back country of Michigan.




Although Anne Campbell has written all her life, it was only three years ago that she attempted the task of writing a poem each day.  At that time she was engaged for this work by the editor of the Detroit News.  Her verse gained instant recognition, and soon a national newspaper organization began the distribution of her poems throughout the country.




After her poems began to appear in the News, Anne Campbell started to broadcast them over the News radio, and in a short time she had built up an audience that reached across the country.  She was shortly induced to appear publicly, with the result that she made an instantaneous success on the platform.




Anne Campbell has an engaging presence, a resonant voice and a personality that wins her audience at once.  She talks in terms that all may understand.  She plays on the heartstrings of her hearers with her tender lyrics of life, and when she chooses she chases the tears away with whimsical humorous verse touching on some common experience of our busy workaday lives.




Everyday Poetry
 is the name Anne Campbell has given the friendly intimate talk she has prepared especially for her Lyceum audiences.  This is a vital and interesting analysis of the task of the newspaper poet and how she meets it; where she gets the inspiration for her many poems.  It is graphically illustrated by readings from the author's own works, with an occasional quotation from the works of other poets.  It is an instructive discourse and it is also humorous, dramatic and frequently inspirational.






The Poet of the Home




What They Say Concerning Anne Campbell




Ability to move her hearers from tears to laughter, the power to strike a responsive chord in the emotions of the individual—all of this and more is genuinely characteristic of Anne Campbell.  She has a vivid personality and splendid enunciation, which coupled with a fine speaking voice and diversified repertoire go far toward making her a most desired entertainer.—


Flint (Mich.) Journal
.




To find the beauty and meaning in simple things, in the common joys and griefs, the common experiences of every day—this is the task to which Anne Campbell addresses herself in everything she writes and says.—


The Detroit News
.




Anne Campbell's poems carry a noble and inspiring message.
—
Anna Jarvis, head of the Mothers' Day International Association, Inc., and founder of Mothers' Day
.





When Poets Get Together—Charles S. Kinnison, Detroit Times; Edgar A. Guest, Detroit Free Press; Anne Campbell, Detroit News, and Edwin Markham, famed for his 
Man With the Hoe.




ANNE CAMPBELL

Companionship



It isn't that we talk so much;


Sometimes the evening through


You do not say a word to me,


I do not talk to you.


I sit beside the reading lamp,


You like your easy chair,


And it is joy enough for me


To know that you are there.


It isn't that we go so much;


Sometimes we like to roam


To concert or to theatre,


But best of all is home.


I sew a bit or read aloud


A book we want to share,


And it is joy enough for me


To know that you are there.


It isn't that you tell to me


The things I've come to know,


It goes too deep for words, I think,


The fact you love me so.


You only have to touch my hand


To learn how much I care,


And it is joy enough for me


To know that you are there!




A typical poem by Anne Campbell
.