Smells

WHY is it that the poet tells
So little of the sense of smell?
These are the odors I love well:

The smell of coffee freshly ground;
Or rich plum pudding, holly crowned;
Or onions fried and deeply browned.

The fragrance of a fumy pipe;
The smell of apples, newly ripe;
And printer's ink on leaden type.

Woods by moonlight in September
Breathe most sweet, and I remember
Many a smoky camp-fire ember.

Camphor, turpentine, and tea,
The balsam of a Christmas tree,
These are whiffs of gramarye. . .
A ship smells best of all to me!

Analysis (ai): The poem centers on everyday olfactory experiences, elevating mundane scents—coffee, fried onions, printer’s ink—to the level of poetic subject matter, which was uncommon in early 20th-century verse that often prioritized visual or auditory imagery.

Tone and Diction: It maintains a conversational, almost whimsical tone, using simple diction and rhythmic clarity to mirror domestic familiarity, a shift from the high modernist complexity emerging at the time.

Form and Structure: Composed in quatrains with a consistent ABCB rhyme scheme and iambic meter, the form is traditional, resisting the free verse trends gaining traction in the 1920s and 30s, and aligning more with Edwardian lyricism than modernist fragmentation.

Historical Context: While many of Morley’s contemporaries engaged in psychological depth or urban alienation, this poem looks backward to comfort, nostalgia, and pre-industrial sensory memory, situating it outside the dominant currents of early modernism.

Contrast with Morley’s Other Work: Unlike Morley’s essays or novels, which often celebrate intellectual camaraderie and urban life, this poem turns inward to personal recollection, privileging intimate sensory detail over discourse.

Less-Discussed Angle: Rather than merely celebrating nostalgia, the poem quietly critiques the poetic tradition’s neglect of smell, positioning itself as a corrective to literary sensory hierarchy.

Connection to Print Culture: The mention of "printer's ink on leaden type" ties the poem to Morley’s identity as a newspaperman and bibliophile, grounding the sensory in profession and material culture.

Symbolism of the Ship: The closing line, “A ship smells best of all to me!”, introduces mobility and escape—a subtle motif in Morley’s lesser-known verse—contrasting with the otherwise domestic catalog.

Cultural Positioning: Though not widely studied today, the poem reflects a minor but persistent strand in early 20th-century American writing that valued accessibility and local experience over aesthetic innovation.

Engagement with Modernity: Despite its traditional form, it resists industrial abstraction by focusing on tangible, hand-held, tactile-smelling objects—pipe, apple, book—functioning as quiet acts of sensory preservation.

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