Remembering James H.K. "Jim" Norton

The Vineyard Haven Library joins the community in mourning the loss of James H.K. "Jim" Norton, who passed away on October 31st at age 93. In addition to presenting many public programs at the library, Jim served on our Board of Trustees from 2000 to 2022, and on the Library Building Design and Construction Committee from 2017 to 2024. We are grateful to have had the opportunity to celebrate his literary accomplishments at an event held in his honor in July 2019, and share a poem that Jim read at that event.

A Ballad of Martha Gosnold
 
By James H. K. “Jim” Norton, 1931-2024
 
Bartholomew in 1602 did sail across the sea                              
To find a land, the goodliest land he ever did hope to see           
To name it for his tender child, and claim it for his queen,
And to fill the bowls of England with the sweetest nectar seen
 
The Concord was the sturdy ship that brought him safe and sound
The crew with him the more rejoiced on sight of what they’d found,
A beauteous island they did see, a joy to all who roam
A place of rest and plenty to be his daughter’s home.
 
    Though not yet eight, she could not wait
    To see her Vineyard land;     
    ’Twas only the wave that was her grave
    Did wash upon its sand.
 
To found an English settlement, the first one in this land,
He went across to Cuttyhunk to shield his tiny band.
A tiny plot in midst of lake, a natural fortress found,          
He built a fort to keep his stores, and gazed across the Sound.       
 
Sad story there is now to tell, how stores by fraud did go
And he a daughter slipped away, and why they did not know
His hopes he saw dissolve, his dream in Fate’s cruel hand did flee;
His grave unmarked in Jamestown’s marsh, his daughter lost at sea.
 
    Though not yet eight, she could not wait
    To see her Vineyard land;
    ‘Twas only the wave that was her grave
    Did wash upon its sand.        
 
But, ah, the land is here to tell what beauties they did see,
Of lakes that were both clear and fresh and meadows wide and free,
Of hedges made of stately groves; these delicacies still stand: *
Memorial of a daughter loved, a dream of her Vineyard land.
 
    Though not yet eight, she could not wait
    To see her Vineyard land;
    ‘Twas only the wave that was her grave
    Did wash upon its sand.

*  words of John Brereton, Gosnold’s scribe, to describe the Island in 1602