by Marshall Jamison
I got lost on the Boston Post Road
It’s a lonely coast road –
But it led me home.
My old friend, Sally Benson wrote that fragment of verse, and as a New Englander born, I have held it in my memory for over forty years. Brilliant, star crossed, tragic, but oddly magnificent, she hurled her challenge to the world:
If you can, come on and knock me down
and it could and did!
As one of her last courageous and rewarding efforts she adapted an F. Scott Fitzgerald story entitled “Josephine” for Broadway, retitled there, “The Young and Beautiful.” When reviewed by the distinguished Herald Tribune critic Walter Kerr, he described it “a perfect production.”
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Now overcoming my fear and trembling, which if you had known Sally you’d understand, I’m presuming to preface those three remembered New England lines with three of my own.
Tall pines lined the empty highway that stretches along
the rock bound shore.
My little grey mare whinnied shrilly when she heard
the rough surf roar.
As the evening dusk quickly darkened into moonlit night
I got lost on the Boston Post Road
And it’s a lonely coast road
But it led me home.
