The Rustic Poetry of Louisa Walker
The Great Smoky Mountain Association has a great deal of information on the Walker Sisters, and they kindly allowed us to reprint a poem from Louisa Walker (spelling is hers):
There’s an old weather bettion house
That stands near a wood
With an orchard near by it
For almost one hundred years it has stoodIt was my home in infency
It sheltered me in youth
When I tell you I love it
I tell you the truthFor years it has sheltered
By day and night
From the summer’s sun heat
And the cold winter blightBut now the park commisioner
Comes all dressed up so gay
Saying this old house of yours
We must now take awayThey coax they wheedle
They fret they bark
Saying we have to have this place
For a National ParkFor us poor mountain people
They don’t have a care
But must a home for
The wolf the lion and the bearBut many of us have a tltle
That is sure and will hold
To the City of Peace
Where the streets are pure goldThere no lion in its fury
Those pathes ever trod
It is the home of the soul
In the presence of GodWhen we reach the portles
of glory so fair
The Wolf cannot enter
Neither the lion or bearAnd no park Commissioner
Will ever dar
To desturbe or molest
Or take our home from us there-By Louisa Walker, with permission of Great Smoky Mountains Association