Love or Fame; and Other Poems

** "Love or Fame; and Other Poems" by Fannie Isabelle Sherrick is a gathering of poems from the late 1800s where big human topics are talked about, especially the feelings we have about love, wanting to be important, and what it was like to be a woman at that time; it's like a colorful blanket made of memories, wishes, and finding yourself. The book starts with a poem called "Girlhood" that introduces us to Hilda, a young woman on the edge of becoming an adult, who shows the purity of being young but also feeling the pressure of wanting to achieve things. She thinks about how beautiful the ocean is and how happy nature makes her, but she also starts to worry about choosing between her peaceful life and the exciting, but maybe difficult, path to becoming famous; the poem shows her trying to decide between love and wanting to be known, which is a problem she's going to face throughout the rest of the collection. **