Grateful thanks to Jim Marshall of the Harlech Old Library in Wales who sent me a copy of the cover of one of Mary's collections. Additional information kindly supplied by Jose Holford @JosieHolford via Twitter
“Songs In The Night” by Mary Lloyd McConnel published in 1920 by William Walker & Sons Ltd. - 72 pages of poems.
“Songs of Aftermath” by Mary LLoyd McConnel published by William Walker and Sons Ltd., January 1927 - see cover left kindly sent by Jim Maxwell.
Mary Lloyd McConnel also seems to have written for the "The Christian Science Monitor", as the following poem was published by them. She is not listed in Catherine W. Reilly's "English Poetry of the First World War: A Bibliography" (St. Martin's Press, New York, 1978). If anyone can help please get in touch. The Christian Science Monitor was a daily newspaper founded in 1908 by Mary Baker Eddy, who founded the Church of Christ Scientist.
"There is no death!" a poem by Mary Lloyd McConnel
O Death! At home they call it death —
And sit and weep because they think
Their sons beloved are slain,
And they are left alone
To mourn their dead.
While we, across the trenches' top,
Have leaped to Life, and find
We have but left behind
The rags and blood and dirt
Of grimy battle field, and —
A great host of us,
All eager, happy, and alive —
Are pressing onwards toward a goal
We dimly see of duty, beauty,
Love, and Life, which calls us on
To tasks more glorious than
We could achieve midst stress
And storm and reek of cannon smoke.
Hark! You can hear us calling
From each to each a greeting
As we meet, — comrades and erstwhile foe.
"Friend! Is this all to death?
Why should we ever fear
This passing through a shadow
Which but seems a moment's shock,
As though we had but bowed our heads
To pass beneath a narrow doorway
From some dugout small, and found
Ourselves a little blinded by the light
Which shines from Heaven's eternal day?
ou here! — You too! — And you!
How glad we are to find
Each other, and to prove
There is no death!"
By Mary Lloyd McConnel
[Originally published in The Christian Science Monitor]
Christian Science Sentinel, September 21, 1918
"Unfoldment" by Mary Lloyd McConnel
There was a small community of Christian Scientists meeting in a humble "upper chamber." None were rich in this world's goods, but all were eager that everything pertaining to the services should reflect beauty and harmony. Although no rule was made, a tacit understanding existed that little expenditure was to be incurred for flowers, as funds could be employed to better advantage in furthering the cause of library and distribution work. At the beginning of each season a list was made of the women attending the services, and each one was to be responsible for one Sunday's floral offering.
Through this channel came to one woman an unlooked for opportunity in the practical development of her own garden. She had relied upon the periodical visits of a gardener, and so long as things looked neat she had remained content to imagine herself too busy in other ways to spare time or attention for out of doors. However, as the weeks went by she began to wonder what her garden would produce by the time her name appeared upon the "flower list." In looking around she discovered greater possibilities than she had known to exist, and soon found that the more she cut and gave away the more profusely her flowers bloomed, and that in sharing her garden with friends and neighbors she was learning to enjoy it as she had never done before.
https://sentinel.christianscience.com/issues/1916/7/18-44/unfoldment
