First published in her 1921 collection “Nets to Catch the Wind,” Wylie’s sonnet cycle “Wild Peaches” dramatizes an elopement to an idyllic East: an event which has parallels in her own life. Notice her sumptuous nature descriptions and her final Puritanical twist in the fourth poem.

Carol has had a few early successes in reforming Gopher Prairie, but come winter her rewards began to stall. Lewis captures her sense of failure and loneliness in this restless passage.

Gopher Prairie, Minnesota: embodiment of small-town America. Newly-married Carol moves in, determined to campaign to change the town for the better, but she quickly runs into the petty-mindedness and lack of ambition. Through minute observation and setting-building, Lewis deftly dramatizes Carol’s struggle, both exterior and internal.

In 1920, future Nobel laureate Sinclair Lewis published his note-quite scathing, not-quite doting critique of American small-town life. “Main Street” was an early 20th-century bestseller and the novel responsible for puncturing the idealized image of American small town life.

Through his heroine Carol and her relationship with husband William Kennicott, Lewis presents a benighted hero who desires to make something grand of herself, but who is thwarted at every turn by the banality of her environment.

Although society has moved on since then, the novel still has something to say about American life.

Today we’re looking at Psalms 103 and 104. God’s authority and care for his creation are on display in both of our Pslams, though they take decidedly different approaches in giving glory. One interiorized, the other externalized. One gives thanks for his forgiveness and vindication; the other praises God for holding the world in check. Both offer praises.

For our last day this week with Edith Wharton, we’ll take a look at her delightful comedy” Xingu.”

Hopkins’s 1878 poem celebrates the Virgin Mary and the month of May. Ecstatic language and beautiful nature descriptions follow.

Edith Wharton spins a terrible moral quandary in our excerpt for today.