Ruth Branning Molloy wrote poetry throughout her long life. In 2000, at the age of ninety, she published a collection of her poems, which she titled Finally. A selection of nine of these poems amply illustrates Ruth Molloy’s progression from a child to an adult. The first few show just how advanced in mind and creative she was as a young child; she shares bits of her private family life. The later poems are particularly important to the West Philadelphia Community History Project because they tell a unique story about West Philadelphia. Ruth’s perspective on West Philadelphia was special because she lived there an extended period of time and was such an active member of the community. Ruth Molloy’s poems tell their readers of a changing West Philadelphia, ethnically, racially, religiously, and socially. Yet, it was a place that she held very near and dear to her own heart.
In reading Ruth Molloy’s poetry, we get to know a woman who came from a somewhat painful and tumultuous childhood. She always had a rebellious and vibrant personality, which she used to propel herself to the top of her class at the University of Pennsylvania. She was a very active and prominent member of the university community, and after college continued to leave her mark on West Philadelphia. Throughout the time she spent in West Philadelphia, Ruth Molloy was known to collect trinkets and keepsakes that others found to be odd. In fact, neighbors who visited her house described it as a wonderland of do-dads and artifacts. Even though it may have seemed quirky to those who knew her, most great people stand apart from the crowd. Ruth was clearly no exception. She saw the world through a unique pair of lenses; and it is fortunate that she left her poetry behind so that she could share her unique view with generations to come.
Ruth Molloy’s perspective on West Philadelphia is particularly important to include in the history of West Philadelphia because her viewpoints encompass many of the modern-day aspects of the area: natural beauty, crime, immigration, white flight, and the encroachment of the University of Pennsylvania upon the community. Sharing her personal collection of writings gives the West Philadelphia community the opportunity to appreciate the talent and insight that she possessed, far beyond what can be revealed through a biography. Poetry is a beautiful art that gives those blessed with the gift of writing the ability to take the emotions that everyone experiences and create something others can appreciate and identify with. The poetry that Ruth Molloy left behind will grant future West Philadelphians the opportunity to get to know a phenomenal woman who lived in West Philadelphia, and loved it dearly.
Selection compiled by Tiffany Nichols, University of Pennsylvania Class of 2009
Picture Out of Memory
This poem is about Ruth Molloy when she was "very young / But old enough to read" and found a picture of herself and her siblings. Her mother had written on the back that Ruth was the child who was a troublemaker and a handful: "The girl on the left side is self-willed and wild." Although it made her sad at first, it appears that she learned to love her rebellious nature and her free spirit: "Wasn’t she a trouble-maker / Obstinate and free / Obstreperous and impudent / And me, me, me?" Yet her mother always favored her brother, who Ruth calls her mother’s "fair sweet boy."
The Call
This poem is particularly impressive because Ruth Molloy wrote it at the age of eight. From her perspective as an eight-year-old, she wrote about nature calling her to run away and be one with it. She calls out to whomever will listen, "Who will come away with me?" She is in awe of nature and she wants to run away and explore it. Although the vocabulary and style are quite impressive for a young child, there is still a magical element that reminds the reader that Ruth is so young. She wrote: "As I come into the stronghold of the goddess of the sea; And the little mermaid beaches / Where the wee mermaidens play; Little dwarfs and pixies come / And they sing and they dance / To the beating of a drum." Ruth was exploring her whimsical fantasies through this eloquently written poem.
A Woodland Plaint
Ruth Molloy wrote this poem at the age of ten. She speaks of a girl who fell in love with a woodland god and kissed him. The girl who falls love with nature and breaks Ruth’s heart in her poem: "She kissed the heart of many a flower / But she broke the heart of me." Ruth’s heart is broken because the girl is only a fantasy and runs away with nature, leaving her alone with the reality in which she lives: "But she ran away with a woodland god / And left me here alone." This perspective is not surprising in that children often find solace in their fairytales.
From My Porch, June Fifth 1966
Fast forward more than forty years and the reader finds Ruth Molloy describing two people passing her home. She assumes they are Nigerian and she says that they are speaking a language that she identifies as Nigerian. The two people she observed were probably students, but still, Ruth probably had no way to know exactly what African nationality and culture these people represented.
Spring on the West Bank
In this poem Ruth Molloy admired the beauty of the West Bank of the Schuylkill River. She sees the grassy bank along West River Drive as a refuge from the unrelenting cacophony that is the city of Philadelphia. The picture is of her two daughters sitting in the grass by the Schuylkill: "And there are city children with pleased faces, who spend spring Sundays in these quiet places!"
Once, In Our Wilderness, and Now
Here Ruth Molloy recounted what Philadelphia probably once looked like and the kind of wildlife that once existed before it became a densely populated city. Her poem was inspired by several lines from Watson’s Annals, a famous, multi-volume history of Philadelphia written in the mid-19th century. Ruth Molloy talked about how much of the wildlife was killed in order to serve as food for the settlers: "The beasts and birds which roamed our ‘woodsy wastes’ / Were shot and stewed to suit man’s varied tastes…" She speaks about an imagined time, long ago, when humans and the animals of Pennsylvania peacefully coexisted: "So urban was the scene, so tame the times / Bears came from Jersey to commit their crimes!" Yet, these times were long ago, and today all that is left as a reminder of the animals that used to live side by side in their natural habitat with humans are the "silly pigeon[s]," squirrels, cats, dogs, raccoons, and rats. The poem is a fantastical imagining of what might have been in the past, as far as the creatures that inhabited modern-day Philadelphia.
Life and Death in University City
Ruth Molloy struggled to explain a murder that happened just east of where her old house was, across Locust Street from the house of the University chaplain. She recounted how she came home from a vacation and her quiet peaceful street was shaken to its core by murder. She speaks of the coed who was killed and how the Philadelphia newspapers reported it. The paper described the killing as very violent, yet Ruth Molloy seemed almost unaffected and disinterested: "And murder…/ Accompanied by screaming, it said in the papers / We decided to have dinner out. Italian would be good / But first we’d sit on the porch a while." She is highlighting the distance that one can have from a situation when one is not personally affected.
Encounter
In this poem Ruth Molloy wrote a fictitious account of her adult self running into her childhood self on Walnut Street in West Philadelphia and having a conversation. It is interesting because the poem speaks to how priorities and perspectives change as one ages from a child to an adult. The young Ruth asks the grown Ruth, "If X plus Y is zero, is X the same as Y?" and the older Ruth does not have time to be concerned with such useless grade school math problems. She tells young Ruth, "You’d be surprised my dear…at just how much it costs to live / And just how many time a day a baby likes to cry."
Exhibit by University of Pennsylvania students and faculty, 2009