Ruth Branning Molloy: The Poet, West Philadelphia Community History Center

Faculty and Students at the University of Pennsylvania inaugurated this heritage site in the spring of 2008.
This virtual history center will be an ever-revised and expanded resource by and for members of the
West Philadelphia community, and especially for teachers and their students.

Ruth Branning Molloy (1910-2002): The Poet

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.

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.”

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.

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.

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. It might be inferred from her assumption that in the 1960s West Philadelphia had a large population of African people specifically from Nigeria. It should also be noted, however, that in 1966 Ruth Molloy lived at 3822 Locust Street, just one block west of the campus of the University of Pennsylvania. 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. Her guess is revealed as just that, because in Nigeria many languages are spoken and there is no national language known as Nigerian.

In the same poem, Ruth also spoke of a young couple walking down the street, pushing a baby stroller and speaking an unrecognizable language. She wonders if they are not married, as that is the way of the new times and she admits this time that she cannot identify the language they are speaking. What is evident from the first verse of this poem is that in 1966 the face of West Philadelphia was changing racially, ethnically and culturally. It also seems clear that Ruth Molloy had yet to adjust and recognize the new peoples who lived in West Philadelphia.

In the revealing poem, Ruth also writes that she lived in “Philadelphia’s University Area” and does not want to be more specific because she does not want to be “crowded.” Perhaps this is a reflection of how she feels about the expansion and encroachment of Penn upon her neighborhood. Interestingly, the poem also describes the distant cries of a cat, as well as the police cruisers that pass her by. She also mentions that some people do not even dress up for Sunday anymore and that the laundryman is open all of the time as the church used to be. Metaphorically, the police cars are present because of the increase in crime. People no longer attend church and are committing sin, which is why they must always wash their clothing and sheets. The cat’s cry may show that even nature is saddened by the state of West Philadelphia.

Ruth Molloy then describes the presence of Japanese and “Indians” (South Asians) in the neighborhood. She seems to be interested in their cultures and how they are changing the face of her neighborhood. She regretfully mentions that she is not skilled in languages, and therefore feels a limited ability to experience different cultures. She mentions that she hears on the radio that astronauts have discovered islands off the coast of California, to signify that as her neighborhood is changing and progressing, so is the world. The last verse of her poem indicates that she feels disconnected from the new immigrant population, just as much as they feel disconnected from their new surroundings. She demonstrated her feeling by pointing out that the Indian people she was observing were “foreign” to Sunday morning, a Christian holy time.

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!”

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.

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. Her mind is consumed with thoughts of wine and manicotti, and Masterpiece Theater, but the murdered girl does not seem to be an issue at all. When the father of the murdered girl cries out in front of the house where the crime took place for his lost daughter, it was only then that Ruth Molloy asked herself why she had never noticed the Penn student before: “He cried out, ‘My daughter! Oh! My daughter!’ / We asked ourselves why we had never noticed her.” When asked by a reporter if the neighborhood had become unsafe and undesirable, she said no. But the poem followed her reply with these lines: “You get used to murder and so on, unless it’s your daughter.” Ruth recognizes that crime happens all the time and you are not really affected unless it’s your own family. Ruth may be commenting as well on the dynamics of her own family life.

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.” Making a living and caring for children are all that is on the mind of grown Ruth. The two Ruths continue back and forth in a conversation that consists of each Ruth asking questions from her own life perspective. In her final lines Ruth Molloy reconciles the adult and the child within herself: “I spoke to her in anger, but my troubled eyes were a giveaway / Walking west on Walnut on that bright spring day / I prayed, ‘Don’t let her guess my name, and tell her X is Y!’” Although adult Ruth Molloy was burdened with all the cares and responsibilities of being grown up, she still accepted that it is worthwhile for young Ruth Molloy to be concerned with the pursuit of knowledge, even if that knowledge will not directly pertain to her survival as an adult.

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.

[Prepared by Tiffany Nichols, University of Pennsylvania. Class of 2009]

	Faculty and Students at the University of Pennsylvania inaugurated this heritage site in the spring of 2008. This virtual history center will be an ever-revised and expanded resource by and for members of the West Philadelphia community, and especially for teachers and their students.

RUTH BRANNING MOLLOY: Her Life The Poet Collector	Ruth Branning Molloy (1910-2002): The Poet 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. “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. It might be inferred from her assumption that in the 1960s West Philadelphia had a large population of African people specifically from Nigeria. It should also be noted, however, that in 1966 Ruth Molloy lived at 3822 Locust Street, just one block west of the campus of the University of Pennsylvania. 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. Her guess is revealed as just that, because in Nigeria many languages are spoken and there is no national language known as Nigerian. In the same poem, Ruth also spoke of a young couple walking down the street, pushing a baby stroller and speaking an unrecognizable language. She wonders if they are not married, as that is the way of the new times and she admits this time that she cannot identify the language they are speaking. What is evident from the first verse of this poem is that in 1966 the face of West Philadelphia was changing racially, ethnically and culturally. It also seems clear that Ruth Molloy had yet to adjust and recognize the new peoples who lived in West Philadelphia. In the revealing poem, Ruth also writes that she lived in “Philadelphia’s University Area” and does not want to be more specific because she does not want to be “crowded.” Perhaps this is a reflection of how she feels about the expansion and encroachment of Penn upon her neighborhood. Interestingly, the poem also describes the distant cries of a cat, as well as the police cruisers that pass her by. She also mentions that some people do not even dress up for Sunday anymore and that the laundryman is open all of the time as the church used to be. Metaphorically, the police cars are present because of the increase in crime. People no longer attend church and are committing sin, which is why they must always wash their clothing and sheets. The cat’s cry may show that even nature is saddened by the state of West Philadelphia. Ruth Molloy then describes the presence of Japanese and “Indians” (South Asians) in the neighborhood. She seems to be interested in their cultures and how they are changing the face of her neighborhood. She regretfully mentions that she is not skilled in languages, and therefore feels a limited ability to experience different cultures. She mentions that she hears on the radio that astronauts have discovered islands off the coast of California, to signify that as her neighborhood is changing and progressing, so is the world. The last verse of her poem indicates that she feels disconnected from the new immigrant population, just as much as they feel disconnected from their new surroundings. She demonstrated her feeling by pointing out that the Indian people she was observing were “foreign” to Sunday morning, a Christian holy time. “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. Her mind is consumed with thoughts of wine and manicotti, and Masterpiece Theater, but the murdered girl does not seem to be an issue at all. When the father of the murdered girl cries out in front of the house where the crime took place for his lost daughter, it was only then that Ruth Molloy asked herself why she had never noticed the Penn student before: “He cried out, ‘My daughter! Oh! My daughter!’ / We asked ourselves why we had never noticed her.” When asked by a reporter if the neighborhood had become unsafe and undesirable, she said no. But the poem followed her reply with these lines: “You get used to murder and so on, unless it’s your daughter.” Ruth recognizes that crime happens all the time and you are not really affected unless it’s your own family. Ruth may be commenting as well on the dynamics of her own family life. “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.” Making a living and caring for children are all that is on the mind of grown Ruth. The two Ruths continue back and forth in a conversation that consists of each Ruth asking questions from her own life perspective. In her final lines Ruth Molloy reconciles the adult and the child within herself: “I spoke to her in anger, but my troubled eyes were a giveaway / Walking west on Walnut on that bright spring day / I prayed, ‘Don’t let her guess my name, and tell her X is Y!’” Although adult Ruth Molloy was burdened with all the cares and responsibilities of being grown up, she still accepted that it is worthwhile for young Ruth Molloy to be concerned with the pursuit of knowledge, even if that knowledge will not directly pertain to her survival as an adult. 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. [Prepared by Tiffany Nichols, University of Pennsylvania. Class of 2009]
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