{"id":506,"date":"2021-03-25T20:16:33","date_gmt":"2021-03-25T20:16:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-empire-amliterature\/?post_type=chapter&p=506"},"modified":"2021-07-12T16:10:27","modified_gmt":"2021-07-12T16:10:27","slug":"frances-ellen-watkins-harper-poems","status":"publish","type":"chapter","link":"https:\/\/courses.lumenlearning.com\/suny-empire-amliterature\/chapter\/frances-ellen-watkins-harper-poems\/","title":{"raw":"Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Poems","rendered":"Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, Poems"},"content":{"raw":"

Introduction: Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911)<\/h2>\r\n\"Frances\r\n\r\nFrances Ellen Watkins Harper was born free to free parents in the slaveholding state of Maryland. Her parents died when Harper was still young. Subsequently, she was brought up by her Uncle William J. Watkins, a minister, educator, and founder of a school for free blacks. In 1850, she became the first female teacher at the Union Seminary in Ohio. She left teaching to devote herself to anti-slavery activism. She lectured for anti-slavery organizations in northern states and southeastern Canada. With William Still (1821\u20131902), she assisted fugitive slaves escape to freedom in the north through the network of people comprising the Underground Railroad. And she published poetry, first in antislavery newspapers, then in a collection entitled Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects (1854). William Lloyd Garrison wrote its preface, endorsing her poetry, and the book sold so well that Harper published an enlarged and revised edition in 1857.\r\n\r\nShe wrote consistently about the black experience in slavery, black resistance to slavery, education, women\u2019s rights, and the dangers of intemperance. Her poetry is marked by its emotional intensity, lyricism, and Biblical allusions and language. It made a strong appeal to readers and was strongly appealing to them. She also wrote short stories, essays, and four novels. In The Anglo-African Magazine, she published \u201cThe Two Offers\u201d (1859), a work that many consider to be the first short story published by an African American. In 1872, she published Sketches of Southern Life, in which she introduced the elderly Aunt Chloe, a free slave strong on reading and morality, particularly Christian morality.\r\n\r\nIn 1860, she married Fenton Harper. He died four years later, leaving Harper to care for his three children and their child Mary. Harper continued to publish highly successful books of poetry and worked as a paid lecturer, traveling not only in the North but also in the South. She worked with important social reformers for equal rights for blacks and for women, including Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells (1862\u20131931), and Susan B. Anthony (1820\u20131906). She joined white-majority organizations such as The Women\u2019s Christian Temperance Union, the American Woman Suffrage Association, and the National Council for Women, to give their causes her support while reminding these groups to support blacks.\r\n\r\nHer last novel, Iola Leroy, or Shadows Uplifted (1892), tells of a mulatto woman who reunites her family after the Civil War, refuses to pass for white, and remains true to herself and her own goals even within marriage. It speaks of a mutually-supportive black community that communicates amongst itself in messages of which and to which whites remain unaware. With Harriet Tubman (d. 1913), Mary Church Terrell (1863\u20131954), and Wells, Harper helped found the National Association for Colored Women in 1896.\r\n

Selected Poems<\/h2>\r\n

The Slave Mother (1854)<\/h3>\r\n\"cover\r\n\r\nHeard you that shriek? It rose\r\nSo wildly on the air,\r\nIt seemed as if a burden'd heart\r\nWas breaking in despair.\r\n\r\nSaw you those hands so sadly clasped\u2014\r\nThe bowed and feeble heart\u2014\r\nThe shuddering of that fragile form\u2014\r\nThat look of grief and dread?\r\n\r\nSaw you the sad, imploring eye?\r\nIts every glance was pain,\r\nAs if a storm of agony\r\nWere sweeping through the brain.\r\n\r\nShe is a mother pale with fear,\r\nHer boy clings to her side,\r\nAnd in her kirtle vainly tries\r\nHis trembling form to hide.\r\n\r\n\"page He is not hers, although she bore\r\nFor him a mother's pain;\r\nHe is not hers, although her blood\r\nIs coursing through his veins!\r\n\r\nHe is not hers, for cruel hands\r\nMay rudely tear apart\r\nThe only wreath of household love\r\nThat binds her breaking heart.\r\n\r\nHis love has been a joyous light\r\nThat o'er her pathway smiled,\r\nA fountain gushing ever new,\r\nAmid life's desert wild.\r\n\r\nHis lightest word has been a tone\r\nOf music round her heart,\r\nTheir lives a streamlet blent in one\u2014\r\nOh, Father! must they part?\r\n\r\nThey tear him from her circling arms,\r\nHer last and fond embrace.\r\nOh! never more may her sad eyes\r\nGaze on his mournful face.\r\n\r\nNo marvel, then, these bitter shrieks\r\nDisturb the listening air:\r\nShe is a mother, and her heart\r\nIs breaking in despair.\r\n

Learning to Read (1854)<\/h3>\r\n

Very soon the Yankee teachers\r\nCame down and set up school;\r\nBut, oh! how the Rebs did hate it,\u2014\r\nIt was agin\u2019 their rule.<\/p>\r\n

Our masters always tried to hide\r\nBook learning from our eyes;\r\nKnowledge didn\u2019t agree with slavery\u2014\r\n\u2018Twould make us all too wise.<\/p>\r\n

But some of us would try to steal\r\nA little from the book,\r\nAnd put the words together,\r\nAnd learn by hook or crook.<\/p>\r\n

I remember Uncle Caldwell,\r\nWho took pot-liquor fat\r\nAnd greased the pages of his book,\r\nAnd hid it in his hat.<\/p>\r\n

And had his master ever seen\r\nThe leaves upon his head,\r\nHe\u2019d have thought them greasy papers,\r\nBut nothing to be read.<\/p>\r\n

And there was Mr. Turner\u2019s Ben,\r\nWho heard the children spell,\r\nAnd picked the words right up by heart,\r\nAnd learned to read \u2018em well.<\/p>\r\n

Well, the Northern folks kept sending\r\nThe Yankee teachers down;\r\nAnd they stood right up and helped us,\r\nThough Rebs did sneer and frown.<\/p>\r\n

And, I longed to read my Bible,\r\nFor precious words it said;\r\nBut when I begun to learn it,\r\nFolks just shook their heads,<\/p>\r\n

And said there is no use trying,\r\nOh! Chloe, you\u2019re too late;\r\nBut as I was rising sixty,\r\nI had no time to wait.<\/p>\r\n

So I got a pair of glasses,\r\nAnd straight to work I went,\r\nAnd never stopped till I could read\r\nThe hymns and Testament.<\/p>\r\n

Then I got a little cabin\u2014\r\nA place to call my own\u2014\r\nAnd I felt as independent\r\nAs the queen upon her throne.<\/p>\r\nPoetry is meant to be heard - you may enjoy the following readings of these two poems.\r\n\r\n[embed]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=AdNDuqicEis[\/embed]\r\n\r\n[embed]https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=adKddL4_TWg[\/embed]\r\n

\r\n

questions to consider<\/h3>\r\n
    \r\n \t
  • In \u201cLearning to Read,\u201d how effective and authentic is the voice\/persona of Aunt Chloe? Why does Harper use this persona?<\/li>\r\n \t
  • What aspects of the positive effects of education for blacks does \u201cLearning To Read\u201d disclose? Why? How do these aspects compare to Douglass\u2019s and Jacobs' views on education? Why?<\/li>\r\n \t
  • In \u201cSlave Mother,\u201d what\u2019s the effect of Harper\u2019s use of repetiiton? What\u2019s do you think is the effect of the last line identifying the suffering woman as a mother, without adding the adjective \u201cblack\u201d or \u201cslave?\u201d Why?<\/li>\r\n<\/ul>\r\n<\/div>","rendered":"

    Introduction: Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825-1911)<\/h2>\n

    \"Frances<\/p>\n

    Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was born free to free parents in the slaveholding state of Maryland. Her parents died when Harper was still young. Subsequently, she was brought up by her Uncle William J. Watkins, a minister, educator, and founder of a school for free blacks. In 1850, she became the first female teacher at the Union Seminary in Ohio. She left teaching to devote herself to anti-slavery activism. She lectured for anti-slavery organizations in northern states and southeastern Canada. With William Still (1821\u20131902), she assisted fugitive slaves escape to freedom in the north through the network of people comprising the Underground Railroad. And she published poetry, first in antislavery newspapers, then in a collection entitled Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects (1854). William Lloyd Garrison wrote its preface, endorsing her poetry, and the book sold so well that Harper published an enlarged and revised edition in 1857.<\/p>\n

    She wrote consistently about the black experience in slavery, black resistance to slavery, education, women\u2019s rights, and the dangers of intemperance. Her poetry is marked by its emotional intensity, lyricism, and Biblical allusions and language. It made a strong appeal to readers and was strongly appealing to them. She also wrote short stories, essays, and four novels. In The Anglo-African Magazine, she published \u201cThe Two Offers\u201d (1859), a work that many consider to be the first short story published by an African American. In 1872, she published Sketches of Southern Life, in which she introduced the elderly Aunt Chloe, a free slave strong on reading and morality, particularly Christian morality.<\/p>\n

    In 1860, she married Fenton Harper. He died four years later, leaving Harper to care for his three children and their child Mary. Harper continued to publish highly successful books of poetry and worked as a paid lecturer, traveling not only in the North but also in the South. She worked with important social reformers for equal rights for blacks and for women, including Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells (1862\u20131931), and Susan B. Anthony (1820\u20131906). She joined white-majority organizations such as The Women\u2019s Christian Temperance Union, the American Woman Suffrage Association, and the National Council for Women, to give their causes her support while reminding these groups to support blacks.<\/p>\n

    Her last novel, Iola Leroy, or Shadows Uplifted (1892), tells of a mulatto woman who reunites her family after the Civil War, refuses to pass for white, and remains true to herself and her own goals even within marriage. It speaks of a mutually-supportive black community that communicates amongst itself in messages of which and to which whites remain unaware. With Harriet Tubman (d. 1913), Mary Church Terrell (1863\u20131954), and Wells, Harper helped found the National Association for Colored Women in 1896.<\/p>\n

    Selected Poems<\/h2>\n

    The Slave Mother (1854)<\/h3>\n

    \"cover<\/p>\n

    Heard you that shriek? It rose
    \nSo wildly on the air,
    \nIt seemed as if a burden’d heart
    \nWas breaking in despair.<\/p>\n

    Saw you those hands so sadly clasped\u2014
    \nThe bowed and feeble heart\u2014
    \nThe shuddering of that fragile form\u2014
    \nThat look of grief and dread?<\/p>\n

    Saw you the sad, imploring eye?
    \nIts every glance was pain,
    \nAs if a storm of agony
    \nWere sweeping through the brain.<\/p>\n

    She is a mother pale with fear,
    \nHer boy clings to her side,
    \nAnd in her kirtle vainly tries
    \nHis trembling form to hide.<\/p>\n

    \"page He is not hers, although she bore
    \nFor him a mother’s pain;
    \nHe is not hers, although her blood
    \nIs coursing through his veins!<\/p>\n

    He is not hers, for cruel hands
    \nMay rudely tear apart
    \nThe only wreath of household love
    \nThat binds her breaking heart.<\/p>\n

    His love has been a joyous light
    \nThat o’er her pathway smiled,
    \nA fountain gushing ever new,
    \nAmid life’s desert wild.<\/p>\n

    His lightest word has been a tone
    \nOf music round her heart,
    \nTheir lives a streamlet blent in one\u2014
    \nOh, Father! must they part?<\/p>\n

    They tear him from her circling arms,
    \nHer last and fond embrace.
    \nOh! never more may her sad eyes
    \nGaze on his mournful face.<\/p>\n

    No marvel, then, these bitter shrieks
    \nDisturb the listening air:
    \nShe is a mother, and her heart
    \nIs breaking in despair.<\/p>\n

    Learning to Read (1854)<\/h3>\n

    Very soon the Yankee teachers
    \nCame down and set up school;
    \nBut, oh! how the Rebs did hate it,\u2014
    \nIt was agin\u2019 their rule.<\/p>\n

    Our masters always tried to hide
    \nBook learning from our eyes;
    \nKnowledge didn\u2019t agree with slavery\u2014
    \n\u2018Twould make us all too wise.<\/p>\n

    But some of us would try to steal
    \nA little from the book,
    \nAnd put the words together,
    \nAnd learn by hook or crook.<\/p>\n

    I remember Uncle Caldwell,
    \nWho took pot-liquor fat
    \nAnd greased the pages of his book,
    \nAnd hid it in his hat.<\/p>\n

    And had his master ever seen
    \nThe leaves upon his head,
    \nHe\u2019d have thought them greasy papers,
    \nBut nothing to be read.<\/p>\n

    And there was Mr. Turner\u2019s Ben,
    \nWho heard the children spell,
    \nAnd picked the words right up by heart,
    \nAnd learned to read \u2018em well.<\/p>\n

    Well, the Northern folks kept sending
    \nThe Yankee teachers down;
    \nAnd they stood right up and helped us,
    \nThough Rebs did sneer and frown.<\/p>\n

    And, I longed to read my Bible,
    \nFor precious words it said;
    \nBut when I begun to learn it,
    \nFolks just shook their heads,<\/p>\n

    And said there is no use trying,
    \nOh! Chloe, you\u2019re too late;
    \nBut as I was rising sixty,
    \nI had no time to wait.<\/p>\n

    So I got a pair of glasses,
    \nAnd straight to work I went,
    \nAnd never stopped till I could read
    \nThe hymns and Testament.<\/p>\n

    Then I got a little cabin\u2014
    \nA place to call my own\u2014
    \nAnd I felt as independent
    \nAs the queen upon her throne.<\/p>\n

    Poetry is meant to be heard – you may enjoy the following readings of these two poems.<\/p>\n