Poetry Codex

American

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

1825–1911

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825–1911) was born free in Baltimore and became one of the most widely read African American poets of the nineteenth century, as well as a lecturer, abolitionist and suffragist. Her verse, from the ballads of her early books to the dialect monologues of Aunt Chloe in Sketches of Southern Life (1891), took up slavery, emancipation, temperance, the rights of women and Christian faith.

The poems here come from Poems (1895), Sketches of Southern Life (1891) and Idylls of the Bible (1901), which includes the long dramatic poem Moses: A Story of the Nile, given one chapter to a poem.

Poems (70)

  1. My Mother's Kiss
  2. A Grain of Sand
  3. The Crocuses
  4. The Present Age
  5. Dedication Poem
  6. A Double Standard
  7. Our Hero
  8. The Dying Bondman
  9. "A Little Child Shall Lead Them"
  10. The Sparrow's Fall
  11. God Bless Our Native Land
  12. Dandelions
  13. The Building
  14. Home, Sweet Home
  15. The Pure in Heart Shall See God
  16. He "Had Not Where to Lay His Head"
  17. Go Work in My Vineyard
  18. Renewal of Strength
  19. Jamie's Puzzle
  20. Truth
  21. Death of the Old Sea King
  22. Save the Boys
  23. Nothing and Something
  24. Vashti
  25. Thank God for Little Children
  26. The Martyr of Alabama
  27. The Night of Death
  28. Mother's Treasures
  29. The Refiner's Gold
  30. A Story of the Rebellion
  31. Burial of Sarah
  32. Going East
  33. The Hermit's Sacrifice
  34. Songs for the People
  35. Let the Light Enter
  36. An Appeal to My Countrywomen
  37. Then and Now
  38. Maceo
  39. "Fishers of Men"
  40. The Lost Bells
  41. Do Not Cheer, Men Are Dying
  42. The Burdens of All
  43. Aunt Chloe
  44. The Deliverance
  45. Aunt Chloe’s Politics
  46. Learning to Read
  47. Church Building
  48. The Reunion
  49. “I Thirst”
  50. The Dying Queen
  51. The Jewish Grandfather’s Story
  52. Out in the Cold
  53. Wanderer’s Return
  54. Signing the Pledge
  55. Moses: A Story of the Nile, I. The Parting
  56. Moses: A Story of the Nile, II
  57. Moses: A Story of the Nile, III. Flight Into Midian
  58. Moses: A Story of the Nile, IV
  59. Moses: A Story of the Nile, V
  60. Moses: A Story of the Nile, VI
  61. Moses: A Story of the Nile, VII
  62. Moses: A Story of the Nile, VIII
  63. Moses: A Story of the Nile, IX. The Death of Moses
  64. The Ragged Stocking
  65. The Fatal Pledge
  66. Christ’s Entry Into Jerusalem
  67. The Resurrection of Jesus
  68. Simon’s Countrymen
  69. Deliverance
  70. Simon’s Feast

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