Category: 19th century
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Sympathy
“I know why the caged bird sings.” Paul Laurence Dunbar’s 1899 masterpiece is a searing exploration of freedom and confinement. Read the poem that inspired generations of writers.
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Violets
“Fresh and sweet, but you have come too late.” In this tender 1895 short story, Alice Dunbar-Nelson uses a simple bouquet of violets to tell a story of lost love, regret, and the memories that outlast us.
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Preface to “The Reason Why”
“We only ask a fair and impartial hearing.” In 1893, Ida B. Wells stood at the gates of the Chicago World’s Fair to protest the erasure of Black achievement. Read the powerful preface to her pamphlet “The Reason Why,” a masterclass in truth-telling and historical correction. – Ida B. Well
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“I Hear America Singing”
by Walt Whitman I hear America singing, the varied carols I hear,Those of mechanics, each one singing his as it should be blithe and strong,The carpenter singing his as he measures his plank or beam,The mason singing his as he makes ready for work, or leaves off work,The boatman singing what belongs to him in…
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“America”
by Walt Whitman (1819 – 1892) Centre of equal daughters, equal sons,All, all alike endear’d, grown, ungrown, young or old,Strong, ample, fair, enduring, capable, rich,Perennial with the Earth, with Freedom, Law and Love,A grand, sane, towering, seated Mother,Chair’d in the adamant of Time.
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“Paul Revere’s Ride”
by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow Listen, my children, and you shall hearOf the midnight ride of Paul Revere,On the eighteenth of April, in Seventy-Five:Hardly a man is now aliveWho remembers that famous day and year. He said to his friend, “If the British marchBy land or sea from the town to-night,Hang a lantern aloft in the…
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“A Nation’s Strength”
by William Ralph Emerson What makes a nation’s pillars highAnd its foundations strong?What makes it mighty to defyThe foes that round it throng? It is not gold. Its kingdoms grandGo down in battle shock;Its shafts are laid on sinking sand,Not on abiding rock. Is it the sword? Ask the red dustOf empires passed away;The blood…
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An Appeal to Women
“We are thy sisters, Oh, woman, woman in thy brightest hour Of conscious worth, of pride, of conscious power”
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“The Art of a Poet”
by George Moses Horton True nature first inspires the man,But he must after learn to scan,And mark well every rule;Gradual the climax then ascend,And prove the contrast in the end,Between the wit and fool. A fool tho’ blind, may write a verse,And seem from folly to emergeAnd ryme well every line;One lucky, void of light,…
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“America”
“When black and white fought side by side, Upon the well-contested field,— Turned back the fierce opposing tide, And made the proud invader yield—” from “America” by James Monroe Whitfield
Stanza & Story 