Richard Henry Dana, born on 15 November 1787 in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and dead there on 2 February 1879, belonged to the first generation of American writers who attempted to make literature in the young republic something more than a colonial echo of English models. He was a poet, critic, editor, lawyer, lecturer, and influential member of Boston’s literary world. Yet he has long occupied an unstable place in li…
“There was certainly some mistake about the time of my birth—I'm an impersonated Anachronism.”
Neighbourhood:
American Poets, Love Poets, Nature Poets, Romantic Poets, Victorian Poets
Emotional landscape: Sorrow, Despair, Longing
In the rich tapestry of nineteenth-century American literature and reform, few figures shine as brightly—or with as enduring a flame—as Frances Ellen Watkins Harper. Born into freedom yet forged in the fires of racial injustice, she emerged as a poet of profound moral vision, a tireless abolitionist lecturer, a pioneering novelist, and a champion of women’s rights, temperance, and Black uplift. Her life spanned the a…
“The moment the crown of motherhood falls on the brow of a young wife, God gives her a new interest in the welfare of the home and the good of society.”
Neighbourhood:
African American Poets, American Poets, Political Poets, Social Justice Poets, Women Poets
Emotional landscape: Sorrow, Despair, Spirituality
