Who wrote the poem "Learning to Read" ?

Question

This author should be african-american. I'm not sure who is the author of the poem, so I need your help. Please don't answer if your not exactly sure =|

Answer 1

Frances Harper


Frances E.W. Harper (1825-1911) was an African-American abolitionist who used her writings, which included essays, fiction, and poems, to fight slavery. She was born in Baltimore, Maryland to free parents, and was educated at the William Watkins academy for free colored children, which her uncle founded. After giving up a teaching career, she became a professional lecturer for various abolitionist organizations. In her speeches, she would intersperse her fiction and poetry to create powerful rhetorical effects. Her poems “Learning to Read” and “The Slave Auction” demonstrate her political courage and perseverance in the cause of ending slavery.


LEARNING TO READ by Frances E. W. Harper.
Very soon the Yankee teachers
Came down and set up school;
But oh! How the Rebs did hate it,-
It was agin’ their rule.

Our masters always tried to hide
Book learning from our eyes;
Knowledge didn’t agree with slavery-
Twould make us all to wise.

But some of us would try to steal
A little from the book,
And put the words together
And learn by hook or crook.

I remember Uncle Caldwell,
Who took pot-liquor fat
And greased the pages of his book,
And hid it in his hat.



And had his master ever seen
The leaves upon his head,
He’d have thought them greasy papers,
But nothing to be read.

And there was Mr. Turner’s Ben,
Who heard the children spell,
And picked the words right up by heart,
And learned to read ‘em well.

Well, the Northern folks kept sending
The Yankee teachers down;
And they stood right up and helped us,
Though Rebs did sneer and frown.

And I longed to read my Bible,
For precious words it said;
But when I began to learn it,
Folks just shook their heads,

And said there is no use trying,
Oh! Chloe you’re too late;
But as I was rising sixty,
I had no time to wait.



So I got a pair of glasses,
And straight to work I went,
And never stopped till I could read
The hymms and Testament.

Then I got a little cabin-
A place to call my own-
And I felt as independent
As the queen upon her throne...

Reference:
Frances Harper

Answer 2

Chen Kasher, I think. Is this the poem?

Surprisingly, it's like being a kid
Again, and not just one loitering in
A sundry store.

Because, suddenly, your uncle's steady
Adminitions to 'pull his finger' become
Oddly perverse;

And your auntie's plea for the holding
Of her horses reveals an unbridled
Desire for...

Avoiding the filial, altogether.

So, window-side, you sit inside alone to
Reflect on the pensive stars of a tame,
Idyllic youth.

How, once when Christmas dinner was finished
And your sated family sat down for
Apple dessert,

How that changed your life ever so slightly,
Because since then you've believed that, if life
Must change, it must

Do so quietly, with the graceful aplomb
Of several things on the page that mean more
Than you could ever say.

Answer 3

it extremely is fairly expressive. I commend you lots on it. My criticism: the 1st stanza does no longer consider something of the poem. i began out questioning the poem grow to be going to be approximately sadness and riot, in spite of the undeniable fact that it became out to be greater inspirational. What i'm attempting to declare, the 1st stanza is an totally distinctive difficulty than what the difficulty of the poem is. so which you would be able to take it and proceed in this "I even have had a coarse time and you don't comprehend me" course, and make a poem approximately that yet do no longer comprise it in this one because of fact the poem isn't approximately that. additionally, you should the two pick to rhyme or no longer. you may no longer swap back and forth. it extremely is in basic terms a prevalent rule in poetry, you in basic terms do no longer do it. so which you should compliment. Thirdly, the poem shouldn't swear, and while you're going for a swish, poetic type, it surely shouldn't swear nor incorporate phrases like "shout you back" or "yo" or " do no longer mumble" Use severe point vocab phrases in selection to those. yet once you're going for a sort it extremely is fairly no longer poetic in any respect yet nevertheless a poem, yet greater laid back to incorporate strains like "you're my bro" and in spite of, then you may shop those phrases in because of fact they artwork in basic terms like that. in spite of the undeniable fact that it relies upon what type you're going for. in case you have been going for the greater stylish type, then quite of asserting "calling just to declare hi" you should declare "the circumstances which you had the desire to declare an undemanding hi. As you examine, in the experience that your ideas come to a decision a man or woman, you may tell them of your appreciation on account which you already know, whilst nightfall arrives that it extremely is human beings of such brilliance which you fairly desire of them to by no potential go away from the 2nd you conscious to the 2nd which you lay to relax." I in basic terms rephrased that up on the spot. yet i think of you already know. ordinary, it grow to be extremely expressive and that i liked it very lots! i'm going to be truthful, it grow to be touching to me. i like it. and you fairly have a fashion of conveying a message in any such vogue that it strikes somebody.