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Anne Spencer: Bio and Links to Poems

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Biographical note by Anne Spencer (1927):

From Lynchburg, Va., where she lives, Anne Spencer writes, “Mother Nature, February, forty-five years ago forced me on the stage that I, in turn, might assume the rôle of lonely child, happy wife, perplexed mother-and, so far, a twice resentful grandmother. I have no academic honors, nor lodge regalia. I am a Christian by intention, a Methodist by inheritance, and a Baptist by marriage. I write about some of the things I love. But have no civilized articulation for the things I hate.

I proudly love being a Negro woman—it's so involved and interesting. We are the PROBLEM—the great national game of TABOO.” (from Caroling Dusk, 1927)

Contents of this path:

  1. Anne Spencer, "Before the Feast of Shushan (Esther I)" (1920)
  2. Anne Spencer, "Dunbar" (1920)
  3. Poems by Anne Spencer in "The Book of American Negro Poetry" (1922)
  4. Anne Spencer, "White Things" (1923)
  5. Anne Spencer, "Lady, Lady" (1925)
  6. Anne Spencer, "At the Carnival" (1927)
  7. Anne Spencer, "Creed" (1927)
  8. Anne Spencer, "I Have a Friend" (1927)
  9. Anne Spencer, "Innocence" (1927)
  10. Anne Spencer, "Life-Long, Poor Browning..." (1927)
  11. Anne Spencer, "Lines to a Nasturtium" (1927)
  12. Anne Spencer, "Neighbors" (1927)
  13. Anne Spencer, "Questing" (1927)
  14. Anne Spencer, "Substitution" (1927)
  15. Anne Spencer, "Rime For the Christmas Baby" (1927)
  16. Robert Kerlin, Chapter 3, "The Heart of Negro Womanhood" (Eva A. Jessye, J.W. Hammond, Alice Dunbar-Nelson, Georgia Douglas Johnson, Angelina W. Grimke, Anne Spencer, Jessie Fauset)