African American Poetry: A Digital Anthology

Anne Spencer: Bio and Links to Poems

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)

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