Songs for the People

         This poem is by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (US, 1825-1911), a remarkable woman who wrote poetry, short stories, a novel, and journalism, and was among the first African-American women to be published in the USA.  You should definitely look her up if you’re not familiar with her, as she really should be a household name.  For the purposes of this blog, however, let me go ahead and share Songs for the People without further ado.

Let me make the songs for the people,

     Songs for the old and young;

Songs to stir like a battle-cry

     Wherever they are sung.

 

Not for the clashing of sabres,

     For carnage nor for strife;

But songs to thrill the hearts of men

     With more abundant life.

 

Let me make the songs for the weary,

     Amid life’s fever and fret,

Till hearts shall relax their tension,

     And careworn brows forget.

 

Let me sing for little children,

     Before their footsteps stray,

Sweet anthems of love and duty,

     To float o’er life’s highway.

 

I would sing for the poor and aged,

     When shadows dim their sight;

Of the bright and restful mansions,

     Where there shall be no night.

 

Our world, so worn and weary,

     Needs music, pure and strong,

To hush the jangle and discords

     Of sorrow, pain, and wrong.

 

Music to soothe all its sorrow,

     Till war and crime shall cease; 

And the hearts of men grown tender

     Girdle the world with peace.

        A lovely sentiment, but What, you may ask, does this have to do with art or fantasy?  There are two ways that I think this poem warrants a place this blog.  For one thing, it is speculative in the sense that it attempts to imagine what it would take to create a world girdled with peace.  Quaker sociologist Elise Boulding studied and taught about the role of imagination in helping people work toward their visions of peace (mentioned in this previous post), and that’s exactly what Harper is doing in this poem.

        Then in addition to that speculative element, this poem describes what I hope to do with my own art and writing.  Harper uses a metaphor of music, but in my mediums of block prints and fiction I, too, hope to thrill the hearts of people with more abundant life, help hearts relax their tension, and touch hearts so that they grow tender.  (And a couple of previous poems and posts with a similar message: The Elfin Artist, and Where My Books Go.)  The more we are bombarded with a rising backlash of hatred - just as Harper saw in her country after the glorious promise of Emancipation - the more important it is that we stir ourselves with ardor for love and peace.

[Picture: Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, wood engraving by Bensell, Schell, or anonymous, from The Underground Rail Road by William Still, 1879 (Image from Library of Congress).]