A New Kind of Literary Pulse

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Classics African American Literature 20th Century  1 min

The Wife-Woman

Anne Spencer

Anne Spencer

Harlem Renaissance poet and activist Anne Bethel Scales Bannister Spencer was born on a Virginia farm in 1882. The daughter of former slaves, Spencer’s mother enrolled her in school for the first time when she was 11, at the Virginia Theological Seminary and College (now Virginia University of Lynchburg). Spencer’s poetry engages themes of religion, race, and the natural world. She was the first African American woman poet to be featured in the Norton Anthology of Modern Poetry (1973).

Maker-of-Sevens in the scheme of thingsFrom earth to star;Thy cycle holds whatever is fate, andOver the border the bar.Though rank and fierce the marinerSailing the seven seas,He prays, as he holds his glass to his eyes,Coaxing the Pleiades. I cannot love them; and I feel your gladChiding from the grave,That my all was only worth at all, whatJoy to you it gave.These seven links the Law compelledFor the human chain —I cannot love them; and you, oh,Seven-fold months in Flanders slain! A jungle there, a cave here, bred sixAnd a million years,Sure and strong, mate for mate, suchLove as culture f