Frances Harper's 'An Appeal to My Country Women': The Poetic Jeremiad

An Appeal to My Country Women (1894): Poetic Structure and Social Critique. "An Appeal to My Country Women" was written in 1894 and appears in the volume Poems published in 1895. Here, Harper employs a poetic mode that is less common to her work, that of alternating lines of anapest tetrameter and trimeter. In general, it is rare to find poems written in this syllabic pattern, and for this reason we understand that Harper wishes this poem to grasp our attention and hold it rapt.

The poem moves forward at a swift, marching pace, and it seems no coincidence that the "Star Spangled Banner" (1814) is written in the same meter and accent pattern. "An Appeal to My Country Women," too, is a patriotic composition. The poem appeals specifically to the white women of America, urging them to join the newly freed slaves in empathy and sympathy.

Comparing the lot of African-American men and women to that of the "sad-eyed Armenian" and the "exile of Russia," Harper places the plight of African-American Southern laborers within a global context. Strikingly, she adopts a tone that is rare for her work, one of warning against a gathering threat. The poem practically constitutes a jeremiad (a prophetic warning of divine punishment), yet it does not list complaints alone.

Consider these lines: "Weep not, oh my well-sheltered sisters, / Weep not for the Negro alone, / But weep for your sons who must gather / The crops which their fathers have sown." Echoing the title of her second novel, Sowing and Reaping, Harper calls her female readers to take heed of the impending consequences of what she refers to as criminal acts in the wake of emancipation. The speaker in this poem assumes a public voice through which she speaks, as a feminist and social activist, on behalf of those who suffer from a common experience of degradation.

The viewpoint the poet espouses is transparent; her tone makes it clear that the reader must make a difficult, but necessary, choice. Such is underscored by her use of conceit, or extended metaphor, in the last quatrain: "Tis the judgment of God that men reap / The tares which in madness they sow, / Sorrow follows the footsteps of crime, / And Sin is the consort of Woe." The conceit consists in the extended imagery of men reaping that which they have sown. Harper refers to the "madness," "crime," and "Sin" inherent in their sowing and the "judgment" of "sorrow" and "Woe" that results.

In her admonishments to the reader, Harper risks alienation. The greater hope and the greater benefit, however, lie in capturing the sympathy of the audience and in compelling them to take moral action. Thus, the poetic form serves as a vehicle for profound social mobilization.

For Discussion or Writing.
1.Poems written in the anapestic meter are rare because it is difficult to match the subject of the poem to the composition's meter. Reread the poem, analyzing it for meter, syllable pattern, and cohesion. Note any irregularities in meter or accent pattern, and discuss the way these irregularities illuminate important features of the poem and enhance its effectiveness.

2. Harper makes effective symbolic use of what may be called the "perceptual field" in this poem; that is, in this poem she uses visual images that may be taken for symbols—they stand for more than themselves. Analyze the poem's use of visual symbolism, noting symbols that may be judged to be archetypal, or universal. Also note those symbols that seem to you to be personal to the poet.

3. Do some research on the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, held in Chicago. That year Harper presented a lecture, entitled "Woman's Political Future," before the World's Congress of Representative Women, which had gathered at the exposition. Discuss how the themes of "An Appeal to My Country Women" dovetail with those of "Woman's Political Future."