Download or read book Complete Poems of Frances E.W. Harper written by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 1988 with total page 300 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Frances Harper was renowned in her lifetime not only as an activist who rallied on behalf of blacks, women, and the poor, but as a pioneer of the tradition of 'protest' literature, whose immense popularity did much to develop an audience for poetry in America. This collection of her poems is drawn from ten volumes published between 1854 and 1901. Their main issues are oppression, Christianity, and social and moral reform. Consolidating the oral tradition and the ballad form, and merging dramatic details and imagery with a strong political and racial awareness, Harper's poetry represented a distinctly Afro-American discourse that was to inspire generations of black writers.