Songs for the People By Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (1825 − 1911) was committed to the struggle for women's rights and published novels, short stories, and poetry that focused on issues of racism and social reform, in 1858, a hundred years before the Rosa Parks incident, Fraances Watkins also had refused to give up her seat in the white section of a trolley car in Philadelphia.

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.

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

− Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

1.
Fill in the blanks with the correct options to complete a brief summary of the poem.
In 'songs for the people', Harper invokes the idea of the poet as a 1_______________.
(song-maker/ painter) and imagines making songs to end 2_______________.
(drought and famines / war and crime ), for 3_______________ (children / friends),
for the 4_______________ (rich and the poor/ poor and the aged), to make people's hearts 5_______________ (hard/ tender) and fill the world with 6_______________ (peace/ tension).
2.
Explain the meanings of these lines from the poem.
1. songs to stir like a battle cry
2. Before their footsteps stray
3. Sweet anthems of love and duty
4. When shadows dim their sight
3.
What is required to encourage human beings to have strength of spirit?
4.
What sort of songs does the poet want to sing for children? Why?
5.
What is required to quieten the noisy disputes or conflicts?
6.
Write lines from the poem that prove that the poet wants to make songs for each and everyone.

8 more answer(s) available.

Gem's English Reader 8

Ratna Sagar

Chapters

Songs for the People

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

Available Answers