The Poetry Woodland Series: "Dandelions"
Public domain poetry readings & analysis. Vol. 2 | Frances Ellen Watkins Harper's poems 🪶
Dandelions*
by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper
Welcome children of the Spring,
In your garbs of green and gold,
Lifting up your sun-crowned heads
On the verdant plain and wold.
As a bright and joyous troop
From the breast of earth ye came
Fair and lovely are your cheeks,
With sun-kisses all aflame.
In the dusty streets and lanes,
Where the lowly children play,
There as gentle friends ye smile,
Making brighter life's highway
Dewdrops and the morning sun,
Weave your garments fair and bright,
And we welcome you to-day
As the children of the light.
Children of the earth and sun.
We are slow to understand
All the richness of the gifts
Flowing from our Father's hand.
Were our vision clearer far,
In this sin-dimmed world of ours,
Would we not more thankful be
For the love that sends us flowers?
Welcome, early visitants,
With your sun-crowned golden hair,
With your message to our hearts
Of our Father's loving care.*This poem is in the public domain!
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper (September 24, 1825 - February 22, 1911) was a poet, journalist, teacher, activist, and fiction writer born free in Baltimore. Frequently thought of as the mother of Black journalism in the US, she wrote for many anti-slavery and abolitionist newspapers and published several books and collections. This blurb hardly scratches the surface, so please read more about her incredible work and life here and here.
It’s so hard to write notes for Frances Ellen Watkins Harper’s poems because they leave me speechless (in the best way). In a world perpetually rushed to speak, vitality flows by leaning into speechlessness. I frequently return to this blog post by Báyò Akómoláfé (highly recommend, especially now).
Dandelions are often considered weeds, sprouting in ‘undesirable’ places, dominating vast swaths of land, and crowding out biodiversity. They aren’t even native to North America.
Simultaneously, dandelions are revered for supporting nutritional health, antioxidants, inflammation regulation, blood sugar/pressure, liver health, cholesterol management, digestion, immunity, skincare, and bone health (among many more).
This poem acknowledges the potent beauty of something demoted to ‘weed’ while spotlighting something insidious: a societally deemed “weed-level” white person occupying space in the ‘undesirable’ crevices of a city or community, adorned with golden hair, is always closest/er to God’s image.
By personifying the dandelion (right down to how dandelions are not native to North America, as mentioned above) we see a thankfulness to God for this ‘reminder’ that dandelions are what make life brighter in the “sin-dimmed” spaces they occupy. They make your clothes brighter if you dress like/in them; connect you best to Earth, sun, and light; and are the purest sacred gifts (so rich that people of the global majority must not be able to see or understand this mystical unwavering depth) in their dark, “sin-dimmed” world. Because they can’t “see” they’re therefore asked to trust this ‘promise’ that if they could, they’d be ever thankful for this bountiful love offering so much brightness.
There’s also the significance of spring: green means good, go, growth, feeding, rebirth, cycles…indoctrinating a new group of children with racism.
Sadly, much of this sinister ideology exists, often subconsciously, today. And we must talk about it. Because how applicable this poem is should ignite something within us…