To Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe Poem by Frances Ellen Watkins Harper

in response to Uncle Tom's Cabin

1854

I thank thee for thy pleading
For the helpless of our race;
Long as our hearts are beating
In them thou hast a place.

I thank thee for thy pleading
For the fetter'd and the dumb;
The blessing of the perishing
Around thy path shall come.

I thank thee for the kindly words
That grac'd thy pen of fire,
And thrilled upon the living chords
Of many a heart's deep lyre.

For the sisters of our race
Thou'st nobly done thy part;
Thou hast won thyself a place
In every human heart.

The halo that surrounds thy name
Hath reached from shore to shore;
But thy best and brightest fame
Is the blessing of the poor.