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1875-1935
Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson provided rich culture into her writing pieces and because of her complex understanding of race she was intellectually refined for her time. She offered something new and contributed to the Harlem Renaissance
Nelson's writing pieces typically surround her views and experiences in her life and on life. Her diary entries and many of her novels have underlying rich meanings.
"In every race, in every nation, and in every clime in every period of history there is always an eager-eyed group of youthful patriots who seriously set themselves to right the wrongs done to their race or nation or . . . art or self-expression."
-Alice Moore Dunbar-Nelson
Alice Dunbar-Nelson's poem, "I Sit and Sew", addresses many issues between the sexes during this time period. The repetition of "I sit and sew" meant to emphasize the exhausting repetition of the task. This piece of literature was crucial in the time it was written as it displayed a little acknowledged view from a woman.
I sit and sew—a useless task it seems,
My hands grown tired, my head weighed down with dreams—
The panoply of war, the martial tred of men,
Grim-faced, stern-eyed, gazing beyond the ken
Of lesser souls, whose eyes have not seen Death,
Nor learned to hold their lives but as a breath—
But—I must sit and sew.
I sit and sew—my heart aches with desire—
That pageant terrible, that fiercely pouring fire
On wasted fields, and writhing grotesque things
Once men. My soul in pity flings
Appealing cries, yearning only to go
There in that holocaust of hell, those fields of woe—
But—I must sit and sew.
The little useless seam, the idle patch;
Why dream I here beneath my homely thatch,
When there they lie in sodden mud and rain,
Pitifully calling me, the quick ones and the slain?
You need me, Christ! It is no roseate dream
That beckons me—this pretty futile seam,
It stifles me—God, must I sit and sew?