And a Little Child Shall Lead Them - Frances Harper - 267 / 365 of reading one short story every day.

And a Little Child Shall Lead Them


Only a little scrap of blue

Preserved with loving care,

But earth has not a brilliant hue

To me more bright and fair.


The title phrase occurs in a Biblical image of an idealized and longed for era. The poet remembers fondly those days where the justice in the social order was high. This feeling is symbolically reflected in the animal kingdom. The poetry is meant to extend images beyond common sense. The right order to be established portrays a time when the natural enmity between different species ceases. This would mean that a place is safe enough for a child to lead them.

The vivid imagery of such a passage is reminiscent of dream imagery where truth is existential rather than factual. The poetry conveys the contrast of what is hoped for in a world where in reality the social order is not just and where there is danger for humans, especially for the most vulnerable of them, the child.

A Double Standard by Frances Harper - 266 / 365 of reading one short story every day.

A Double Standard by Frances E. W. Harper


The poem was published in the year 1895. It highlights the inequality between men and women. The poem conveys that, in that era, women were considered unequal to men due to relationship obligations within the household, complexities of sex and the social standards that were upheld to men.


“Crime has no sex and yet to-day

I wear the brand of shame;

Whilst he amid the gay and proud

Still bears an honored name.

Can you blame me if I’ve learned to think

Your hate of vice a sham,

When you so coldly crushed me down

And then excused the man?


The language in the poem used shows that the poem was about love. The girl in the story was charmed by a man, but as the poem progresses the narrative tone of the girl fades into protests about the state of the country where women are marginalised, expected to take care of the house without any feeling whatsoever.