Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Adding poems by Frances E. W. Harper & George Moses Horton

Yesterday, I ran a list of 50 of the most anthologized African American poems, which my brother Kenton and I will use in upcoming projects on poetry and text mining. After publishing the list, I heard from scholar Matt Sandler, who noted the absence of poets between Phillis Wheatley and Paul Laurence Dunbar in accounts of African American poets.

I took another look at frequently anthologized poems by African Americans and realized that Frances E. W. Harper's "Slave Auction" and George Moses Horton's "On Liberty and Slavery" met my criteria of appearing in at least 10 anthologies over the last 50 years. 
 
The list and accompanying short narrative have now been updated to concentrate on 52 of the most anthologized African American poems.  

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