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Time's Unfading Garden: Anne Spencer's Life and Poetry
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
March 21, 2025
Earlier this year, through books I had bought at an independent bookstore near me, I learned of two artists whose work intrigued, engaged, and inspired me. From a collection of art works by Jean Cocteau and photographs of those in his circle, I learned of the gay American photographer George Platt Lynes. From an anthology amplifying “the voices of unsung Black poets”, I learned of the poet Anne Spencer.
I wanted to learn more about each. I googled about a bit and ordered some books, initially just one on each. Perhaps because of the failings of the first, I thoroughly delighted in this book, the second. That first book, Body Language: The Queer Staged Photographs of George Platt Lynes and PaJaMa (PaJaMa being the artistic collective of Paul Cadmus, Jared French, and Margaret) did, to be sure, include some thoughtful consideration of the works that so intrigued me, but in the end, seemed more interested in fitting that consideration into trendy narratives, the second essay concluding with an extended reflection on literary theory and mid-century consumer culture.
J. Lee Greene, by contrast, devotes himself to understanding the individual poems of Anne Spencer and exploring the broader themes she was addressing in her (alas!) small body of published work. A Black poet living in the Jim Crow South, she succeeds in sublimating her outrage at the injustices of her age into broader themes. Her voice is redolent of a better known modern American poet, Mary Oliver. The verse of each is like a magic harp softly playing.
We learn of her upbringing and education. But Greene, who taught English at the University of North Carolina/Chapel Hill, really hits his stride in chapters 7 and 8 where he considers the poems themselves.
Spencer who lived from 1882-1975 spent the better part of her life in Lynchburg, Virginia. She was friendly with both W.E.B. DuBois and Langston Hughes, engaging with each in spirited discussions of society and poetry. She “never hesitated to reject superficial social decorum and speak her mind in a dignified and self-assured manner, and a in a language and attitude best suited to the occasion or topic at hand.”
A gardener, she often used imagery from the plants she cultivated to articulate her themes. She even used the image of the garden itself. Discussing one of her poems, Greene writes:
“Art”, as she wrote in one of her notebooks, “a substitute for natural living—can be born either of joy or sorrow; as mother the former is very unlikely”. The “thrust of Anne Spencer’s poetry”, Greene observes, “is her belief in the world that beauty give us inklings of—intimations which we must cultivate like a garden.”
After a careful study of her poems, Greene allows his readers to better understand their themes and her vision.
In this short book, we learn much about this alas unheralded American poet, her process, her copious notes (in notebooks and on scraps of paper), even “her method of composition.” A poem would sit “in her mind for days or as long as years before some incident, at times seemingly unrelated to the finished poem, would occur to concretize and give poetic form to the thought.”
In the appendix, Greene includes forty-two of the roughly fifty poems “now available as complete poems or significant fragments.” Each is well worth your time. As is this book. It reminded me why I once wished to pursue a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature—the delight in the careful study of an enchanting poem, getting behind the beautiful verse. And how that study can help us appreciate the wonder and complexity of being human.
May this book find its way back into publication. May Anne Spencer find her way into the American canon. And may her poems come to find the same audience in the future as do Mary Oliver’s do today.
For they are equally as compelling. And inspiring.
I wanted to learn more about each. I googled about a bit and ordered some books, initially just one on each. Perhaps because of the failings of the first, I thoroughly delighted in this book, the second. That first book, Body Language: The Queer Staged Photographs of George Platt Lynes and PaJaMa (PaJaMa being the artistic collective of Paul Cadmus, Jared French, and Margaret) did, to be sure, include some thoughtful consideration of the works that so intrigued me, but in the end, seemed more interested in fitting that consideration into trendy narratives, the second essay concluding with an extended reflection on literary theory and mid-century consumer culture.
J. Lee Greene, by contrast, devotes himself to understanding the individual poems of Anne Spencer and exploring the broader themes she was addressing in her (alas!) small body of published work. A Black poet living in the Jim Crow South, she succeeds in sublimating her outrage at the injustices of her age into broader themes. Her voice is redolent of a better known modern American poet, Mary Oliver. The verse of each is like a magic harp softly playing.
We learn of her upbringing and education. But Greene, who taught English at the University of North Carolina/Chapel Hill, really hits his stride in chapters 7 and 8 where he considers the poems themselves.
Spencer who lived from 1882-1975 spent the better part of her life in Lynchburg, Virginia. She was friendly with both W.E.B. DuBois and Langston Hughes, engaging with each in spirited discussions of society and poetry. She “never hesitated to reject superficial social decorum and speak her mind in a dignified and self-assured manner, and a in a language and attitude best suited to the occasion or topic at hand.”
A gardener, she often used imagery from the plants she cultivated to articulate her themes. She even used the image of the garden itself. Discussing one of her poems, Greene writes:
”Substitution” conveys a desire to change the world of cold, stark reality for one of beauty and love; the sestet affirms the capacity of any person to do this. And whether in her own garden or in the garden as symbol of a perfect world in her poetry, through the creative, life-giving process Anne Spencer managed to substitute for a more perfect world to compensate for the imperfect society in which she lived. This was her motivation for writing poetry.
“Art”, as she wrote in one of her notebooks, “a substitute for natural living—can be born either of joy or sorrow; as mother the former is very unlikely”. The “thrust of Anne Spencer’s poetry”, Greene observes, “is her belief in the world that beauty give us inklings of—intimations which we must cultivate like a garden.”
After a careful study of her poems, Greene allows his readers to better understand their themes and her vision.
In this short book, we learn much about this alas unheralded American poet, her process, her copious notes (in notebooks and on scraps of paper), even “her method of composition.” A poem would sit “in her mind for days or as long as years before some incident, at times seemingly unrelated to the finished poem, would occur to concretize and give poetic form to the thought.”
In the appendix, Greene includes forty-two of the roughly fifty poems “now available as complete poems or significant fragments.” Each is well worth your time. As is this book. It reminded me why I once wished to pursue a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature—the delight in the careful study of an enchanting poem, getting behind the beautiful verse. And how that study can help us appreciate the wonder and complexity of being human.
May this book find its way back into publication. May Anne Spencer find her way into the American canon. And may her poems come to find the same audience in the future as do Mary Oliver’s do today.
For they are equally as compelling. And inspiring.
July 18, 2015
Anne Spencer is a unique figure clothed in obscurity. Her life is full of fascination and her poetry is sublime.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews