Lucy Larcom
Lucy Larcom was a Massachusetts native who had a significant impact on societal views of women and childhood. Born in 1824, Larcom left home at age 11 to work in the cotton mills of Lowell, Massachusetts. While working, she wrote and published many songs, poems, and letters describing life in the mills, and her work helped to initiate reevaluations of women's roles in society. Larcom also wrote one of the best accounts of New England childhood of her time, A New England Girlhood. Larcom’s influence is still felt in her hometown of Beverly; a local literary magazine is called The Larcom Review, and the Larcom Theater, home to the world’s longest running magician’s show, is named for her.
- Nationality: American
- Birth Date: 5 Mar 1824
- Death Date: 17 Apr 1893
Available Works
Individual Passages
- “The Brown Thrush”
- A rhyme that serves to tell children to behave through the song of a bird.
- “If I Were a Sunbeam”
- A fanciful poem exploring the mind of an adult lost in a land of fairy tales.
- The Rivulet
- A poem in which the speaker describes a rivulet in his/her commands to it.