Flowers For Socrates

by NONA BLYTH CLOUD

She was born as Alice Ruth Moore on July 19, 1875, in New Orleans, Louisiana. Her heritage was a complex mix: Creole, which in her city meant descendants of early French and Spanish inhabitants; African American, Native American, and Anglo.

The lightness of her skin and hair influenced both black and white society. Her longing to be accepted as a member of the African American community was hindered by sometimes being seen as white, allowing her to “pass.”

Alice Dunbar Nelson (1875–1935) was a light-skinned multi-race woman, viewed with envy or suspicion by some African Americans, while still facing racial prejudice from white people.

She published her first book, Violets and Other Tales, in 1895 when she was just 20 years old. Like her heritage, it was a mix, of both short stories and poetry.

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Sonnet

I had not thought of violets late,
The wild, shy kind that spring beneath your feet
In wistful April days, when lovers mate
And wander through the fields in raptures sweet.
The thought of violets meant florists’ shops,
And bows and pins, and perfumed papers fine;
And garish lights, and mincing little fops
And cabarets and soaps, and deadening wines.
So far from sweet real things my thoughts had strayed,
I had forgot wide fields; and clear brown streams;
The perfect loveliness that God has made,—
Wild violets shy and Heaven-mounting dreams.
. . . . And now—unwittingly, you’ve made me dream
. . . . Of violets, and my soul’s forgotten gleam.

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