Cornelia Phillips Spencer (20 Mar 1825 – 11 Mar 1908 | Harlem NY – Cambridge MA) poet, artist, hymnist, journalist, social historian, first female to receive honorary degree from University of North Carolina.

First steps in North Carolina history. Claims to freedom, when Chapel Hill was a village.

Come, Southern flowers, and twine above their graves; let all our rath spring blossoms

bear a part; let lilies of the vale and snowdrops wave. And come thou too, fit emblem,

bleeding-heart! for the last ninety days of the war in North Carolina. Bring all our ever-

greens — the laurel and the bay. From the deep forests which around us stand; they

know them well, for in a happier day they roamed these hills and valleys hand in hand.

Ye winds of heaven, o’er them gently sigh. The exile’s daughter reveals the human heart.

And April showers fall in kindliest rain, and let the sunbeams softly lie upon the sod for

which they died in vain. Other people’s lives: made in China; made in India; made in

Japan. How art and music speak to us — by famous women of yesterday and today.

The Flowers of Spring: An Appreciation of and by Cornlie Phillips Spencer.  Log College Press Blog, 05 Jan 2021. Retrieved 03 Nov 2023. https://www.logcollegepress.com/blog/2021/1/4/the-flowers-of-spring-an-appreciation-of-and-by-cornelia-phillips-spencer