bility that emerge in her novels. “The Sleeper
Wakes” is a substantial meditation on the power of
self-assertion and reclamation in the face of sup-
posed ostracism and domestic upheaval. Fauset’s
resilient heroine takes responsibility for her life,
and her maturation depends on her willingness to
evaluate the limits of white privilege and the
emancipatory, uplifting possibilities available in the
African-American world.
Bibliography
Jones, Sharon. Rereading the Harlem Renaissance: Race,
Class, and Gender in the Fiction of Jessie Fauset, Zora
Neale Hurston, and Dorothy West.Westport, Conn.:
Greenwood Press, 2002.
Sylvander, Carolyn. Jessie Redmon Fauset, Black American
Writer.Troy, N.Y.: Whitson Pub. Co., 1981.
Wall, Cheryl. Women of the Harlem Renaissance.Bloom-
ington: Indiana University Press, 1995.
Small WisdomAnita Scott Coleman(1937)
ANITASCOTTCOLEMANpublished this volume of
poems under the pseudonym of Elizabeth Staple-
ton Stokes. It was the first of three collections
that Coleman published during the career and the
only one that she produced during the Harlem
Renaissance.
Published by the New York publisher H. Har-
rison, Small Wisdomincludes 53 poems that ad-
dress subjects such as mortality, romance, the act
of writing, and childhood. The title poem, “Small
Wisdom,” sets the stage for the volume’s overall
theme of reminiscence. “This small wisdom, then,
/ From all the year’s design! / Filtered / drop by
tedious drop, / In quintessential wine,” declares
the speaker in the first stanza. The three-stanza
poem closes on a note of distress. The speaker
clearly is alarmed that the labor that produced
the poem and, by extension, the volume, could
arrive too late for readers: “But oh! if hands that
grope for stars / Stiffen with the chill, / And eager
eyes be one with dust / Before the cup distill!”
Other works such as “Plea for Immortality,”
“Fragment,” “Irony,” and “Words” further explore
the tension between the passage of time and a
poet’s intensive, though often deliberate, efforts
to produce works. Other poems consider the
beauty of the writing process. In “Little Words,”
Coleman delights in the romance of creativity
even as she ponders the limitations of the physi-
cal act of creation. “This radiant, hushed expec-
tant page! / Potential with divine / And infinite
dreams—” the speaker observes, before admitting
that the page is “bound / By little words of mine!”
Other poems explore family bonds, childhood,
and maturation. In “Night,” Coleman considers
how “each span of darkness lessens them, / These
boys, grown suddenly so tall; / Fetters their confi-
dent interval / Of light; and by some timeless
stratagem, / Annuls the years.” Other works, such
as “A Small Boy Practising” and “For a Small Boy
Just Arrived at Camp,” are poignant notes about
the unknown, the prospect of adventure, and the
rituals of life. In the latter, the speaker focuses on
a young boy, “Straight and gallant, khaki-clad”
whose “eager freckled face” reveals his “brave be-
lief his world would bring / High adventure.” Ad-
ditional poems, such as “Prayer” and “Souvenir of
a Journey” reflect the speaker’s disillusionment
with adult responsibilities and desire to triumph
over the passage of time.Smith, J. Pauline(unknown)
A poet of the Midwest whose works primarily ap-
peared in religious and civic publications during
the Harlem Renaissance. Little is known about
Smith, who published a volume of collected poems
in 1922. That volume, EXCEEDINGRICHES AND
OTHERVERSE,was published by the PHILADELPHIA-
based A.M.E. Book Concern. That organization,
part of the African Methodist Episcopal Church,
established in 1818, was the oldest department of
the church that may be best known for publishing
the Christian Recorder,the world’s oldest continu-
ously published periodical published by people of
African descent.
Smith, who may have lived in Detroit, Michi-
gan, published poems in local periodicals such as
the Detroit Club Womanand the Detroit Free Press.
She also published poems in the AME Christian
Recorder.Bibliography
Smith, J. Pauline. Exceeding Riches and Other Verse.
Philadelphia: A.M.E. Book Concern, 1922.Smith, J. Pauline 483