Rhymes from the Cumberland
- Smith, Effie Waller
Other Works in the Collection by the Photographer(s)
Related Books by Photographic Process
With Wordsworth in England (Relief halftones)
Songs from The Garden of Kama (Relief halftones)
Poems of the Dance (Relief halftones)
That it would appear Rhymes from the Cumberland (1909) was first published in its photographic edition marks an important moment in the history of photopoetry. While many other works – for example, Walter Scott’s long poems and some of the poems in photographically illustrated editions of Paul Laurence Dunbar’s verse – had been published previously in non-photographic editions, Rhymes from the Cumberland is one of the first original photopoetic volumes, at least in the US. Although the six small, square format halftones are not on the scale of the 450 or so images found across the six Dunbar books, their inclusion is nevertheless significant, highlighting the increasing use of photography to complement the poetic image.
Smith’s small volume was her second of 1909, published prior to Rosemary and Pansies, and is the better of the two books, reflecting on the Cumberland Mountains in Kentucky and Virginia and using these landscapes for meditations on romance and religion. Each photograph is accompanied by the title of a poem and a brief caption, emphasising the descriptive, illustrative purpose of the images. For example, the poem ‘Elkhorn City’ is accompanied by a photograph of the town, taken from the mountainside, and captioned:
O, Elkhorn City, little town!
On which the Cumberlands look down
Fond and protectingly.
Author: Smith, Effie Waller
Title: Rhymes from the Cumberland
Publication Year: 1909
Poets Featured: Smith, Effie Waller
Subjects: African American women, African Americans, Cumberland Mountains
Photographic process: Relief halftones
This book can be found in the University of St Andrews Library catalogue HERE
Related Books by Subject
Related Books by Time Period
The Rubàiyàt of Omar Khayyàm (1908)
The Rubàiyàt of Omar Khayyàm (1912)
Related Photographic Collections
Website design: Callum Kenny, School of Computer Science
Website text: Michael Nott, School of English. The original idea for the website came from Professor Robert Crawford of the School of English, who continues to act as Project Consultant.
Scanning by the Digital Humanities team of the University of St Andrews Library (Carys Adamson, Kyle Brady, Elaine Miller) with assistance from reprographics staff in the Special Collections Division.
Website images: Edward R. Dickson, The Poems of the Dance, 1921 (Homepage, right); Mabel Eardley-Wilmot, The Light of Asia, 1908 and 1911 (Photographers page & External Resources page); Emma Justine Farnsworth, Sunshine and Playtime, 1893 (Home page, top, and Books page); Robert Smirke, The Seven Ages of Man, 1864 (Poets page).
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