Lucy Larcom

LUCY LARCOM (1824 – 1893) was born in Beverly, MA, and became one of the most successful North Shore writers of her time. Her experience working in the factories of Lowell, MA inspired her well-known poem, “Hannah Binding Shoes.” Her interest in child welfare led to a close and collaborative friendship with famous Amesbury, MA poet John Greenleaf Whittier. Her memoir, A New England Girlhood, is a classic evocation of its time, especially of the years she spent in Lowell. The concluding portion below of the lengthy title poem from The Wild Roses of Cape Ann surveys Gloucester from Norman’s Woe to Dogtown to Eastern Point.