GoSetaPhire

 APRIL IS NATIONAL POETRY MONTH!

A Scholar, an Educator, a Lawyer, an Abolitionist, Essayist, and Poet.

New York's first African American Attorney.

George B. Vashon was born in 1829 in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The only son of the renowned abolitionist John Bathan Vashon. George attended his father's school until 1837 when he went to public school. In 1844, George B. Vashon was the first African American to graduate from Oberlin Collegiate Institute, doing so with valedictory honors.

A fighter for emancipation and a champion of education. George B. Vashon's accomplishments and contributions to the African American race will forever be immortalized.

Without further ado, I present to you a poem written in 1848...

SEASONS

First Spring came tripping on from Southern bowers,

And strewed her sunny path from fragrant flowers,

Bade the still brook from out of its torpor wake,

And freed, from icy bonds, the captive lake,

Then smiling back upon the smiling land,

Resigned the rule to SUMMER'S warmer hand.

Earth in the genial change rejoicing much,

Glowed like a picture 'neath a Guido's touch,

And Lovelier grew with each succeeding day,

Till Autumn seized the scepter and the sway.

She, to enhance the beauty of the scene,

Tinged with rich brown each leaflet's brilliant green.

Cast o'er the land her sad yet lovely smile,

Then sank beneath dread Winter's chilling wile.--

Dread winter, who, with no kind of feeling warm,

Evoked in envious rage the belighting storm;

And conscious that no gift she could bestow,

To Equal Summer's, Spring's, or Autumn’s glow,

Blew spitefully her freezing beneath on all,

And strove to crush earth 'neath her snowy pall.