Sarah Norcliffe Cleghorn | |
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| Born | Sarah Norcliffe Dalton  4 February 1876 Norfolk |
| Died | 4 April 1959 (aged 83) Philadelphia |
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| Occupation | Poet,novelist,autobiographer,journalist,teacher,political activist,writer |
Sarah Norcliffe Cleghorn (February 4, 1876 – April 4, 1959) was an educator, author, social reformer and poet whose work was associated with theAmerican Naturalist literary movement.[1]
Born in Norfolk, Virginia, Cleghorn spent her early childhood in Wisconsin and Minnesota, then moved to Manchester, Vermont after the death of her mother to live with her father's sisters. Although she regularly traveled and was tenured both with theBrookwood Labor College and theManumit School, Cleghorn is largely associated with Manchester, which was her primary home.[2] She graduated fromBurr and Burton Seminary in Manchester, Vermont in 1895 then spent a year at Radcliffe College. During her early years in southern Vermont, Cleghorn came to knowDorothy Canfield Fisher, who also became a noted writer and educator. The two women maintained a close relationship throughout their lifetimes and collaborated on several books.[3]
Cleghorn's poetry is largely didactic in nature, serving to illustrateChristian Socialist values and progressive political and social principles. Her early work was published in theAtlantic Monthly,Harpers,The American Magazine, and others.[2] Cleghorn was involved in various reform movements such as anti-vivisection,vegetarianism,pacifism and opposition to capital punishment and lynching. In 1913, she joinedSocialist Party of America. Some of her later work was published inThe Masses,The Survey, andThe World Tomorrow.[2] Her most widely known poem "The Golf Links" is an ironic and satirical look at child labor. It first appeared inF.P.A.'s column in theNew-York Tribune.
The golf links lie so near the mill
That almost every day
The laboring children can look out
And see the men at play.
Cleghorn was a Quaker pacifist.[4] She supportedanimal rights and opposed vivisection.[5] She was a vegetarian and condemned animal experiments, fishing and hunting.[6] Her bookThe Seamless Robe: The Religion of Lovingkindness advocatedChristian vegetarianism with compassion and love to both animals and humans.[7] However, in the 1930s Cleghorn who hadpernicious anaemia gave up vegetarianism and returned to eating meat.[8]
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