Every year I try to remember to share a fall poem on my blog (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018). This year I came across a poem written by Helen Keller at age 13.

The Poem

“Autumn” is a 50-line poem that begins by vividly describing the season and ends by personifying Autumn and Winter.

A typescript of “Autumn” is held by the Library of Congress as part of the Alexander Graham Bell Family Papers. The handwritten inscription reads, “For Dr. Bell. / With dearest Love, / From the Author.” The poem is signed, “Helen Keller / Hulton, Penn. Oct 27th, 1893.”

A shorter draft of the poem, with corrections in pen, is held by the American Foundation for the Blind. The Helen Keller Archive at the AFB is the largest repository of materials about Helen Keller.

Alexander Graham Bell

In 1886 when Helen Keller was six years old, Alexander Graham Bell recommended that her parents contact the Perkins Institute for the Blind, which resulted in alumna Annie Sullivan coming to live with them and teaching Helen how to communicate. Bell later encouraged Helen to attend a regular school.

The Library of Congress states, “All her life she remained a grateful, close friend of Bell, visiting his home and family, and in this case, dedicating this intensely descriptive poem to her kind and loving mentor. Bell also had taken early note of Keller’s ‘marvelous knowledge of language’ and believed she had a future in literature. Many called Keller’s achievements a miracle, but Bell, ever the scientist, insisted that Sullivan’s success with the child was not supernatural but rather a brilliantly successful experiment.”

Further Reading

If you are looking for material to introduce your children to Helen Keller, here are three easy readers and four picture books.