“Obituary of Harriet Williams, Consort of Abraham T. Williams, January 12, 1844”

Maggie Rosen created “Obituary of Harriet Williams, Consort of Abraham T. Williams, January 12, 1844” from a notice in the Southern Christian Advocate. Please click here to read.

About the poem and the process of composing it, Maggie Rosen writes:

While doing family research, I found this obituary (the original publication was in the Southern Christian Advocate, date as given in the poem). Harriet Williams was my great-great-great-grandmother on my mother’s side. The poem’s words come from the obituary and from my imagination. I wanted to convey a bit of a story, using the fascinating original language of the obituary. I wanted to use repetition of sound and phrase as a kind of hymn.