Helen Keller — The Song of the Stone Wall (1910)

A book-length poem inspired by the old stone walls of rural New England, which Helen Keller explored with her hands.

Walking the countryside around her home, Keller traced the stone walls built by generations of farmers. In this poem she imagines the lives of the people who cleared the fields and piled the stones, and what their work says about endurance and faith.

It is her only published long poem, and a side of her writing few people know.

Part of the Boston Made Reader’s special collection Courage, Conscience & Service. Every book and document here is free to read.