I lived from 1787-1860.
Eliza Lee Follen, nee Cabot, was an American poet, author and abolitionist. She was the fifth of thirteen children. Her father worked in international trade and diplomacy. Her mother was intellectual and made sure that her daughters were well educated. In 1819, Eliza and two of her sisters established their own household, after the death of their father.
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She belonged to a group that founded a Sunday school and met regularly to discuss religious issues. Through this group she met Charles Follen. He was a German poet who moved to the United States in 1824 to flee Germany’s opposition to his democratic views. They married in 1828; their only child, a son, was born in 1830.
From 1828 to1830, Eliza edited the Christian Teacher's Manual and from 1843 to 1850, The Child's Friend, both Sunday school publications. She is particularly known for writing children’s poetry. Her most famous work is Little Songs for Little Boys and Girls (1833). From 1828 to 1830, she edited the Christian Teacher’s Manual and from 1843 to 1850, she applied her editing skills to The Child’s Friend. Both Follens were outspoken members of the Massachusetts antislavery movement. Charles was appointed Harvard's first German professor but was not reappointed because of his abolitionist activities. Following Charles's death in a shipwreck in 1840, Eliza broadened her activism and publishing, becoming one of Boston's most revered citizens. In 1841, she published a five-volume collection of her husband's papers and a biography. Her other works include: Hymns for Children (1825), Little Songs (1833), Poems (1839) and Hymns, Songs and Fables for Young People (1846).
Their family Christmas tree attracted the attention of the English writer Harriet Martineau during her long visit to the United States, and the Follens have been claimed by some as the first to introduce the German custom of a decorated Christmas tree to the United States.
Eliza Lee Follen died in 1860.
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When the stars go to sleep,
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I am a little thing;
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You bid me not to love too well,
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Hushed was the ocean's stormy roar,
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Hail, noble captive! king of birds!
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Here, from this little hillock, in days long since gone by,
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What was it in the viewless wind,
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