Who is the author of ‘Sunlight’, a poem whose first line is, “It comes from its faraway home in the sky?”

Louisa May Alcott was an American novelist, short story writer, staunch abolitionist and feminist, born on November 29, 1832. She is best known for her three novels including ‘Little Women’ (1868). Her novel is based on childhood experiences with her three sisters. This novel was followed by ‘Little Men’ (1871) and ‘Jo’s Boys (1886).

Alcott was also an author of poetry, ‘Sunlight’. The poem opens with the line, “It comes from its faraway home in the sky” and ends the first stanza by creating an image of the sun as, “A welcome guest to the wealthy and poor.” The poem invites us to see, hear, smell and emotionally feel the impact the sun has on the mountains, the plain, and the forest.

Toward the poem’s end, the reader is projected into a future time in life, in a quasi-prayer when she writes, “May the comfort and joy which thy (sun) presence has given. / Be the foretaste of far richer ones yet to come. / When we rest in the light of an eternal home.”

An abolitionist and a feminist, Alcott was active in reform movements such as temperance and women’s suffrage throughout her life. She never married.

Alcott wrote until her death, which was attributed to the after-effects of mercury poisoning contracted during her American Civil War (1861-1865) service. She had received calomel treatments for the effects of typhoid.

She died in Boston, on March 6, 1888. Her resting place is Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord, Massachusetts, United States.