Julia A. Carney

Julia A. Carney (1823—1908) is a poet and educator who was born in Massachusetts. Much of her poetry was published under various pseudonyms, credited to others or appeared anonymously. She married the Reverend Thomas J. Carney in 1849; they had nine children, four of which died in infancy.
Carl Sandburg grew up directly across the street from the Carney family. He said in Always The Young Strangers, "Often we saw on that porch rocking in a chair a little old woman, her hair snow-white with the years. She had a past, a rather bright though not dazzling past, you might say. She could lay claim to fame, if she chose. Millions of children reading the McGuffey and other school readers had met her name and memorized lines she had written."
Her most famous poem which she wrote in 1845 appears below.

Little Things

Little drops of water,
-------Little grains of sand,
Make the mighty ocean
-------And the pleasant land.
Little deeds of kindness,
-------Little words of love,
Make our earth an Eden,
-------Like the heaven above.

Entry written by D.S. Martin. His latest poetry collection, Conspiracy of Light: Poems Inspired by the Legacy of C.S. Lewis, is available from Wipf & Stock as is his earlier award-winning collection, Poiema.