1. Quotes
  2. Authors
  3. Stephen Foster

Stephen Foster Quotes

Stephen Collins Foster , known as "the father of American music", was an American songwriter known primarily for his parlor and minstrel music. Foster wrote over 200 songs; among his best-known are "Oh! Susanna", "Hard Times Come Again No More", "Camptown Races", "Old Folks at Home" , "My Old Kentucky Home", "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair", "Old Black Joe", and "Beautiful Dreamer". Many of his compositions remain popular more than 150 years after he wrote them. His compositions are thought to be autobiographical. He never saw the Sewanee River, never went from Alabama to Louisiana, and never lived in Kentucky. He has been identified as "the most famous songwriter of the nineteenth century" and may be the most recognizable American composer in other countries. His compositions are sometimes referred to as "childhood songs" because they have been included in the music curriculum of early education. Most of his handwritten music manuscripts are lost, but editions issued by publishers of his day can be found in various collections.

✵ 4. July 1826 – 13. January 1864
Stephen Foster photo
Stephen Foster: 8   quotes 0   likes

Famous Stephen Foster Quotes

“Oh, Susanna, don't you cry for me
For I come from Alabama,
With my banjo on my knee.”

Stephen Foster

Oh! Susanna, W.C. Peters & Co. (1848).
Context: Oh I come from Alabama with a banjo on my knee,
I'm going to Louisiana, my true love for to see
It rained all night the day I left, the weather it was dry
The sun so hot I froze to death; Susanna, don't you cry.
Oh, Susanna, don't you cry for me
For I come from Alabama,
With my banjo on my knee.

“Gone are the days when my heart was young and gay,
Gone are my friends from the cotton fields away,
Gone from the earth to a better land I know,
I hear their gentle voices calling "Old Black Joe."”

Stephen Foster

Old Black Joe, Firth, Pond & Co. (1860).

“All up and down the whole creation,
Sadly I roam,
Still longing for the old plantation,
And for the old folks at home.”

Stephen Foster

Old Folks at Home

“The head must bow, and the back will have to bend,
Wherever the darkey may go;
A few more days, and the trouble all will end,
In the field where the sugar-canes grow.
A few more days for to tote the weary load,—
No matter, 't will never be light;
A few more days till we totter on the road:—
Then my old Kentucky home, good-night!”

Stephen Foster

My Old Kentucky Home. As quoted at Anthology of American Poetry, by George Gesner, (1983).

“The day goes by like a shadow o’er the heart,
With sorrow where all was delight;
The time has come when the darkies have to part:
Then my old Kentucky home, good night!”

Stephen Foster

My Old Kentucky Home. Reported in Bartlett's Familiar Quotations, 10th ed. (1919).

“All the world is sad and dreary,
Everywhere I roam.”

Stephen Foster

As quoted at Family Book of Best Loved Poems, by David L. George, (1952)
Old Folks at Home

“Beautiful dreamer, wake unto me,
Starlight and dewdrops are waiting for thee;
Sounds of the rude world heard in the day,
Lull'd by the moonlight have all pass'd away.”

Stephen Foster

Beautiful Dreamer, Firth, Pond & Co. (1862).

Similar authors

Josh Billings photo
Josh Billings 91
American humorist
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow photo
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 202
American poet
Andrew Carnegie photo
Andrew Carnegie 34
American businessman and philanthropist
Walt Whitman photo
Walt Whitman 181
American poet, essayist and journalist
Ralph Waldo Emerson photo
Ralph Waldo Emerson 727
American philosopher, essayist, and poet
Orison Swett Marden photo
Orison Swett Marden 16
American writer
Ambrose Bierce photo
Ambrose Bierce 204
American editorialist, journalist, short story writer, fabu…
Thomas Edison photo
Thomas Edison 57
American inventor and businessman
Mark Twain photo
Mark Twain 637
American author and humorist
Louisa May Alcott photo
Louisa May Alcott 174
American novelist