Dey been speakin’ at de cou’t-house,An’ laws-a-massy me,‘T was de beatness kin’ o’ doin’sDat evah I did see.Of cose I had to be dahIn de middle o’ de crowd,An’ I hallohed wid de othahs,Wen de speakah riz and bowed. I was kind o’ disapp’intedAt de smallness of de man,Case I ‘d allus pictered great folksOn […]

Heart of my heart, the day is chill,The mist hangs low o’er the wooded hill,The soft white mist and the heavy cloudThe sun and the face of heaven shroud.The birds are thick in the dripping trees,That drop their pearls to the beggar breeze;No songs are rife where songs are wont,Each singer crouches in his haunt. […]

Oh, de weathah it is balmy an’ de breeze is sighin’ low.Li’l’ gal,An’ de mockin’ bird is singin’ in de locus’ by de do’,Li’l’ gal;Dere ‘s a hummin’ an’ a bummin’ in de lan’ f’om eas’ to wes’,I ‘s a-sighin’ fu’ you, honey, an’ I nevah know no res’.Fu’ dey ‘s lots o’ trouble brewin’ […]

“In the fight at Brandywine, Black Samson, a giant negro armed with a scythe, sweeps his way through the red ranks….” C. M. Skinner’s “Myths and Legends of Our Own Land.” Gray are the pages of record,Dim are the volumes of eld;Else had old Delaware told usMore that her history held.Told us with pride in […]

In this sombre garden closeWhat has come and passed, who knows?What red passion, what white painHaunted this dim walk in vain? Underneath the ivied wall,Where the silent shadows fall,Lies the pathway chill and dampWhere the world-quit dreamers tramp. Just across, where sunlight burns,Smiling at the mourning ferns,Stand the roses, side by side,Nodding in their useless […]

The word is writ that he who runs may read.What is the passing breath of earthly fame?But to snatch glory from the hands of blame–That is to be, to live, to strive indeed.A poor Virginia cabin gave the seed,And from its dark and lowly door there cameA peer of princes in the world’s acclaim,A master […]

Hyeah dat singin’ in de meddersWhaih de folks is mekin’ hay?Wo’k is pretty middlin’ heavyFu’ a man to be so gay.You kin tell dey ‘s somep’n specialF’om de canter o’ de song;Somep’n sholy pleasin’ Sam’l,W’en he singin’ all day long. Hyeahd him wa’blin’ ‘way dis mo’nin’‘Fo’ ‘t was light enough to see.Seem lak music in […]

Ah, Douglass, we have fall’n on evil days,Such days as thou, not even thou didst know,When thee, the eyes of that harsh long agoSaw, salient, at the cross of devious ways,And all the country heard thee with amaze.Not ended then, the passionate ebb and flow,The awful tide that battled to and fro;We ride amid a […]

Say a mass for my soul’s repose, my brother,Say a mass for my soul’s repose, I need it,Lovingly lived we, the sons of one mother,Mine was the sin, but I pray you not heed it. Dark were her eyes as the sloe and they called me,Called me with voice independent of breath.God! how my heart […]

Slow moves the pageant of a climbing race;Their footsteps drag far, far below the height,And, unprevailing by their utmost might,Seem faltering downward from each hard won place.No strange, swift-sprung exception we; we traceA devious way thro’ dim, uncertain light,–Our hope, through the long vistaed years, a sightOf that our Captain’s soul sees face to face.Who, […]

If Death should claim me for her own to-day,And softly I should falter from your side,Oh, tell me, loved one, would my memory stay,And would my image in your heart abide?Or should I be as some forgotten dream,That lives its little space, then fades entire?Should Time send o’er you its relentless stream,To cool your heart, […]

Let those who will stride on their barren roadsAnd prick themselves to haste with self-made goads,Unheeding, as they struggle day by day,If flowers be sweet or skies be blue or gray:For me, the lone, cool way by purling brooks,The solemn quiet of the woodland nooks,A song-bird somewhere trilling sadly gay,A pause to pick a flower […]

By rugged ways and thro’ the nightWe struggle blindly toward the light;And groping, stumbling, ever prayFor sight of long delaying day.The cruel thorns beside the roadStretch eager points our steps to goad,And from the thickets all aboutDetaining hands reach threatening out. “Deliver us, oh, Lord,” we cry,Our hands uplifted to the sky.No answer save the […]

This is the debt I payJust for one riotous day,Years of regret and grief,Sorrow without relief. Pay it I will to the end–Until the grave, my friend,Gives me a true release–Gives me the clasp of peace. Slight was the thing I bought,Small was the debt I thought,Poor was the loan at best–God! but the interest!

TUSKEGEE, ALA., APRIL 22, 1901. Not to the midnight of the gloomy past,Do we revert to-day; we look uponThe golden present and the future vastWhose vistas show us visions of the dawn. Nor shall the sorrows of departed yearsThe sweetness of our tranquil souls annoy,The sunshine of our hopes dispels the tears,And clears our eyes […]

Mastah drink his ol’ Made’a,Missy drink huh sherry wine,Ovahseah lak his whiskey,But dat othah drink is mine,Des’ ‘lasses an’ watah, ‘lasses an’ watah. Wen you git a steamin’ hoe-cakeOn de table, go way, man!‘D ain but one t’ing to go wid it,‘Sides de gravy in de pan,Dat ‘s ‘lasses an’ watah, ‘lasses an’ watah. W’en […]

Pray why are you so bare, so bare,Oh, bough of the old oak-tree;And why, when I go through the shade you throw,Runs a shudder over me? My leaves were green as the best, I trow,And sap ran free in my veins,But I saw in the moonlight dim and weirdA guiltless victim’s pains. I bent me […]

Heart of the Southland, heed me pleading now,Who bearest, unashamed, upon my browThe long kiss of the loving tropic sun,And yet, whose veins with thy red current run. Borne on the bitter winds from every hand,Strange tales are flying over all the land,And Condemnation, with his pinions foul,Glooms in the place where broods the midnight […]

It is as if a silver chordWere suddenly grown mute,And life’s song with its rhythm warredAgainst a silver lute. It is as if a silence fellWhere bides the garnered sheaf,And voices murmuring, “It is well,”Are stifled by our grief. It is as if the gloom of nightHad hid a summer’s day,And willows, sighing at their […]

When the bees are humming in the honeysuckle vineAnd the summer days are in their bloom,Then my love is deepest, oh, dearest heart of mine,When the bees are humming in the honeysuckle vine. When the winds are moaning o’er the meadows chill and gray,And the land is dim with winter gloom,Then for thee, my darling, […]