The Book of American Negro Poetry Part 16

Nevermore shall men know suffering, Nevermore shall women wailing Shake to grief the G.o.d of Heaven.

From the East and from the West, From the cities in the valley, From G.o.d's dwelling on the mountain, Little children, blow your trumpets!

From Ethiopia, groaning 'neath her heavy burdens, I heard the music of the old slave songs.

I heard the wail of warriors, dusk brown, who grimly fought the fight of others in the trenches of Mars.

I heard the plea of blood-stained men of dusk and the crimson in my veins leapt furiously.

Forget not, O my brothers, how we fought In No Man's Land that peace might come again!

Forget not, O my brothers, how we gave Red blood to save the freedom of the world!

We were not free, our tawny hands were tied; But Belgium's plight and Serbia's woes we shared Each rise of sun or setting of the moon.

So when the bugle blast had called us forth We went not like the surly brute of yore But, as the Spartan, proud to give the world The freedom that we never knew nor shared.

These chains, O brothers mine, have weighed us down As Samson in the temple of the G.o.ds; Unloosen them and let us breathe the air That makes the goldenrod the flower of Christ.

For we have been with thee in No Man's Land, Through lake of fire and down to h.e.l.l itself; And now we ask of thee our liberty, Our freedom in the land of Stars and Stripes.

I am glad that the Prince of Peace is hovering over No Man's Land.

TIRED

I am tired of work; I am tired of building up somebody else's civilization.

Let us take a rest, M'Lissy Jane.

I will go down to the Last Chance Saloon, drink a gallon or two of gin, shoot a game or two of dice and sleep the rest of the night on one of Mike's barrels.

You will let the old shanty go to rot, the white people's clothes turn to dust, and the Calvary Baptist Church sink to the bottomless pit.

You will spend your days forgetting you married me and your nights hunting the warm gin Mike serves the ladies in the rear of the Last Chance Saloon.

Throw the children into the river; civilization has given us too many. It is better to die than it is to grow up and find out that you are colored.

Pluck the stars out of the heavens. The stars mark our destiny. The stars marked my destiny.

I am tired of civilization.

THE BANJO PLAYER

There is music in me, the music of a peasant people.

I wander through the levee, picking my banjo and singing my songs of the cabin and the field. At the Last Chance Saloon I am as welcome as the violets in March; there is always food and drink for me there, and the dimes of those who love honest music.

Behind the railroad tracks the little children clap their hands and love me as they love Kris Kringle.

But I fear that I am a failure. Last night a woman called me a troubadour. What is a troubadour?

THE SCARLET WOMAN

Once I was good like the Virgin Mary and the Minister's wife.

My father worked for Mr. Pullman and white people's tips; but he died two days after his insurance expired.

I had nothing, so I had to go to work.

All the stock I had was a white girl's education and a face that enchanted the men of both races.

Starvation danced with me.

So when Big Lizzie, who kept a house for white men, came to me with tales of fortune that I could reap from the sale of my virtue I bowed my head to Vice.

Now I can drink more gin than any man for miles around.

Gin is better than all the water in Lethe.

R. Nathaniel Dett

THE RUBINSTEIN STACCATO ETUDE

Staccato! Staccato!

Leggier agitato!

In and out does the melody twist-- Unique proposition Is this composition.

(Alas! for the player who hasn't the wrist!) Now in the dominant Theme ringing prominent, Ba.s.s still repeating its one monotone, Double notes crying, Up keyboard go flying, The change to the minor comes in like a groan.

Without a cessation A chaste modulation Hastens adown to subdominant key, Where melody mellow-like Singing so 'cello-like Rises and falls in a wild ecstasy.

Scarce is this finished When chords all diminished Break loose in a patter that comes down like rain, A pedal-point wonder Rivaling thunder.

Now all is mad agitation again.

Like laughter jolly Begins the finale; Again does the 'cello its tones seem to lend Diminuendo ad molto crescendo.

Ah! Rubinstein only could make such an end!

Georgia Douglas Johnson

THE HEART OF A WOMAN

The heart of a woman goes forth with the dawn, As a lone bird, soft winging, so restlessly on, Afar o'er life's turrets and vales does it roam In the wake of those echoes the heart calls home.

The heart of a woman falls back with the night, And enters some alien cage in its plight, And tries to forget it has dreamed of the stars While it breaks, breaks, breaks on the sheltering bars.

YOUTH

The dew is on the gra.s.ses, dear, The blush is on the rose, And swift across our dial-youth, A s.h.i.+fting shadow goes.

The primrose moments, lush with bliss, Exhale and fade away, Life may renew the Autumn time, But nevermore the May!