The Book Of American Negro Poetry

Excerpt: ...DOGWOOD BLOSSOMS To dreamy languors and the violet mist   Of early Spring, the deep sequestered vale Gives first her paling-blue Miamimist,   Where blithely pours the cuckoo's annual tale Of Summer promises and tender green,   Of a new life and beauty yet unseen. The forest trees have yet a sighing mouth,   Where dying winds of March their branches swing, While upward from the dreamy, sunny South,   A hand invisible leads on the Spring. His rounds from bloom to bloom the bee begins   With flying song, and cowslip wine he sups, Where to the warm and passing southern winds,   Azaleas gently swing their yellow cups. Soon everywhere, with glory through and through,   The fields will spread with every brilliant hue. But high o'er all the early floral train,   Where softness all the arching sky resumes, The dogwood dancing to the winds' refrain,   In stainless glory spreads its snowy blooms. A BUTTERFLY IN CHURCH What dost thou here, thou shining, sinless thing, With many colored hues and shapely wing? Why quit the open field and summer air To flutter here? Thou hast no need of prayer. 'Tis meet that we, who this great structure built, Should come to be redeemed and washed from guilt, For we this gilded edifice within Are come, with erring hearts and stains of sin. But thou art free from guilt as God on high; Go, seek the blooming waste and open sky, And leave us here our secret woes to bear, Confessionals and agonies of prayer. THE HILLS OF SEWANEE Sewanee Hills of dear delight,   Prompting my dreams that used to be, I know you are waiting me still to-night   By the Unika Range of Tennessee. The blinking stars in endless space,   The broad moonlight and silvery gleams, To-night caress your wind-swept face,   And fold you in a thousand dreams. Your far outlines, less seen than felt,   Which wind with hill propensities, In moonlight dreams I see you melt   Away in vague immensities. And, far away, I still can feel   Your...