The Harlem Dancer – Claude McKay (1920) Applauding youths ...
The Harlem Dancer – Claude McKay (1920) Applauding youths ...
The Harlem Dancer – Claude McKay (1920) Applauding youths ...
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From the Dark Tower <strong>–</strong> Countee Cullen (1924)<br />
We shall not always plant while others reap<br />
<strong>The</strong> golden increment of bursting fruit,<br />
Not always countenance, abject and mute,<br />
That lesser men should hold their brothers cheap;<br />
Not everlastingly while others sleep<br />
Shall we beguile their limbs with mellow flute,<br />
Not always bend to some more subtle brute;<br />
We were not made eternally to weep.<br />
<strong>The</strong> night whose sable breast relieves the stark,<br />
White stars is no less lovely being dark,<br />
And there are buds that cannot bloom at all<br />
In light, but crumple, piteous, and fall;<br />
So in the dark we hide the heart that bleeds,<br />
And wait, and tend our agonizing seeds.<br />
Tableau <strong>–</strong> Countee Cullen (1924)<br />
Locked arm in arm they cross the way,<br />
<strong>The</strong> black boy and the white,<br />
<strong>The</strong> golden splendor of the day,<br />
<strong>The</strong> sable pride of night.<br />
From lowered blinds the dark folk stare,<br />
And here the fair folk talk,<br />
Indignant that these two should dare<br />
In unison to walk.<br />
Oblivious to look and work<br />
<strong>The</strong>y pass, and see no wonder<br />
That lightning brilliant as a sword<br />
Should blaze the path of thunder.