Once der was a meetin’ in de wilde… All de critters of creation dey wa… Brer Rabbit, Brer 'Possum, Brer… King Lion, Mister Terrapin, Mist… De question fu’ discussion was, '…

Enough of love! Let break its eve… Ended my youthful folly! for I kn… That, like the dazzling, glister-s… Celia, thou art beautiful, but col… I do not find in thee that warmth…

Weep not, weep not, She is not dead; She’s resting in the bosom of Jes… Heart-broken husband—weep no more; Grief-stricken son—weep no more;

O whitened head entwined in turban… O kind black face, O crude, but t… O foster-mother in whose arms ther… The race whose sons are masters of… It was thine arms that sheltered i…

No greater earthly boon than this… That those who some day gather ‘ro… In place of tears, may whisper of… ’He sang a song that reached the h…

O black and unknown bards of long… How came your lips to touch the sa… How, in your darkness, did you com… The power and beauty of the minstr… Who first from midst his bonds lif…

Look heah! 'Splain to me de reaso… Why you said to Squire Lee, Der wuz twelve ole chicken thieves In dis heah town, includin’ me. Ef he tole you dat, my brudder,

Out of the infinite sea of eternit… To climb, and for an instant stand Upon an island speck of time. From the impassible peace of the d… To wake, and blink at the garish l…

For fifty years, Cruel, insatiable Old World. You have punched me over the heart Till you made me cough blood. The few paltry things I gathered

The hand of Fate cannot be stayed… The course of Fate cannot be stee… By all the gods that man has made, Nor all the devils he has feared, Not by the prayers that might be p…

Seems lak to me de stars don’t shi… Seems lak to me de sun done loss h… Seems lak to me der’s nothin’ goin… Sence you went away. Seems lak to me de sky ain’t half…

W’en de banjos wuz a-ringin’, An’ de darkies wuz a-singin’, Oh, wuzen dem de good times sho! All de ole folks would be chattin’… An’ de pickaninnies pattin’,

Sometimes the mist overhangs my pa… And blackening clouds about me cli… But, oh, I have a magic way To turn the gloom to cheerful day— I softly sing.

(A Warning) ‘Simmons ripenin’ in de fall, You better run, Brudder 'Possum, run! Mockin’ bird commence to call,

When morning shows her first faint… I think of the tender blush That crept so gently to your cheek When first my love I dared to spe… How, in your glance, a dawning ray