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

(A Negro Serenade) De river is a-glistenin’ in de moo… De owl is set’n high up in de tree… De little stars am twinklin’ wid a… De night seems only jes fu’ you an…

I knew not who had wrought with sk… What I beheld; nor by what laws o… He had created life and love and h… On canvas, from mere color, curve… Silent I stood and made no move o…

Mother, shed no mournful tears, But gird me on my sword; And give no utterance to thy fears… But bless me with thy word. The lines are drawn! The fight is…

‘She’s built of steel From deck to keel, And bolted strong and tight; In scorn she’ll sail The fiercest gale,

How would you have us, as we are? Or sinking 'neath the load we bear… Our eyes fixed forward on a star? Or gazing empty at despair? Rising or falling? Men or things?

Her eyes, twin pools of mystic lig… The blend of star-sheen and black… O’er which, to sound their glamour… A man might bend, and vainly gaze. Her eyes, twin pools so dark and d…

O Southland! O Southland! Have you not heard the call, The trumpet blown, the word made k… To the nations, one and all? The watchword, the hope-word,

When buffeted and beaten by life’s… When by the bitter cares of life o… I want no surer haven than your ar… I want no sweeter heaven than your… When over my life’s way there fall…

Skin as black an’ jes as sof’ as a… Teeth as white as ivory '€”well de… Eyes dat’s jes as big an’ bright a… An’ dat hol’ some sort o’ light lu… Hair don’t hang 'way down her back…

I sometimes take you in my dreams… Back in the ages long ago; a land… A land, by night, of jeweled skies… Within whose arms, outstretched an… Where twilight fell like silver fl…

Eternities before the first-born d… Or ere the first sun fledged his w… Calm Night, the everlasting and t… A brooding mother over chaos lay. And whirling suns shall blaze and…

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…

Lift ev’ry voice and sing, Till earth and heaven ring, Ring with the harmonies of Libert… Let our rejoicing rise High as the list’ning skies,

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