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…

Tiny bit of humanity, Blessed with your mother’s face, And cursed with your father’s mind… I say cursed with your father’s mi… Because you can lie so long and so…

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

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…

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’,

Old Devil, when you come with hor… With diabolic grin and crafty leer… I say, such bogey-man devices whol… To waken in my heart a single fear… But when you wear a form I know s…

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…

To chase a never-reached mirage Across the hot, white sand, And choke and die, while gazing on Its green and watered strand.

(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…

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,

Cuddle down, ma honey, in yo’ bed, Go to sleep an’ res’ yo’ little he… Been a-kind o’ ailin’ all de day? Didn’t have no sperit fu’ to play? Never min’; to-morrer, w’en you we…

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

See! There he stands; not brave,… Of sullen stupor. Mark him well!… Not more like brute than man? Loo… No light is there; none, save the… In the now glaring, and now shifti…

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…