The Poetry of the Negro, 1746-1970: An Anthology

671 Pages·1970·6.223 MB·English

by  Langston Hughes, Arna Wendell Bontemps

TH E PO ETRY OF THE NEGRO
Langston Hughes’s reputation has, if anything, increased since
his death in 1967. His work has proved to have a timeless, univer­
sal appeal. In addition to his poetry, he wrote short stories, a
novel, a play, a biography, lyrics, A Pictorial History of the
Negro in America,, and, also with Arna Bontemps, The Book of
Negro Folklore.
A rna Bontemps is known as poet, anthologist, and children’s
writer. His Story of the Negro received the Jane Addams Chil­
dren s Book Award in 1956, and he has received numerous awards
for other books, including Anyplace but Here, Frederick Doug­
lass, Years of Negro Freedom, and Black Thunder.
ioo
The Poetry
o f the Negro
1746-1970
A N A N T H O L O G Y E D I T E D B Y
L A N G S T O N H U G H E S
A N D
A RN A BONTEMPS
ANCHOR PRESS/DOUBLEDAY & COMPANY, INC.
GARDEN CITY, NEW YORK
THE POETRY OF THE NEGRO (1746—1970) was originally pub­
lished by Doubleday & Company, Inc., in 1949. A revised and updated
edition was published in 1970.
ISBN: 0-385-05554-4
Copyright © 1970 by Arna Bontemps and George Houston Bass,
Executors of the Estate of Langston Hughes, and Arna Bontemps
Copyright © 1949 by Langston Hughes and Arna Bontemps
All Rights Reserved 1
Printed in the United States of America
CONTENTS
PREFACE XX1
I. NEGRO POETS OF THE U.S.A.
Lucy Terry 3
Bars Fight 3
Jupiter Hammon 4
An Evening Thought 4
Phillis W heatley 7
His Excellency General Washington 7
On Imagination * - 9
George Moses Horton 11
On Liberty and Slavery 11
Armand Lanusse 13
Epigram 13
Frances E. W. Harper t4
The Slave Auction x4
Let the Light Enter x5
Pierre Dalcour l(>
Verse Written in the Album of Mademoiselle---- 16
George Marion McClellan x7
The Feet of Judas
Joseph S. Cotter, Sr.
The Way-side Well
John W esley H olloway x9
Miss Meier lee T9
v
W. E. B. Du Bois 20
A Litany at Atlanta 20
James David C orrothers 25
Paul Laurence Dunbar 25
An Indignation Dinner 27
James W eldon Johnson 29
O Black and Unknown Bards 29
My City 31
Lift Every Voice and Sing 32
Paul Laurence Dunbar 34
Sympathy 34
Dawn 35
A Negro Love Song 36
When Malindy Sings 37
Little Brown Baby 40
A Death Song 42
Ere Sleep Comes Down toS oothe the Weary Eyes 43
Compensation 45
A lice Dunbar N elson 46
Sonnet 46
William Stanley Braithwaite 47
The House of Falling Leaves 47
The Watchers 48
White Magic: An Ode 49
Leslie Pinckney H ill 52
The Teacher 52
Tuskegee ^
Angelina W eld GrimkJj ^
A Winter Twilight 54
For the Candle Light ^
When the Green Lies over the Earth 56
Tenebris
Benjamin Brawley ^
My Hero ^
A nne Spencer ,50
Life-long, Poor Browning . . . <5o
vi
Letter to My Sister 61
At the Carnival 62
Lines to a Nasturtium 64
For Jim, Easter Eve 65
Jessie Redmond Fauset 66
Enigma 66
La Vie C’est la Vie 67
Dead Fires 68
Oblivion 69
Effie Lee N ewsome 7°
Morning Light 7°
Arctic Tern in a Museum 71
Little Birches 7 2
Georgia Douglas Johnson 73
The Heart of a Woman 73
Youth 74
Remember 75
The Suppliant 76
Old Black Men 77
Interracial 7 8
I Closed My Shutters Fast Last Night . . 79
Recessional 80
o T
My Little Dreams
W alter Adolphe Roberts 82
• 82
San Francisco
Villanelle of Washington Square 8 3
Vieux Carre 84
Fenton Johnson 85
Rulers 8 5
The Banjo Player 86
The Scarlet Woman 87
Tired 88
Aunt Jane Allen 89
When I Die 9°
The Lonely Mother 91
Who Is That A-walking in the Com? 92
vii
Binga Dismond 93
Status Quo 93
At Early Morn 94
Claude M cK ay 95
The Tropics in New York 95
After the Winter 96
Spring in New Hampshire 97
A Song of the Moon 98
Harlem Shadows 99
America 100
White Houses 01
If We Must Die 02
Baptism
°3
Flame-heart IC>4
Jean T oomer io<5
Banking Coal io6
The Blue Meridian 07
Joseph S. Cotter, Jr.
34
Supplication ^4
And What Shall You Say? 135
M elvin B. Tolson ^ 6
Dark Symphony ^<5
Lamda
4i
Do
43
Frank Horne [46
On Seeing Two Brown Boys in a Catholic Church 146
Kid Stuff
48
Toast
5°
Letters Found Near a Suicide
5i
Marcus B. Christian r ^
The Craftsman ^<5
McDonogh Day in New Orleans I57
Lewis A lexander r^g
Nocturne Varial
Dream Song
Transformation I(5o
viii
Margaret Danner 161
The Elevator Man Adheres to Form 161
Best Loved of Africa 162
Dance of the Abakweta i63
Sterling A. Brown 165
After Winter 165
Old Lem 167
Foreclosure 170
Remembering Nat Turner 172
Sister Lou 174
Clarissa Scott Delany 177
The Mask • 177
Solace 178
180
Joy
181
Interim
182
Langston Hughes
182
I, Too, Sing America .
183
Dream Variation
184
The Weary Blues
186
Mother to Son
187
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
188
Personal
. 189
Havana D earns
190
Harlem Sweeties
192
Merry-Go-Round
Let America Be America Again 193
196
I Thought It Was Tangiers I Wanted
198
Song for a Suicide
Harlem l99
200
Birmingham Sunday
202
Motto
203
Cultural Exchange
206
Gwendolyn B. Bennett
206
Sonnets
Lines Written at the Grave of Alexandre Dumas 208
ix