Page:Negro poets and their poems (IA negropoetstheirp00kerl).pdf/104

82 Slender silvery drumsticks,

On the ancient drum,

Beat the mellow music,

Bidding life to come.

Chords of earth awakened,

Notes of greening spring,

Rise and fall triumphant

Over everything.

Slender silvery drumsticks

Beat the long tattoo—

God the Great Musician

Calling life anew.

COMPENSATION

I plucked a rose from out a bower fair,

That overhung my garden seat;

And wondered I if, e'er before, bloomed there

A rose so sweet.

Enwrapt in beauty I scarce felt the thorn

That pricked me as I pulled the bud;

Till I beheld the rose, that summer morn,

Stained with my blood.

I sang a song that thrilled the evening air,

With beauty somewhat kin to love,

And all men knew that lyric song so rare

Came from above.

And men rejoiced to hear the golden strain;

But no man knew the price I paid,

Nor cared that out of my soul's deathless pain

The song was made.