Page:Negro poets and their poems (IA negropoetstheirp00kerl).pdf/107

Rh allied, on the one hand by its august refrain to the Spirituals, on the other hand it touches the most refined and perfected art; such, for example, as Rossetti's ballads or Vachel Lindsay's cantatas. It can scarcely be wondered at that the people of his race should call this untimely dead singer their Negro Lycidas.

II.

THE DREAM AND THE SONG

So oft our hearts, beloved lute,

In blossomy haunts of song are mute;

So long we pore, ’mid murmurings dull,

O'er loveliness unutterable;

So vain is all our passion strong!

The dream is lovelier than the song.

The rose thought, touched by words, doth turn

Wan ashes. Still, from memory’s urn,

The lingering blossoms tenderly

Refute our wilding minstrelsy.

Alas! we work but beauty's wrong!

The dream is lovelier than the song.

Yearned Shelley o’er the golden flame?

Left Keats, for beauty's lure, a name

But “writ in water”? Woe is me!

To grieve o’er floral faëry.

My Phasian doves are flown so long—

The dream is lovelier than the song!

Ah, though we build a bower of dawn,

The golden-winged bird is gone,