Page:Negro poets and their poems (IA negropoetstheirp00kerl).pdf/128

106 elusive or mystical and rare fancies. I will give one of his brief lyrics as an example of the qualities to which I allude:

No more from out the sunset, No more across the foam, No more across the windy hills Will Sandy Star come home. He went away to search it, With a curse upon his tongue, And in his hands the staff of life Made music as it swung. I wonder if he found it, And knows the mystery now: Our Sandy Star who went away With the secret on his brow.

In a number of Mr. Braithwaite’s lyrics, as in this one, there is an atmosphere of mystery that, with the charming simplicity of manner, strongly suggests Blake. There is a strangeness in all beauty, it has been said. There is commonly something of Faëryland in the finest lyric poetry. Another lyric illustrating this quality in Mr. Braithwaite is the following:

It’s a long way the sea-winds blow Over the sea-plains blue,— But longer far has my heart to go Before its dreams come true.