Page:Negro poets and their poems (IA negropoetstheirp00kerl).pdf/159

Rh A lyric of pure loveliness is the following, entitled

All the pleasance of her face Telleth of an inward grace; In her dark eyes I have seen Sorrows of the Nazarene; In the proud and perfect mould Of her body I behold, Rounded in a single view, The good, the beautiful, the true; And when her spirit goes up-winging On sweet airs of artless singing, Surely the heavenly spheres rejoice In union with a kindred voice.

Schoolmaster I said Mr. Hill was. To represent his didactic quality, not his purer lyrical note, nor yet his narrative beauty, I choose the following piece:

Four things we will not do, in spite of all That demons plot for our decline and fall; We bring four benedictions which the meek Unto the proud are privileged to speak, Four gifts by which amidst all stern-browed races We move with kindly hearts and shining faces.