Page:Negro poets and their poems (IA negropoetstheirp00kerl).pdf/160

138 We will not hate. Law, custom, creed and caste, All notwithstanding, here we hold us fast. Down through the years the mighty ships of state Have all been broken on the rocks of hate. We will not cease to laugh and multiply. We slough off trouble, and refuse to die. The Indian stood unyielding, stark and grim; We saw him perish, and we learned of him To mix a grain of philosophic mirth With all the crass injustices of earth. We will not use the ancient carnal tools. These never won, yet centuries of schools, Of priests, and all the work of brush and pen Have not availed to win the wisest men From futile faith in battleship and shell: We see them fall, and mark that folly well. We will not waver in our loyalty. No strange voice reaches us across the sea; No crime at home shall stir us from this soil. Ours is the guerdon, ours the blight of toil, But raised above it by a faith sublime We choose to suffer here and bide our time. And if we hold to this, we dream some day Our countrymen will follow in our way.

But though teacher Leslie Pinckney Hill is singer too. And though he has a message for America he also has music. His powers are rich, varied, cultured, and developing. His second book will be better than his excellent first.