Page:Negro poets and their poems (IA negropoetstheirp00kerl).pdf/193

Rh The same consoling smile appears To snuff my sighs and dry my tears: And fondest heart, of purest gold, Is hers whose name I here withhold, And pray naught ever change my theme, Or wake me from my dream.

Reflections upon the deeper meanings of life and death are inevitable to one situated as Mr. Dandridge is, provided he is given to serious reflections at all. And the thoughts of such a person are apt to have value for their sincerity. Two brief meditations in rhyme, as we may call them, will represent his thinking on such themes:

Black Brother, think you life so sweet That you would live at any price? Does mere existence balance with The weight of your great sacrifice? Or, can it be you fear the grave Enough to live and die a slave? O, Brother! be it better said, When you are gone and tears are shed, That your death was the stepping stone Your children’s children cross’d upon. Men have died that men might live: Look every foeman in the eye! If necessary, your life give For something, ere in vain you die.