Page:Negro poets and their poems (IA negropoetstheirp00kerl).pdf/243

Rh Neber min’ what’s true to-morrow So you libes a dream to-day. Neber min’ what tax is levied So it’s not on craps or play. Neber min’ how hard you labors So you does it to de en’ Dat de judge is boun’ to sen’ you An’ your record to de “pen.” Neber min’ your manhood’s risin’ So you habe a way to stay it. Neber min’ folks’ good opinion So you have a way to slay it. Neber min’ man’s why an’ wharfo’ So de worl’ is big an’ roun. Neber min’ whar next you’s gwine to So you’s six foot under groun’.

Raymond Garfield Dandridge in The Poet and Other Poems has included a handful of dialect pieces which prove him a master of this species of composition. I will select but one to represent this class of his work here:

I ’fess Ise ugly, big, an’ ruff, Mah voice is husky, mannah’s gruff; But, mah gal sed, “Neb mine yore hide, I jedged you by yore inside side”; An’ sed, dat she hab alwuz foun', De gole beneaf de surfuss groun’.