Page:Negro poets and their poems (IA negropoetstheirp00kerl).pdf/244

222 She claims dat offen rail ruff hides Am boun’ erroun’ hi’ grade insides; W’ile sum dat ’pear “sharp ez a tack” Kinceals a heart dat’s hard an’ black; An’, to prove her way ob thinkin’, Gibs fo’ zample Abeham Linkin. Ole “Hones’ Abe,” so lank an’ tall, Worn’t no parlah posin’ doll: Yet he stood out miles erbove Uddah men, in truf an’ love. An’ in han’lin’ ’fairs of state, Proved de greates’ ob de great. In makin’ great men, Nature mus’ Fo’got erbout de beauty dus’ An’ fashun dem frum nachel clay, De gritty kine, dat doan decay. But, mos’ her time she spent, I know, Erpon de parts dat duzen show.

Two poems by Sterling M. Means, one in standard English and one in dialect may well be placed here side by side for comparison as being identical in theme and feeling, and differing but in manner. They are taken from his book entitled The Deserted Cabin and Other Poems:

’Tis a scene so sad and lonely, ’Tis the site of ancient toil; Where our fathers bore their burdens, Where they sleep beneath the soil;