Page:Negro poets and their poems (IA negropoetstheirp00kerl).pdf/246

224 the true spirit of art. I should rank his book, elsewhere named, as one of the few best the Negro has contributed to literature. I will give here one specimen of his dialect verse:

Go en fetch er lawyer, ’Tilda, ’Kaze I wants ter make mah will; Neenter min’ erbout de doctor— ’Tain’t no use ter take er pill.— Chunk up de kitchen fire, En fetch mah easy-ch’er, En put er piller in it: Maybe I’ll git better hyeah.

I done hyeahed de doctor say it—de doctor hisse’f said it— I’m plumb chock full o’ microbes en mah time’s ercomin’ quick. So, ’stid o’ up en fussin’ wid me fer bein’ lazy, Yer’d better be er nussin’ me, ’kaze I’m jes’ mighty sick.

I ’spec’ I must er cotch it Back in Tennessee; ’Kaze, fur ez I kin ’member, I wuz bad ez I could be— P’intly hated hoein’ ’taters— Couldn’t chop er stick o’ wood— Couldn’t pick er sack o’ cotton— Never wuz er lick o’ good.