Page:Negro poets and their poems (IA negropoetstheirp00kerl).pdf/249

Rh Bird a-whistlin’ and a-swayin’ In de live-oak tree; Seems to me he keeps a-sayin’, “Kiss dat gal fo’ me.” Look heah, Mister Mockin’ Bird, Gwine to take you at yo’ word; If I meets ma Waterloo, Gwine to blame it all on you. Oh, ma lady’s lips am like de honey, Ma lady’s lips am like de rose; An’ I’m jes like de little bee a-buzzin’ ’Round de flowers wha’ de nectah grows. Ma lady’s lips dey smile so temptin’, Ma lady’s teeth so white dey shine, Oh, ma lady’s lips so tantalizin’, Ma lady’s lips so close to mine. Honey in de rose, I ’spose, is Put der fo’ de bee; Honey on her lips, I knows, is Put der jes fo’ me. Seen a sparkle in her eye, Heard her heave a little sigh; Felt her kinder squeeze mah han’, ’Nuff to make me understan’.

Numerous other writers would furnish quite as good specimens of dialectical verse as those given. This medium of artistic expression is not being neglected, it is only made secondary and, as it were, incidental. By perhaps half of the poets it is not used. With a few, and they of no little