Page:Negro poets and their poems (IA negropoetstheirp00kerl).pdf/98

76 Around him lies the ripened grain

From every land and every age;

The weakest thresher should attain

Unto the wisdom of the sage.

Ambitious youth, this is the wealth

The ages have bequeathed to thee.

Thou canst not take thy share by stealth

Nor by mere ingenuity.

Thy better self must spur thee on

To win what time has made thy own;

No hand but labor's yet has drawn

The sweets that labor's hand has sown.

In verse presuming to be lyrical we hearken for the lyrical cry. That cry is in his lines, melodiously uttered, and poignant. For example:

The flowers take the tears Of the weeping night

And give them to the sun

For the day's delight.

My passion takes the joys

Of the laughing day

And melts them into tears

For my heart's decay.

The sweet sadness of those stanzas lingers with one. A stanza from a poem entitled “The Nation's Neglected Child” may help us to their secret: