Category: African-American
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“Bury Me in a Free Land” by Frances E.W. Harper (1825 – 1911)
“… I ask no monument, proud and high, To arrest the gaze of the passers-by; All that my yearning spirit craves, Is bury me not in a land of slaves.”
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“The Misanthropist” by James Monroe Whitfield (1822 – 1871)
The Misanthropist BY JAMES MONROE WHITFIELD In vain thou bid’st me strike the lyre, And sing a song of mirth and glee, Or, kindling with poetic fire, Attempt some higher minstrelsy; In vain, in vain! for every thought That issues from this throbbing brain, Is from its first conception fraught With gloom and darkness, woe…
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“Liberty and Slavery” by George Moses Horton (1798 – 1884)
“…How long have I in bondage lain, And languished to be free! Alas! and must I still complain— Deprived of liberty…”
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“At the Closed Gates of Justice” by James D. Corrothers
“…To be a Negro in a day like this— Alas! Lord God, what evil have we done? Still shines the gate, all gold and amethyst, But I pass by, the glorious goal unwon, “Merely a Negro”—in a day like this!”
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“Sonnet” by Alice Dunbar- Nelson
“…The thought of violets meant florists’ shops, 5 And bows and pins, and perfumed papers fine; And garish lights, and mincing little fops…”
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“The Wife-Woman” by Anne Spencer
“We trekked into a far country, My friend and I. Our deeper content was never spoken, But each knew all the other said…”
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“Negro Seranade” by James Edwin Campbell
“…I’ll sing dis night twel broad day-light, Ur bu’s’ my froat wid tryin’, ’Less you come down, Miss ’Lindy Brown, 15 An’ stops dis ha’t f’um sighin’!”
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“Welt” by Georgia Douglas Johnson
Welt Georgia Douglas Johnson Would I might mend the fabric of my youth That daily flaunts its tatters to my eyes, Would I might compromise awhile with truth Until our moon now waxing, wanes and dies. For I would go a further while with you, And drain this cup so tantalant and fair Which meets…
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“My Country ‘Tis of Thee” by W.E.B. Du Bois
“My native country thee Land of the slave set free, Thy fame I love. I love thy rocks and rills…”
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“For My People” by Margaret Walker
“For my people walking blindly spreading joy, losing time being lazy, sleeping when hungry, shouting when burdened, drinking when hopeless, tied, and shackled and tangled among …”
Stanza & Story 