Good morning, daddy! I was born here, he said, watched Harlem grow until colored folks spread from river to river across the middle of Manhattan out of Penn Station dark tenth of a nation, planes from Puerto Rico, and holds of boats, chico, up from Cuba Haiti Jamaica, in buses marked New York from Georgia Florida Louisiana to Harlem Brooklyn the Bronx but most of all to Harlem dusky sash across Manhattan I've seen them come dark wondering wide-eyed dreaming out of Penn Station-- but the trains are late. The gates open-- Yet there're bars at each gate. What happens to a dream deferred? Daddy, ain't you heard? | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ON THE EMIGRATION TO AMERICA AND PEOPLING WESTERN COUNTRY by PHILIP FRENEAU MAY MORNING by CELIA LEIGHTON THAXTER TWELVE SONNETS: 3. THE VALLEY ROSES by GEORGE BARLOW (1847-1913) NATALIA'S RESURRECTION: 13 by WILFRID SCAWEN BLUNT GIBBON by WILLIAM LISLE BOWLES |