I hear the halting footsteps of a lass In Negro Harlem when the night lets fall Its veil. I see the shapes of girls who pass To bend and barter at desire's call. Ah, little dark girls who in slippered feet Go prowling through the night from street to street! Through all the long night until the silver break Of day the little gray feet know no rest; Through the lone night until the last snow-flake Has dropped from heaven upon the earth's white breast, The dusky, half-clad girls of tired feet Are trudging, thinly shod, from street to street. Ah, stern harsh world, that in the wretched way Of poverty, dishonor and disgrace, Has pushed the timid little feet of clay, The sacred brown feet of my fallen race! Ah, heart of me, the weary, weary feet In Harlem wandering from street to street. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONNET TO HIS FRIEND R.L. IN PRAISE OF MUSIQUE AND POETRIE by RICHARD BARNFIELD THE PAINS OF SLEEP by SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE O SLEEP, MY BABE! by SARA COLERIDGE SHERMAN by RICHARD WATSON GILDER EPIGRAM: 59. ON SPIES by BEN JONSON BROWN PENNY by WILLIAM BUTLER YEATS |