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Classic and Contemporary Poetry
MAGALU, by HELENE JOHNSON Poem Explanation Poet's Biography
First Line: Summer comes / the ziczac hovers
Last Line: For a creed that will not let you dance?
Variant Title(s): Magula
Subject(s): African Americans - Women; Missionaries & Missions
First Line: Summer comes / the ziczac hovers
Last Line: For a creed that will not let you dance?
Variant Title(s): Magula
Subject(s): African Americans - Women; Missionaries & Missions
Summer comes.
The ziczac hovers
'Round the greedy-mouthed crocodile.
A vulture bears away a foolish jackal.
The flamingo is a dash of pink
Against dark green mangroves,
Her slender legs rivaling her slip neck.
The laughing lake gurgles delicious music in its throat
And lulls to sleep the lazy lizard,
A nebulous being on a sun-scorched rock.
In such a place,
In this pulsing, riotous gasp of color,
I met Magalu, dark as a tree at night,
Eager-lipped, listening to a man with a white collar
And a small black book with a cross on it.
Oh Magalu, come! Take my hand and I will read you poetry,
Chromatic words,
Seraphic symphonies,
Fill up your throat with laughter and your heart with song.
Do not let him lure you from your laughing waters,
Lulling lakes, lissome winds.
Would you sell the colors of your sunset and the fragrance
Of your flowers, and the passionate wonder of your forest
For a creed that will not let you dance?
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NEW ENGLAND, SPRINGTIME by NORMAN DUBIE
YOUR MISSION by ELLEN M. HUNTINGTON GATES
THE LATTER DAY by THOMAS HASTINGS
MISSIONARY HYMN by REGINALD HEBER
THE INVITATION (TO TOM HUGHES) by CHARLES KINGSLEY
CHANT OF DEPARTURE; A MISSIONARY'S PRAYER by ALFRED BARRETT
THE PROPHECY OF ST. ORAN by MATHILDE BLIND
ON THE DEATH OF REV. LEVI PARSONS by JOHN GARDINER CALKINS BRAINARD
TO A MISSIONARY, WHO ATTENDED ... MEETING OF BIBLE SOCIETY by JOHN GARDINER CALKINS BRAINARD