Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SONNET TO NEGRO SOLDIERS, by JOSEPH SEAMON COTTER JR.


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

SONNET TO NEGRO SOLDIERS, by                    
First Line: They shall go down unto life's borderland
Last Line: There breaks this day their dawn of liberty.
Subject(s): African Americans - Military; Soldiers' Writings


They shall go down unto Life's Borderland,
Walk unafraid within that Living Hell,
Nor heed the driving rain of shot and shell
That 'round them falls; but with uplifted hand
Be one with mighty hosts, an arméd band
Against man's wrong to man—for such full well
They know. And from their trembling lips shall swell
A song of hope the world can understand.
All this to them shall be a glorious sign,
A glimmer of that resurrection morn,
When age-long Faith crowned with a grace benign
Shall rise and from their brows cast down the thorn
Of prejudice. E'en though through blood it be,
There breaks this day their dawn of Liberty.





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