Classic and Contemporary Poetry
THE NEGRO'S LAMENT, by JOHN WILLIS MENARD Poet's Biography First Line: How long, o god! How long must I remain Last Line: Of blood has paid the debt, and I am free! Subject(s): Racism; Racial Prejudice; Bigotry | ||||||||
How long, O God! how long must I remain Worse than an alien in my native land? For long years past I've toiled for other's gain Beneath Oppression's ruthless iron hand. Columbia! why art thou so great and fair, And so false and cruel to thine own? Goodness and Beauty, a proverbial pair, They in thy heritage, themselves disown. So fair and yet so false! thou art a lie Against both natural and human laws, -- A deformed dwarf, dropp'd from an angry sky To serve a selfish, and unholy cause! Ye sun-kiss'd lakes and hills of Liberty! And silvery flowing streams and fields! Your teeming gold and grain are not for me, My birthright only ostracism yields! My life is burdensome; year suceeds year With feeble hope: I try to emulate All that conspire to ennoble manhood's sphere; And yet I seem to war with angry Fate! O Liberty! I taste but half thy sweets In this thy boasted land of Equal Rights! Although I've fought on land and in thy fleets Thy foes, by day and by dim camp-fire lights! What more wouldst have me do? Is not my life -- My blood, an all-sufficient sacrifice? Wouldst thou have me transformed in the vain strife To change the fiat of the great Allwise? Of what avail is life -- why sigh and fret, When manly hopes are only born to fade? Although declared a man, a vassal yet By social caste -- a crime by heaven made! Far better for me not to have been born, Than live and feel the frownings of mankind; Endure its social hatred and its scorn, With all my blighting, forlorn hopes combined. O, cruel fate! -- O, struggle which unmans, And burdens every hope and every sigh! Thou art a boundless gulf over which spans Only the arching, storm-foreboding sky! Ah, woe is me! I feel my yearnings crush'd Ere they are born within my sighing heart; All hopes, all manly aspirations hush'd As with the power of Death's fatal dart! The rice birds sing as if in mocking glee, Scorn my long felt sorrows and my burning tears, Why mock me, birds? I only crave to be Like you, free to roam the boundless spheres! But still sing on! your cheerful music gives My fading hope a gleam of brighter days; Why should I grieve? the eternal God still lives! -- The sun still shines though clouds obscure his rays! The darkest hour is just before the break Of dawning victory of light and life, When Freedom's hosts with armor bright awake, To quell Oppression in the deadly strife! New hope is mine! for now I see the gleam Of beacon lights of coming liberty! A continent is shock'd -- a crimson stream Of blood has paid the debt, and I am free! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...BLACK WOMAN by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON FOREDOOM by GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON I MUST BECOME A MENACE TO MY ENEMIES by JUNE JORDAN A SONG FOR SOWETO by JUNE JORDAN ON THE LOSS OF ENERGY (AND OTHER THINGS) by JUNE JORDAN POEM ABOUT POLICE VIOLENCE by JUNE JORDAN DRAFT OF A RAP FOR WEN HO LEE by JUNE JORDAN THE NIGHT THAT LORCA COMES by BOB KAUFMAN THE MYSTIC RIVER by GALWAY KINNELL GOOD-BYE! OFF FOR KANSAS by JOHN WILLIS MENARD TO MY WIFE (AT KINGSTON, JAMAICA, WEST INDIES) by JOHN WILLIS MENARD |
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