THE CASTAWAYS
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he vivid grass with visible delightSpringing triumphant from the pregnant earth,The butterflies, and sparrows in brief flightChirping and dancing for the season’s birth,The dandelions and rare daffodilsThat touch the deep-stirred heart with hands of gold,The thrushes sending forth their joyous trills,--Not these, not these did I at first behold!But seated on the benches daubed with green,The castaways of life, a few asleep,Some withered women desolate and mean,And over all, life’s shadows dark and deep.Moaning I turned away, for miseryI have the strength to bear but not to see. EXHORTATION: SUMMER, 1919 Through the pregnant universe rumbles life’s terrific thunder,And Earth’s bowels quake with terror; strange and terrible storms break,Lightning-torches flame the heavens, kindling souls of men, thereunder:Africa! long ages sleeping, O my motherland, awake! In the East the clouds glow crimson with the new dawn that is breaking,And its golden glory fills the western skies.O my brothers and my sisters, wake! arise!For the new birth rends the old earth and the very dead are waking,Ghosts are turned flesh, throwing off the grave’s disguise,And the foolish, even children, are made wise;For the big earth groans in travail for the strong, new world in making--O my brothers, dreaming for dim centuries,Wake from sleeping; to the East turn, turn your eyes! Oh the night is sweet for sleeping, but the shining day’s for working;Sons of the seductive night, for your children’s children’s sake,From the deep primeval forests where the crouching leopard’s lurking,Lift your heavy-lidded eyes, Ethiopia! awake! In the East the clouds glow crimson with the new dawn that is breaking,And its golden glory fills the western skies.O my brothers and my sisters, wake! arise!For the new birth rends the old earth and the very dead are waking,Ghosts are turned flesh, throwing off the grave’s disguise,And the foolish, even children, are made wise;For the big earth groans in travail for the strong, new world in making--O my brothers, dreaming for long centuries,Wake from sleeping; to the East turn, turn your eyes!
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