Classic Poem

Dedicated to Miss Marian Anderson

Prologue Nolanda, the African maiden, does the jungle dance and is conscious of the wild ecstasy of jungle rhythm. Later, the urgent primal call within her seems to forecast the centuries of bondage under the pitiless white light of advanced civilization, to be fraught with untold suffering for her people, who, in spite of SHADOWS, attain to great heights.

Nolanda follows Life into the shaded places, seeking to know their mystic meanings. Life assures her that what she sees and hears are only SHADOWS from the realm of rich African attainment.

Life called insistently —
" Come, leave the glare
Of sun-lighted highways,
Come where hidden recesses
Give pause and understand. "

I followed Life
Into the shaded place,
And listened —
Ravishing notes of song,
Lilted their wing-ed way,
Into the very heart of me:
Words, rich-toned words,
Laid bare the burning dramas
Of the soul.

I looked into faces,
Smooth ebony, golden-tinted brown,
Pale yellows:
Into eyes, glowing with steady light
From the altar-fires
Of age-old yearnings.

" O Life, " I cried,
" O subtle interpreter
Of unknown destinies,
Unfold the mystic meaning
Of these shaded places. "
Life made answer,
" These are not mysteries:
Smooth ebony, golden-tinted brown, pale yellows,
Are the inheritors
Of ancient Art-Realms;
Haunting harmonies, burning words,
Are only forecasts
Of things that be. " In these verses, I have attempted to interpret our inherinces from an early African civilization[.]