Chaucer
Gone are the sensuous stars, and manifold,
Clear sunbeams burst upon the front of night;
Ten thousand swords of azure and of gold
Give darkness to the dark and welcome light;
Across the night of ages strike the gleams,
And leading on the gilded host appears
An old man writing in a book of dreams,
And telling tales of lovers for the years;
Still Troilus hears a voice that whispers, Stay;
In Nature’s garden what a mad rout sings!
Let’s hear these motley pilgrims wile away
The tedious hours with stories of old things;
Or might some shining eagle claim
These lowly numbers for the House of Fame!
From The Book of American Negro Poetry (Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1922), edited by James Weldon Johnson. This poem is in the public domain.
Benjamin Brawley
Benjamin Griffith Brawley was born in Columbia, South Carolina, on April 22, 1882 and was raised in Petersburg, Virginia. Brawley was the second eldest of nine children born to Margaret Saphronia (née Dickerson) and Edward McKnight Brawley. The elder Brawley was born in Charleston, South Carolina and was the first African American to earn a degree from Bucknell University. He was also the first president of Morris College in South Carolina and, later, served as president of Selma University in Alabama.