Four Walls
Four great walls have hemmed me in.
Four strong, high walls:
Right and wrong,
Shall and shan’t.
The mighty pillars tremble when
My conscience palls
And sings its song—
I can, I can’t.
If for a moment Samson’s strength
Were given me I’d shove
Them away from where I stand;
Free, I know I’d love
To ramble soul and all,
And never dread to strike a wall.
Again, I wonder would that be
Such a happy state for me . . .
The going, being, doing, sham—
And never knowing where I am.
I might not love freedom at all;
My tired wings might crave a wall—
Four walls to rise and pen me in
This conscious world with guarded men.
From Caroling Dusk (Harper & Brothers, 1927), edited by Countee Cullen. This poem is in the public domain.
Blanche Taylor Dickinson
Blanche Taylor Dickinson was a poet, short story writer, and journalist associated with the Harlem Renaissance. Dickinson was born to Laura and Thomas Taylor on a farm near Franklin, Kentucky, on April 15, 1896. She received her education in various public schools before enrolling at Bowling Green Academy. She then attended Simmons College of Kentucky (then Simmons University) in Louisville, a private, historically-Black college, but earned no degree.