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Immortality

Frank Horne

1899 –

1974

To be forever young
and ride like a tipsy Triton
on the crest of a wave
that is just forever breaking. . . .
Days—an eternal dawning
heralded with the fanfare of sun,
Nights—a blaze of glory
the swishing tail of a comet,
Life—an infinite loving
Sweeping to the peak of anticipation
Trembling breathlessly at the brink of realization. . . .

From The Book of American Negro Poetry (Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1922), edited by James Weldon Johnson. This poem is in the public domain.

Frank Smith Horne was born in New York, New York, on August 18, 1899, to the private contractor and builder, Edwin Fletcher Horne, and to Cora Calhoun Horne. He was the third of four sons. Horne’s family was middle-class, and his parents were active, early members of the NAACP. He was an uncle to singer and actress Lena Horne. Horne earned a BS from City College of New York in 1921, and later graduated from the Northern Illinois College of Ophthalmology with the degree of doctor of optometry in 1923. He completed his education with an MA from USC in 1932.

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Immortality

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