Transformation

I return the bitterness,
Which you gave to me;
When I wanted loveliness
Tantalant and free.

I return the bitterness
It is washed by tears;
Now it is a loveliness
Garnished through the years.

I return it loveliness,
Having made it so;
For I wore the bitterness
From it long ago.

Credit

From Caroling Dusk (Harper & Brothers, 1927), edited by Countee Cullen. This poem is in the public domain.

Author

Lewis Grandison Alexander

Lewis Grandison Alexander was born in 1900 in Washington D. C.. An editor, actor, and playwright, his poems appeared in the magazines The Crisis, Opportunity, and Fire!!, as well as the anthologies The New Negro (Albert and Charles Boni, 1925), Caroling Dusk (Harper & Brothers, 1927), and Ebony and Topaz (1927). He died in 1945.

Date Published

01/01/1926