Voices of the Dusk
I.
Do you hear the witches wailing?
Witches wailing, wailing, wailing,
Do you see the ghost robes trailing?
Ghost robes trailing, trailing, trailing
It is but a nighttime whisper,
But a whisper of the zephyr?
Or my soul in secret meeting
The dim soul whose fate is loving?
Tell me, tell me, tell me,
Voices of the dusk.
II.
Do you see those spirits lonely?
Spirits lonely, lonely, lonely.
Can they be for lost souls only?
Lost souls only, only, only.
Are they but the fearful phantoms,
Fearful phantoms from my fancy?
Or the sprites of conscience stricken
From a region long forgotten?
Tell me, tell me, tell me,
Voices of the Dusk.
This poem is in the public domain.
"Voices of the Dusk" originally appeared in Songs of the Soil (1916).
Fenton Johnson
Fenton Johnson was born in Chicago in 1888. He is regarded as a forerunner of the Harlem Renaissance. Johnson was born to Elijah, a railroad porter and one of the wealthiest African American Chicagoans, and Jesse (née Taylor). Johnson enrolled at the University of Chicago and attended both Northwestern University and Columbia University’s School of Journalism.