The Wild Goat

O you would clothe me in silken frocks
         And house me from the cold,
And bind with bright bands my glossy locks,
         And buy me chains of gold;

And give me—meekly to do my will—
         The hapless sons of men:—
But the wild goat bounding on the barren hill
         Droops in the grassy pen.

Credit

From Harlem Shadows (New York, Harcourt, Brace and company, 1922) by Claude McKay. This poem is in the public domain.