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Poems in Lyrics of Lowly Life, 1896

Ere Sleep Comes Down To Soothe The Weary Eyes.

The Poet and His Song

Retort

Accountability

Frederick Douglass

Life

The Lesson

The Rising of the Storm

Sunset

The Old Apple-Tree

A Prayer

Passon and Love

The Seedling

Promise and Fulfilment

Song

Ode to Ethiopia

The Corn-Stalk Fiddle

The Master-Player

The Mystery

Not They Who Soar

Whittier

Two Songs

A Banjo Song

Longing

The Path

The Lawyers' Ways

Ode for Memorial Day

Premonition

Retrospection

Unexpressed

Song of Summer

Spring Song

To Louise

The Rivals

The Lover and the Moon

Conscience and Remorse

Ione

Religion

Deacon Jones' Grievance

Alice

After the Quarrel

Beyond the Years

After a Visit

Curtain

The Spellin'-Bee

Keep A-Pluggin' Away

Night of Love

Columbian Ode

A Border Ballad

An Easy-Goin' Feller

A Negro Love Song

The Dilettante: A Modern Type

By the Stream

The Colored Soldier

Nature and Art

After While

The Ol' Tunes

Melancholia

The Wooing

Merry Autumn

When De Co'n Pone's Hot

Ballad

The Change Has Come

Comparison

A Corn-Song

Discovered

Disappointed

Invitation to Love

He Had His Dream

Good-Night

A Coquette Conquered

Nora: A Serenade

October

A Summer's Night

Ships that Pass in the Night

The Delinquent

Dawn

A Drowsy Day

Dirge

Hymn

Preparation

The Deserted Plantation

The Secret

The Wind and the Sea

Riding to Town

We Wear the Mask

The Meadow Lark

One Life

Changing Time

Dead

A Confidence

Phyllis

Right's Security

If

The Song

Signs of the Time

Why Fades a Dream?

The Sparrow

Speakin' O' Christmas

Lonesome

Growing' Gray

To the Memory of Mary Young

When Malindy Sings

The Party

The Poet and His Song.

A SONG is but a little thing,
And yet what joy it is to sing!
In hours of toil it gives me zest,
And when at eve I long for rest;
When cows come home along the bars,
And in the fold I hear the bell,
As Night, the shepherd, herds his stars,
I sing my song, and all is well.

There are no ears to hear my lays,
No lips to lift a word of praise;
But still, with faith unfaltering,
I live and laugh and love and sing.
What matters yon unheeding throng?
They cannot feel my spirit's spell,
Since life is sweet and love is long,
I sing my song, and all is well.

My days are never days of ease;
I till my ground and prune my trees.
When ripened gold is all the plain,
I put my sickle to the grain.
I labor hard, and toil and sweat,
While others dream within the dell;
But even while my brow is wet,
I sing my song, and all is well.

Sometimes the sun, unkindly hot,
My garden makes a desert spot;
Sometimes a blight upon the tree
Takes all my fruit away from me;
And then with throes of bitter pain
Rebellious passions rise and swell;
But--life is more than fruit or grain,
And so I sing, and all is well.

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