I. FREE-VERSE
In Negro newspapers and magazines, rarely as yet in books, are to be found some free-verse productions of which I will give some specimens. From Will Sexton I shall quote here two brief poems in this form and in a later chapter another (p. 233). His Whitemanesque manner will be remarked. These brief pieces will suggest a poet of some force:
Songs of Contemporary Ethiopia
THE BOMB THROWER
Down with everything black!
Down with law and order!
Up with the red flag!
Up with the white South!
I am America’s evil genius.
THE NEW NEGRO
Out of the mist I see a new America—a land of ideals.
I hear the music of my fathers blended with the “Stars and Stripes Forever.”
I am the crown of thorns Tyranny must bear a thousand years—
I am the New Negro.
Another vers-librist of individual quality is Andrea Razafkeriefo. He is a prolific contributor to The Negro World, the newspaper organ of the
