What use de wheel, when hub and spokes is warped and split, and rotten? What use dis dried-up cotton-stalk, when Life done picked my cotton? I'se like a word dat somebody said, and den done been for gotten. But, Dinah! Shuh dat gal jes' like dis little hick'ry tree, I would not proud persume-but I'll boldly make reques'; Sence Jacob had dat wrastlin'-match, I, too, gwine do my bes'; When Jacob got all underholt, de Lord he answered Yes! And what for waste de vittles, now, and th'ow away de bread, Jes' for to strength dese idle hands to scratch dis ole bald head? T'ink of de 'conomy, Marster, ef dis ole Jim was dead! Stop ;-ef I don't believe de Debble 's gone on up de stream! Jes' now he squealed down dar;-hush; dat's a mighty weakly scream! Yas, sir, he's gone, he's gone ;-he snort way off, like in a dream! O glory hallelujah to de Lord dat reigns on high! De Debble's fai'ly skeered to def, he done gone flyin' by ; You, Dinah; ain't you 'shamed, now, dat you didn' trust to grace? I heerd you thrashin' th'u' de bushes when he showed his face! You fool, you think de Debble couldn't beat you in a race? I tell you, Dinah, jes' as shuh as you is standin' dar, When folks starts prayin', answer-angels drops down th’u' de a'r. Yas, Dinah, whar'ould you be now, jes' 'ceptin' fur dat pra'r? BALTIMORE, 1875. UNREVISED EARLY POEMS. These unrevised poems are not necessarily exponents of Mr. Lanier's later teaching, but are offered as examples of his youthful spirit, his earlier methods and his instructive growth. To many friends they present in addition a wealth of dear associations. But, putting Mr. Lanier upon trial as an artist, it is fair to remember that probably none of these poems would have been republished by him without material alterations, the slightest of which no other hand can be authorized to make. THE JACQUERIE-A FRAGMENT. CHAPTER I. ONCE on a time, a Dawn, all red and bright Into his rough new-bursten husk, and shut -Once certain hounds that knew of many a chase, That they had ta'en to give a lord some sport, -Good hounds, that would have died to give lords sport- As knights had been no better things than boars, And took revenge as bloody as a man's, Unhoundlike, sudden, hot i' the chops, and sweet. Seeming to doze, with wrinkled eye-lid drawn, And of dim hungers in his heart and wings. |