CHURCH REVIEW                    421


                          IV.
           AFRO-AMERICAN POETS AND THEIR VERSE



               "OH many the poets that are sown by nature, men
                endowed with highest gifts, the vision and the
                faculty Divine; yet wanting the accomplish-
                ment of verse, which in the docile season of
                their youth, it was denied them to acquire
                through lack of culture and the inspiring aid of
                books."--Wordsworth.
                Had the great  English poet  ad-
dressed these lines particularly to the Negro race, they
could not be more fitting than they are, for it is, in my
opinion, one of the encouraging features of our much
criticized race that they are largely poets and musicians,
composing ill their night of bondage hymns of plaint-
ive sweetness, to which the crowned heads of Europe
have bent a charmed ear, and in these later days writing
verses that find grace in the eyes of the distinguished
author and critic, William Dean Howells.
  Any one who has been a close reader of the columns
of our various race journals, has doubtless observed the
poetical effusions which have so frequently adorned
them.    Verses good;  verses bad; verses indifferent.
Written in all styles of metre; and, in many instances,
without the remotest idea of versification.  Occasional-
ly, a bit of genuine poetry has greeted our eyes and re-
ceived a hearty welcome, because it was a production of
   3




			

African Methodist Episcopal Church Review, Vol. 14, Num. 4

Afro-American Poets and Their Verse

Davis

Volume:  14
Issue Number:  04
Page Number:  421
Date:  04/1898