‘Twas mercy brought me from my Pagan land, Taught my benighted soul to understand That there’s a God, that there’s a Saviour too: Once I redemption neither sought nor knew. Some view our sable race with scornful eye, “Their colour is a diabolic die.” Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain, May be refin’d, and join th’ angelic train.
Climbing: 7 Songs on 8 Poems by African-Americans
Song Cycle by Tom Cipullo (b. 1960)
1. On Being Brought From Africa to America  [sung text checked 1 time]
Authorship:
- by Phillis Wheatley (1753 - 1784)
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]2. Ice Storm  [sung text checked 1 time]
Unable to sleep, or pray, I stand [ ... ]
Authorship:
- by Robert Hayden (1913 - 1980), copyright ©
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This text may be copyright, so we will not display it until we obtain permission to do so or discover it is public-domain.3. Yet Do I Marvel  [sung text checked 1 time]
I doubt not God is good, well-meaning, kind And did He stoop to quibble could tell why The little buried mole continues blind, Why flesh that mirrors Him must some day die, Make plain the reason tortured Tantalus Is baited by the fickle fruit, declare If merely brute caprice dooms Sisyphus To struggle up a never-ending stair. Inscrutable His ways are, and immune To catechism by a mind too strewn With petty cares to slightly understand What awful brain compels His awful hand. Yet do I marvel at this curious thing: To make a poet black, and bid him sing!
Authorship:
- by Countee Cullen (1903 - 1946), "Yet do I marvel"
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]4. Incident  [sung text checked 1 time]
Once riding in old Baltimore, Heart-filled, head-filled with glee; I saw a Baltimorean Keep looking straight at me. Now I was eight and very small, And he was no whit bigger, And so I smiled, but he poked out His tongue and called me, "Nigger." I saw the whole of Baltimore From May until December; Of all the things that happened there That's all that I remember.
Authorship:
- by Countee Cullen (1903 - 1946), "Incident"
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]5. Personal  [sung text checked 1 time]
In an envelope marked: PERSONAL God addressed me a letter. In an envelope marked: PERSONAL I have given my answer.
Authorship:
- by Langston Hughes (1902 - 1967)
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Researcher for this text: Emily Ezust [Administrator]6. The Point  [sung text checked 1 time]
Land’s end. And sound and river come [ ... ]
Authorship:
- by Robert Hayden (1913 - 1980), copyright ©
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This text may be copyright, so we will not display it until we obtain permission to do so or discover it is public-domain.7. Dawn  [sung text checked 1 time]
An angel, robed in spotless white, Bent down and kissed the sleeping Night. Night woke to blush; the sprite was gone. [Men]1 saw the blush and called it Dawn.
Authorship:
- by Paul Laurence Dunbar (1872 - 1906), "Dawn", appears in Majors and Minors, first published 1895
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View original text (without footnotes)1 Hall: "Man"
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Garrett Medlock [Guest Editor]