Rencontre
My heart that was so passionless
Leapt high last night when I saw you!
Within me surged the grief of years
And whelmed me with its endless rue.
My heart that slept so still, so spent,
Awoke last night,--to break anew!
Jessie Fauset
Most common moods
Poems
Fragment
The breath of life imbued those few dim days!
Yet all we had was this,--
A flashing smile, a touch of hands, and once
A fleeting kiss.
Blank futile death inheres these years between!
Still naught have you and I
But frozen tears, and stifled words, and once
A sharp caught cry.
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Oblivion
From the French of Massillon Coicou (Haiti)
I hope when I am dead that I shall lie In some deserted grave--I cannot tell you why, But I should like to sleep in some neglected spot Unknown to every one, by every one forgot.
There lying I should taste with my dead breath The utter lack of life, the fullest sense of death; And I should never hear the note of jealousy or hate, The tribute paid by passersby to tombs of state.
To me would never penetrate the prayers and tears That futilely bring torture to dead and dying ears; There I should lie annihilate and my dead heart would bless Oblivion--the shroud and envelope of happiness.
Dead Fires
If this is peace, this dead and leaden thing, Then better far the hateful fret, the sting. Better the wound forever seeking balm Than this gray calm!
Is this pain's surcease? Better far the ache, The long-drawn dreary day, the night's white wake, Better the choking sigh, the sobbing breath Than passion's death!
Biography
Jessie Redmon Fauset was an American novelist, poet, and editor who was central to the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s. Born in 1882 and raised in Philadelphia, she studied at Cornell University and later earned a master's degree from the University of Pennsylvania. From 1919 to 1926, she served as literary editor of The Crisis, the magazine of the NAACP, where she encouraged and published the work of many emerging Black writers. Her poetry, which appeared in The Crisis and other periodicals, often employed traditional forms such as the sonnet and addressed themes of race, gender, and romantic love. Fauset's verse is characterized by its lyrical and refined language, reflecting the intellectual aspirations of the African American middle class. She frequently explored the tensions between personal desire and social expectation, particularly for Black women. Although best known for her four novels, including There Is Confusion and Plum Bun, her poetic output contributed to the broader artistic movement of the Harlem Renaissance. Her significance lies in her dual role as an influential editor who shaped the careers of others and as a writer whose work provided nuanced depictions of Black life.
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