She does not know Her beauty, She thinks her brown body Has no glory.
If she could dance Naked, Under palm trees And see her image in the river She would know.
But there are no palm trees On the street, And dish water gives back no images.
Men never know What they are doing. They always make a muddle Of their affairs, They always tie their affairs Into a knot They cannot untie. Then I come in Uninvited. They do not ask me in; I am the radical, The bomb thrower, I untie the knot That they have made, And they never thank me.
Her love is true I know, Much more true Than angel’s love; For angels love in heaven Where a thousand harps Are playing.
She loves in a tenement Where the only music She hears Is the cry of street car brakes And the toot of automobile horns And the drip of a kitchen spigot All day. Her love is true I know.
Dust,
Through which Proud blood Once flowed.
Dust,
Where a civilization Flourished.
Dust, The Valley of the Nile, Dust,
You proud ones, proud of the skill With which you play this game--Civilization; Do not forget that it is a very old game. Men used to play it on the banks Of the Tigris and the Euphrates When the world was a wilderness.
There is a circle around China Where once a wall stood. Carthage is a heap of ashes. And Rome knew the pomp and glory You know now.
The Coliseum tells a story The Woolworth Building may repeat.
Dust, Pharaohs and their armies sleep there.
Dust, Shall it stir again?
Will Pharaohs rise and rule And their armies march once more?
Civilization continually shifts Upon the places of the earth.
Waring Cuney was an American poet born in 1906 and died in 1976, associated with the Harlem Renaissance. His poetry often addresses themes of racial identity, self-image, and the African American experience. Cuney's best-known work is the poem "No Images", which was later set to music and recorded by Nina Simone. His verse is characterized by concise, lyrical language and a focus on interiority. Although his published output was small, his work has been included in numerous anthologies of African American literature. Cuney's writing reflects the cultural and political concerns of Black artists in the early twentieth century.
Apprentissage pas à pas, enregistrements vocaux à partager et rappels de révision.
