The Suppliant
LONG have
I beat with timid hands upon life's leaden door,
Praying the
patient, futile prayer my fathers prayed before,
Yet I remain without the close,
unheeded and unheard,
And never
to my listening ear is borne the waited word.
Soft o'er the threshold of the years there
comes this counsel cool:
The strong demand, contend, prevail;
the beggar is a fool!
Georgia Douglas Johnson (1880 - 1966)
Georgia Douglas Johnson is best remembered as one of the foremost female playwright and
doyen of the
Harlem Renaissance. A powerful poet as well, she died on May 14, 1966.
The Suppliant is from her 1922 book
Bronze: a book of verse.
Sources:
Public domain text taken from The Poets’ Corner:
http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/2001/johnson0101.html
CST Approved