Southern Mansions: a poem by Arna Bontempts

mar2842010

Updated a month ago

Lesson description

Southern Mansion Arna Bontemps (1902 –1973) Poplars are standing there still as death And ghosts of dead men Meet their ladies walking Two by two beneath the shade And standing on the marble steps. There is a sound of music echoing Through the open door And in the field there is Another sound tinkling in the cotton: Chains of bondmen dragging on the ground. The years go back with an iron clank, A hand is on the gate, A dry leaf trembles on the wall. Ghosts are walking. They have broken roses down And poplars stand there still as death. From The Book of American Negro Poetry (Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1922) edited by James Weldon Johnson. This poem is in the public domain.