Afro-American Fragment

So long,
So far away
Is Africa.
Not even memories alive
Save those that history books create,
Save those that songs beat back into the blood⁠—
Beat out of blood with words sad sung
In strange un-Negro tongue⁠—
So long,
So far away
Is Africa.

Subdued and time lost are the drums⁠—
And yet, through some vast mist of race
There comes this song
I do not understand,
This song of atavistic land,
Of bitter yearnings lost, without a place⁠—
So long,
So far away
Is Africa’s
Dark face.