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"Poetry for the People": Reading Garveyism through Poetry

birth in the earth

This first line features an internal rhyme ("birth" and "earth") making for a lively opening to the poem.

This page is referenced by:

The Birth of a Nation, by Ethel Trew Dunlap
There’s a birth in the earth--
   Not that on the screen;
   A race is travailing--
   It’s emblem is seen.
   The shower--the flower:
   The blossom has burst,
   Sprung, as did Jesus,
   From soil they called cursed.
   It blooms--it perfumes--
   Pressed to Africa’s breast--
   That siren who’s calling
   The captive to rest.

From the July 30, 1921 issue.