Countee Cullen, "A Brown Girl Dead" (1925)
White candles at head and feet,
Dark Madonna of the grave she rests;
Lord Death has found her sweet.
Her mother pawned her wedding ring
To lay her out in white;
She'd be so proud she'd dance and sing
To see herself tonight.
Published in Survey Graphic, March 1925
Also published in Color, 1925
Also published in The New Negro: an Interpretation, 1925