Benjamin Griffith Brawley, "First Sight" (1906)
That I should ever love you-- didnot dream
that by and by I should unhappy deem
Each day that brough no message to my ear;
You were so young, so wicked, and so near
To all that pained me that it did not seem
That sometime in the after years the gleam
That comes with love would bid me have no fear;
But all those days are over and are gone;
Above them rests the Never-Nevermore;
At midnight in the silence and anon
It is your voice that trembles o'er and o'er--
Your heart that thrills me with its own sweet tone--
Your love that bids me claim you all my own.
Published in Voice of the Negro, June 1906