Georgia Douglas Johnson, "The Suppliant" (1922)
Praying the patient, futile prayer my fathers prayed before,
Yet I remain without the close, unheeded and unheard,
And never to my listening ear is borne the waited word.
Soft o’er the threshold of the years there comes this counsel cool:
The strong demand, contend, prevail; the beggar is a fool!
Published in Bronze, 1922
Also published in Caroling Dusk, 1927