Jasper Tappan Phillips, "Unrequited Love" (1907)
And all was still,
I looked upon the fading scene
And felt the thrill
Of birds that sang their vesper hymns
In doleful strain;
And then the thoughts of my lost love
Filled me with pain.
I thought of how we used to love
In days of yore,
Before she sighed and told me that
Our love was o'er;
I long to see her smiling face
And hear her voice
That always bade me not to weep,
But rather to rejoice.
The man that claims her as a bride,
Has left me bare
He can but love and idolize
A gem so rare,
But as I think of my sad fate
I wish me dead,
Because I gave my heart's best love
To the girl he wed.
Published in The Voice of the Negro, May 1907