Thomas Millard Henry, "A Sonnet in Memory of Lucian B. Watkins" (1921)
Whose song was sweet and bold, whose face was black,
Who audience ahd not evolved, alack!
to cherish all he brought them from the skies?
The swin has had a pearl. How few the eyes
That followed him when on that horse's back
he reared up throug the air that has no track,
To where non but Apollo's darlings rise.
He sang and "loved and lost," but nevermore
Will such sad themes be his; for at the gate
Of sweet Elysium he'll learn a song
With raptures deeper than was his before
High love of song admits one in that state
Forever!--think, forever's very long.
Published in The Negro World, February 26, 1921