Will H. Hendrickson, "A Hot Summer's Day" (1905)
The myriad winds that roar and wave;
The clouds, those fire-screens of the sun,
Have melted gently one by one
As if to hide their forms in haze
From the weary toiler's wrathful gaze.
The cricket sings his stinging lay,
The traveller by the dusty way
Sits 'neath kind Nature's awning green
And looks around with sluggish mein,
While through the heated, dazzling air
The dinner bell announces fare.
Published in Colored American Magazine, October 1905