William Stanley Braithwaite, "A Leave Taking" (1901)
Before you go—
Some sweet, sad thing
Remembering ,
Alas, to know---
Some hope you fed, some glance you gave,
Dead, now in Love's deep grave .
So speak, and then depart,
And I will keep
The best of you forever in my heart .
All else shall sleep
As if Death came and taught me to forget .
All but the best,
That your loved memory live
In my sad breast.
Published in Colored American Magazine, September 1901