Jean Toomer citations

“One seed becomes
An everlasting song, a singing tree,
Caroling softly souls of slavery,
What they were, and what they are to me,
Caroling softly souls of slavery.”

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Jean Toomer

from "Song of the Son"
Poems from Cane (1923)

“And there, a field rat, startled, squealing bleeds,
His belly close to ground. I see the blade,
Blood-stained, continue cutting weeds and shade”

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Jean Toomer

from "Reapers"
Poems from Cane (1923)

“Superstition saw
Something it had never seen before:
Brown eyes that loved without a trace of fear,
Beauty so sudden for that time of year.”

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Jean Toomer

from "November Cotton Flower"
Poems from Cane (1923)

“O singers, resinous and soft your songs
Above the sacred whisper of the pines,
Give virgin lips to cornfield concubines,
Bring dreams of Christ to dusky cane-lipped throngs.”

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Jean Toomer

from "Georgia Dusk"
Poems from Cane (1923)