A Voice from the South / By a Black Woman of the South

by Anna J. Cooper

The midnight vision brooding in my face!

Come near me,

And hear me,

While from my lips the words of Fate are told.

A black and terrible memory masters me,

The shadow and the substance of deep wrong;

You know the past, hear now what is to be:

From the midnight land,

Over sea and sand,

From the green jungle, hear my Voodoo-song;