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Text
Songs to the Dark Virgin
English source:
Langston Hughes
I.
Would
That I were a jewel,
A shattered jewel,
That all my shining brilliants
Might fall at thy feet,
Thou dark one.
II.
Would
That I were a garment,
A shimmering, silken garment,
That all my folds
Might wrap about thy body,
Absorb thy body,
Hold and hide thy body,
Thou dark one.
III.
Would
That I were a flame,
But one sharp, leaping flame
To annihilate thy body,
Thou dark one.
from _The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes_
_The Weary Blues, 1926 volume_
Would
That I were a jewel,
A shattered jewel,
That all my shining brilliants
Might fall at thy feet,
Thou dark one.
II.
Would
That I were a garment,
A shimmering, silken garment,
That all my folds
Might wrap about thy body,
Absorb thy body,
Hold and hide thy body,
Thou dark one.
III.
Would
That I were a flame,
But one sharp, leaping flame
To annihilate thy body,
Thou dark one.
from _The Collected Poems of Langston Hughes_
_The Weary Blues, 1926 volume_
Composer
Florence Price
Florence Price (1887-1953) is widely admired as the first African-American woman to be a successful a composer of symphonies in the 1930s. Price’s comfortable social status undoubtedly afforded her a certain level of social mobility and class…