Classic Poem

So long,
So far away
Is Africa.
Not even memories alive
Save those that history books create,
Save those that songs
Beat back into the blood —
Beat out of blood with words sad-sung
In strange un-Negro tongue —
So long,
So far away
Is Africa.

Subdued and time-lost
Are the drums — and yet
Through some vast mist of race
There comes this song
I do not understand,
This song of atavistic land,
Of bitter yearnings lost
Without a place —
So long,
So far away
Is Africa's