Jean Toomer

Jean Toomer was born on December 26, 1894, in Washington D.C. Associated with the Harlem Renaissance, he published a brilliant book early in the 1920s, but then absented himself from Harlem for the rest of the

Song of the Son

by Jean Toomer (1894–1967)

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16

Pour O pour that parting soul in song,

O pour it in the sawdust glow of night,

Into the velvet pine-smoke air to-night,

And let the valley carry it along.

 O land and soil, red soil and sweet-gum tree, 
 So scant of grass, so profligate of pines, 
 Now just before an epoch's sun declines, 
 Thy son, in time, I have returned to thee, 

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