to gain,
With lightning eye and tongue of thunder great,
The civic lead of thy illustrious train.
Next Bruce and Revels, senatorial twain;
John Lynch and Small emit a brilliant light,
And Langston, Pinchback, Cheatham all remain;
With Dancy, Vernon, Anderson, and White,
Liang Williams, Lyons, Terrell stand for "Civic Right."

XIII

In science's realm with Banneker we start,
Then read on Medicae's emblazoned wall:
"Dan Williams here first stitched the human heart!"
Close by the names of Curtis, Boyd, and Hall.
But others list'd and heard Invention's call,
In all its sweetness of the days of yore,
And Woods, the greatest foreman of them all,
Shouts on his voyage with Black and Baltimore:
"We come! we come! good Dame, thy region to explore!"

XIV

"I, too," said 'Monia Lewis, "can make a man!"
Then mould' his form with most artistic ease--
But all aeolian strains Blind Tom could scan,
And play as softly as the South Sea breeze
Upon his major and his minor keys!
Good Douglas gently wakes the violin's song,
And White leads home the zephyrs from the seas;
While Coleridge-Taylor with an art more strong
Full finds the key-note of Dame Nature's vesper song!

XV

If shady nooks in Poesy's realm they choose,
Or barks to drift the smooth, prosaic stream,
There Phillis held communion with the Muse,
And Chesnutt woke the "Colonel" from his dream!
Max Barber, Thompson, Knox and Fortune beam;
Great Braithwaite scales the classic mountain heights,
And Cooper, like a beacon light, will gleam;
While Dunbar, sun-like, sheds his holy lights
In dazzling splendor on his solar satellites!

XVI

These brilliant names shall never fade away:
Emblazoned in the sacred Hall of Fame,
They shall remain till dawns that direful Day,
The valid seal beneath thy sacred name.
Deft Tanner, artist, ever blazing flame,
With Pickens, Bruce and Locke of classic dell,
Old Truth and Harper, Yates and Ruffin came,
And Walker, Terrell, Williams, known so well
Long ere Marie had taught the hoary world to spell!

XVII

The learned Scarborough writes the classic Greek;
Dean Miller thinks in calculations cold;
While Cogman writes the annals of the meek,
DuBois reveals the secrets of the Soul!
But all shall read in letters gilded gold:
"Who teaches head and heart and hands, has won
The priceless boon, the guerdon of the goal,
The portion due thy most illustrious son,
Tuskege