The Harlem Renaissance is noted for its flowering of African American culture through art and Literature. Though authors chose to focus on a wide range of topics at this time, the topic of d**h is one which crops up in texts multiple times by various authors. The dates and excerpts I have chosen to represent this theme in the Harlem Renaissance in no way depict d**h in the same way. Each author's view of d**h differs from the author before. In this way, the theme is not intended to work as a closed umbrella, in which everything is neatly meshed together, but as an open umbrella that covers all possible aspects of the theme.
1903 – From “I Want to Die While You Love Me” by Georgia Douglas Johnson
I want to die while you love me
And never, never see
The glory of this perfect day
Grow dim or cease to be.
1912 – From “If We Must Die” by Claude McKay
Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack,
Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back!
1916 – From “Tenebris” by Angelina Weld Grimké
The bricks are the color of blood and very small.
Is it a black hand,
Or is it a shadow?
1920 – From “The Wife Woman” by Anne Spencer
Then gayly I reach up from my shroud,
And you, glory-clad, reach down.
1923 – From “Heritage” by Gwendolyn B. Bennett
I want to feel the surging
Of my sad people's soul
Hidden by a minstrel-smile.
1924 – From “Dear Lovely d**h” by Langston Hughes
Dear lovely d**h,
Change is thy other name.
1925 – From “Yet Do I Marvel” by Countee Cullen
I doubt not that God is good, well-meaning, kind,
And did He stoop to quibble could tell why
The little buried mole continues blind,
Why flesh that mirrors Him must some day die
1926 – From “Invocation” by Helene Johnson
But let the weed, the flower, the tree,
Riotous, rampant, wild and free,
Grow high above my head.