The Buckley School's founder believed that all public speakers should hone their presentation skills by reading poetry out loud. We keep that worthwhile practice alive by including a poem in our magazine each month for you to read aloud.
Jessie Redmon Fauset was the literary editor who introduced Langston Hughes, Anne Spencer, and Countee Cullen to readers nationwide.
A poet and novelist herself, Fauset worked as literary editor for The Crisis, the NAACP's magazine cofounded by W.E.B. Du Bois. In his memoir, Langston Hughes said Fauset was one of three key editors who made the careers of Harlem Renaissance poets possible. "Kind and critical—but not too critical for the young—" wrote Hughes, "they nursed us along until our books were born."
Fauset was born in 1882 in Camden, New Jersey. A stellar student, she received a scholarship to Cornell University, where she was likely the first black female student. She earned a degree in classical languages there, then taught in Baltimore and Washington D.C. before moving to New York to edit The Crisis.
Fauset published poems, short stories, and several novels. She also edited The Brownies' Book, the first magazine for African American children and an influential publication in children's literature.
Below, find one of Fauset's poems to read out loud.
Douce Souvenance
Again, as always, when the shadows fall,
In that sweet space between the dark and day,
I leave the present and its fretful claims
And seek the dim past where my memories stay.
I dream an old, forgotten, far-off dream,
And think old thoughts and live old scenes anew,
Till suddenly I reach the heart of Spring—
The spring that brought me you!
I see again a little woody lane,
The moonlight rifting golden through the trees;
I hear the plaintive chirp of drowsy bird
Lulled dreamward by a tender, vagrant breeze;
I hold your hand, I look into your eyes,
I touch your lips,—oh, peerless, matchless dower!
Oh, Memory thwarting Time and Space and Death!
Oh, Little Perfect Hour!
