Georgia Blanche Douglas Camp Johnson, better known as Georgia Douglas Johnson, was an American poet, one of the earliest African-American female playwrights, and a member of the Harlem Renaissance... (wikipedia)
I battered the cordons around me/ And cradled my wings on the breeze,/ Then soared to the uttermost reaches/ With rapture, with power, with ease!
Rise with the hour for which you were made.
I've learned of life this bitter truth/ Hope not between the crumbling walls Of mankind's gratitude to find repose,/ But rather,/ Build within thy own soul/ Fortresses!
The heart of a woman falls back with the night,/ And enters some alien cage in its plight,/ And tries to forget it has dreamed of the stars,/ While it breaks, breaks, breaks on the sheltering bars.