Ode to Ethiopia

"Ode to Ethiopia" is a poem by Paul Laurence Dunbar, a noted African-American poet who achieved a national reputation in the United States before the end of the nineteenth century, published in his 1893 book Oak and Ivy.

Summary
Dunbar presents ideas of Ethiopia as a mother, shows a pride in the African-American people, and encourages hope as well as racial pride. His poem emphasizes a belief in a brighter future ahead for the people of Ethiopia which is based on their own honor and hard labour.

Afro American Symphony
Part of this poem was used as a prologue to the fourth movement of William Grant Still's Symphony No. 1 "Afro-American":


 * Be proud, my race, in mind and soul;
 * Thy name is writ on Glory's scroll
 * In characters of fire.
 * High 'mid the clouds of Fame's bright sky
 * Thy banner's blazoned folds now fly,
 * And truth shall lift them higher.