Read His Day Is Done Online

Authors: Maya Angelou

His Day Is Done

This poem was written

on behalf of the American people

on the occasion of the death of

Nelson Mandela on December 5, 2013
,

at the request of the U.S. Department of State
.

Copyright © 2014 by Maya Angelou

All rights reserved.

Published in the United States by Random House, an imprint and division of Random House LLC, a Penguin Random House Company, New York.

R
ANDOM
H
OUSE
and the H
OUSE
colophon are registered trademarks of Random House LLC.

Photograph credits are located on
this page
.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN-PUBLICATION DATA
Angelou, Maya.
His day is done : a Nelson Mandela tribute / Maya Angelou.
pages    cm
ISBN 978-0-8129-9701-9
eBook ISBN 978-0-8129-9702-6
1. Mandela, Nelson, 1918–2013—Poetry. I. Title.
PS3551.N464H57 2014      811’.54—dc23 2013049202

www.atrandom.com

Cover design: Anna Bauer

v3.1

Contents

Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world
.

—N
ELSON
M
ANDELA

His day is done,

Is done.

The news came on the wings of a wind

Reluctant to carry its burden.

Nelson Mandela’s day is done.

The news, expected and still unwelcome,

Reached us in the United States and suddenly

Our world became somber.

Our skies were leadened.

His day is done.

(photo credit 1.1)

We see you, South African people,

Standing speechless at the slamming

Of that final door

Through which no traveler returns.

Our spirits reach out to you:

Bantu, Zulu, Xhosa, Boer.

We think of you

And your Son of Africa,

Your Father,

Your One More Wonder of the World.

(photo credit 1.2)

We send our souls to you

As you reflect upon

Your David armed with

A mere stone facing down

The Mighty Goliath.

Your man of strength, Gideon,

Emerging triumphant

Although born into the brutal embrace of Apartheid,

Scarred by the savage atmosphere of racism,

Unjustly imprisoned

In the bloody maws of South African dungeons.

(photo credit 1.3)

(photo credit 1.4)

Would the man survive?

Could the man survive?

His answer strengthened men and women

Around the world.

In the Alamo in San Antonio, Texas,

On the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco,

In Chicago’s Loop,

In New Orleans’ Mardi Gras,

In New York City’s Times Square,

We watched as the hope of Africa sprang

Through the prison’s doors.

(photo credit 1.5)

His stupendous heart intact,

His gargantuan will

Hale and hearty.

He had not been crippled by brutes

Nor was his passion for the rights

Of human beings

Diminished by twenty-seven years of imprisonment.

(photo credit 1.6)

Other books

Victory of Eagles by Naomi Novik
A Writer's Notebook by W. Somerset Maugham
The Loveliest Dead by Ray Garton
Lethal Outbreak by Malcolm Rose
Primitive Secrets by Deborah Turrell Atkinson
Summer on Kendall Farm by Shirley Hailstock
The Day That Saved Us by Mindy Hayes
The Witch by Jean Thompson


readsbookonline.com Copyright 2016 - 2024