Invocation from <ref target="http://harlemshadows.org">Harlem Shadows: A Digital Edition</ref> This file is produced from the material at Harlem Shadows: A Digital Edition December 6, 2015 Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommerical 4.0 International This file is generated from a master file containing the text of Claude McKay's 1922 collection of poems Harlem Shadows and related documents (other appearances of McKay's poems, reviews, and related material). The base text for this file is drawn from the item listed below. Claude McKay Invocation The Seven Arts (October, 1917): 741 Invocation Invocation Ancestral Spirit, hidden from my sight By modern Time's unnumbered works and ways On which in awe and wonderment I gaze, Where hid'st thou in the deepness of the night? What evil powers thy healing presence blight? Thou who from out the dark and dust didst raise The Ethiop standard in the curtained days, Before the white God said: Let there be light! Bring ancient music to my modern heart, Let fall the light upon my sable face That once gleamed on the Ethiopian's art; Lift me to thee out of this alien place So I may be, thine exiled counterpart, The worthy singer of my world and race.