Complete Poems

by Johnson, James Weldon

• ISBN13: 9780141185453
• ISBN10: 0141185457
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-10-01
• Publisher: Penguin Classics

Summary

A comprehensive volume of writings by a seminal figure in African American literature and culture.This year marks the centenary of "Lift Every Voice and Sing", James Weldon Johnson's most famous lyric, now embraced as the Negro National Anthem. In celebration, this Penguin original presents all the poems from Johnson's published works - Fifty Years and Other Poems (1917), Gods Trombones (1927), and Saint Peter Relates an Incident of the Resurrection Day (1935) - along with a number of previously unpublished poems.

Author Biography

James Weldon Johnson was born in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1871. Among the first to break through the barriers segregating his race, he was educated at Atlanta University and at Columbia and was the first black admitted to the Florida bar. He was also, for a time, a songwriter in New York, American consul in Venezuela and Nicaragua, executive secretary of the NAACP, and professor of creative literature at Fisk University—experiences recorded in his autobiography, Along This Way. Other books by him include Saint Peter Relates an Incident, Black Manhattan, and God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse. In addition to his own writing, Johnson was the editor of pioneering anthologies of black American poetry and spirituals. He died in 1938.

Table of Contents

Introduction	xv
Suggestions for Further Reading	xxiii
Chronology	xxix
PART I. GOD'S TROMBONES: SEVEN NEGRO SERMONS IN VERSE
Preface to God's Trombones	5	(8)
Listen, Lord---A Prayer	13	(2)
The Creation	15	(3)
The Prodigal Son	18	(4)
Go Down Death---A Funeral Sermon	22	(3)
Noah Built the Ark	25	(6)
The Crucifixion	31	(4)
Let My People Go	35	(7)
The Judgment Day	42	(7)
PART II. SAINT PETER RELATES AN INCIDENT AND FIFTY YEARS AND OTHER POEMS
Saint Peter Relates an Incident of the Resurrection Day	49	(6)
O Black and Unknown Bards	55	(2)
Brothers---American Drama	57	(3)
O Southland!	60	(1)
We to America	61	(1)
Mother Night	62	(1)
The Young Warrior	63	(1)
The White Witch	64	(2)
My City	66	(1)
The Glory of the Day Was in Her Face	67	(1)
Life	68	(1)
The Black Mammy	69	(1)
Fragment	70	(2)
Mother, Farewell! (from the Spanish of Placido)	72	(1)
Girl of Fifteen	73	(1)
The Suicide	74	(1)
Down by the Carib Sea	75	(5)
Sunrise in the Tropics	75	(1)
Los Cigarrillos	75	(1)
Teestay	76	(1)
The Lottery Girl	77	(1)
The Dancing Girl	78	(1)
Sunset in the Tropics	79	(1)
Deep in the Quiet Wood	80	(1)
Prayer at Sunrise	81	(1)
Her Eyes Twin Pools	82	(1)
Vashti	83	(3)
If I Were Paris	86	(1)
Ghosts of the Old Year	87	(1)
Beauty Never Old	88	(1)
Blessed Sleep	89	(1)
The Greatest of These Is War	90	(2)
A Poet to His Baby Son	92	(2)
Ma Lady's Lips Am Like de Honey	94	(2)
A Plantation Bacchanal	96	(1)
Tunk	97	(2)
Brer Rabbit, You's de Cutes' of' Em All	99	(1)
Answer to Prayer	100	(1)
A Banjo Song	101	(1)
The Rivals	102	(6)
Sence You Went Away	108	(1)
Lift Every Voice and Sing	109	(2)
Envoy	111	(4)
Introduction to Fifty Years and Other Poems	115	(2)
Brander Matthews
Fifty Years	117	(5)
To Horace Bumstead	122	(1)
The Color Sergeant	123	(1)
From the German of Uhland	124	(1)
Before a Painting	125	(1)
I Hear the Stars Still Singing	126	(1)
A Mid-Day Dreamer	127	(1)
The Temptress	128	(1)
The Ghost of Deacon Brown	129	(2)
``Lazy''	131	(1)
Omar	132	(1)
Voluptas (I)	133	(1)
The Word of an Engineer	134	(2)
The Gift to Sing	136	(1)
Morning, Noon and Night	137	(1)
The Awakening	138	(1)
Venus in a Garden	139	(1)
Nobody's Lookin' But de Owl and de Moon	140	(1)
You's Sweet to Yo' Mammy Jes de Same	141	(1)
July in Georgy	142	(1)
Dat Gal o' Mine	143	(1)
The Seasons	144	(1)
'Possum Song	145	(2)
An Explanation	147	(1)
De Little Pickaninny's Gone to Sleep	148	(5)
PART III. COLLEGE YEARS AND OTHER POEMS
Moods	153	(1)
A Passing Melody	154	(1)
The River	155	(1)
Helene	156	(1)
The Class of'94	157	(5)
Grandmother's Bible	162	(1)
A Dream	163	(1)
Sonnet	164	(1)
Sonnet---The Secret	165	(1)
Class Poem	166	(5)
Voluptas (II)	171	(1)
Optimistic Sam	172	(1)
Mobile Mardi Gras	173	(1)
After My First Week Teaching in the Country	174	(2)
To a Brook Near My School House	176	(1)
A Recollection	177	(1)
The Last Waltz	178	(1)
To a Friend	179	(1)
Only Trust Me	180	(1)
A Brand	181	(1)
Christmas Carol	182	(1)
Miserable	183	(1)
To H.B.	184	(1)
To a Friend, with a Rose	185	(1)
A Heathen	186	(1)
To My Valentine	187	(1)
Ode to Florida	188	(2)
Acknowledgment	190	(2)
The Passionate Lover	192	(3)
Art vs. Trade	195	(1)
The Poet's Harp	196	(2)
I Love Thee Still	198	(1)
To Louie (I)	199	(1)
A Fragment (I)	200	(1)
Untitled Poem (``Was what you thought love, but passing'')	201	(1)
Untitled Poem (``Come with me my love and wander'')	202