James Weldon Johnson was an influential Black author. He is also remembered as a civil rights leader and a novelist. His works included God’s Trombones and The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man. He is responsible for bringing a great deal of Black music, poetry, and other arts into the public spotlight.
In ‘Fifty Years’ James Weldon Johnson celebrates the anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation. The prose is filled with a sense of excitement and joy at this momentous occasion.
O brothers mine, today we stand
Where half a century sweeps our ken.
Since God, through Lincoln’s ready hand.
Struck off our bonds and made us men.
‘Lift Every Voice and Sing’ by James Weldon Johnson is commonly referred to as the African American national anthem. It explores themes of freedom, suffering, and joy.
Lift every voice and sing
Till earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
‘Mother Night’ by James Weldon Johnson describes a speaker’s optimistic and comforting beliefs in regards to what is waiting after death.
Eternities before the first-born day,
Or ere the first sun fledged his wings of flame,
Calm Night, the everlasting and the same,
A brooding mother over chaos lay.
‘Prayer at Sunrise’ by James Weldon Johnson describes the power of the sun and a speaker’s request to be granted strength from God.
Now thou art risen, and thy day begun.
How shrink the shrouding mists before thy face,
As up thou spring’st to thy diurnal race!
‘Sence You Went Away’ by Johnson portrays a world dimmed and disordered by the absence of a loved one, capturing deep emotional loss.
Seems lak to me de stars don’t shine so bright,
Seems lak to me de sun done loss his light,
Seems lak to me der’s nothin’ goin’ right,
Sence you went away.
‘Sonnet’ by James Weldon Johnson encourages facing fears with bravery, affirming hope’s triumph over despair.
My heart be brave, and do not falter so,
Nor utter more that deep, despairing wail.
Thy way is very dark and drear I know,
But do not let thy strength and courage fail;
‘The Creation’ is one of the famous poems by James Weldon Johnson, an American writer, and civil rights activist. This poem depicts the story of Genesis in a pellucid manner.
And God stepped out on space,
And he looked around and said:
I'm lonely—
I'll make me a world.
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