by James Weldon Johnson · 1917
Poetry · Classics
James Weldon Johnson's poems, including the title poem marking fifty years since emancipation, and "O Black and Unknown Bards", which honours the makers of the spirituals.
Content note: Written in 1917, these poems deal with racism and use language of their time.
I hear the stars still singing To the beautiful, silent night, As they speed with noiseless winging Their ever westward flight. I hear the waves still falling On the stretch of lonely shore, But the sound of a sweet voice calling I shall hear, alas! no more.
GIRL OF FIFTEEN
Girl of fifteen, I see you each morning from my window As you pass on your way to school. I do more than see, I watch you. I furtively draw the curtain aside. And my heart leaps through my eyes And follows you down the street; Leaving me behind, half-hid And wholly ashamed.
What holds me back, Half-hid behind the curtains and wholly ashamed, But my forty years beyond your fifteen?
Girl of fifteen, as you pass There passes, too, a lightning flash of time In which you lift those forty summers off my head, And take those forty winters out of my heart.
THE SUICIDE
For fifty years, Cruel, insatiable Old World, You have punched me over the heart Till you made me cough blood. The few paltry things I gathered You snatched out of my hands. You have knocked the cup from my thirsty lips. You have laughed at my hunger of body and soul.
