III.A Group of Singing Johnsons

O’er all my song the image of a faceLieth, like shadow on the wild, sweet flowers.The dream, the ecstasy that prompts my powers,The golden lyre’s delights, bring little graceTo bless the singer of a lowly race.Long hath this mocked me: aye, in marvelous hours,When Hera’s gardens gleamed, or Cynthia’s bowers,Or Hope’s red pylons, in their far, hushed place!But I shall dig me deeper to the gold;Fetch water, dripping, over desert milesFrom clear Nyanzas and mysterious NilesOf love; and sing, nor one kind act withhold.So shall men know me, and remember long,Nor my dark face dishonor any song.Death has silenced the muse of this dark singer,one of the best hitherto. That his endowment wasuncommon and that his achievement, as evinced bythese poems, is one of distinction, to use Mr.Howells’s word, every reader equipped to judgeof poetry must admit.

Death has silenced the muse of this dark singer,one of the best hitherto. That his endowment wasuncommon and that his achievement, as evinced bythese poems, is one of distinction, to use Mr.Howells’s word, every reader equipped to judgeof poetry must admit.

In all rosters the name Johnson claims liberal space. Five verse-smiths with that cognomen will be presented in this book, and there is a sixth. These many Johnsons are no further related to one another, so far as I know, than that they are all Adam’s offspring, and poets. Only three ofthem will be presented in this chapter: James Weldon Johnson, of Florida, author ofFifty Years and Other Poems(1917); Charles Bertram Johnson, of Missouri, author ofSongs of My People(1918); Fenton Johnson, of Chicago, author ofA Little Dreaming(1914);Unions of the Dusk(1915), andSongs of the Soil(1916). The fourth and fifth are women, and will find a place in another group; the sixth is Adolphus Johnson, author ofThe Silver Chord, Philadelphia, 1915. The three mentioned above will be treated in the order in which they have been named.

Now of New York, but born in Florida and reared in the South, James Weldon Johnson is a man of various abilities, accomplishments, and activities. He was graduated with the degrees of A. B. and A. M. from Atlanta University and later studied for three years in Columbia University. First a school-principal, then a practitioner of the law, he followed at last the strongest propensity and turned author. His literary work includes light operas, for which his brother, J. Rosamond Johnson, composed the music, and a novel entitledThe Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man. Having been United States consul in two Latin-American countries, he is a master of Spanish and has made translations of Spanishplays and poems. The English libretto ofGoyescaswas made by him for the Metropolitan Opera Company in 1915. He is also one of the ablest editorial writers in the country. In thePublic Ledger’scontest of 1916 he won the third prize. His editorials are widely syndicated in the Negro weekly press. Poems of his have appeared inThe Century,The Crisis, andThe Independent.

James Weldon Johnson

Professor Brander Matthews in his Introduction toFifty Years and Other Poemsspeaks of “the superb and soaring stanzas” of the title-poem and describes it as “a poem sonorous in its diction, vigorous in its workmanship, elevated in its imagination, and sincere in its emotion.” Doubtless this will seem like the language of exaggeration. The sceptic, however, must withhold judgment until he has read the poem, too long for presentation here. Mr. Johnson’s poetical qualities can be represented in this place only by briefer though inferior productions. A poem ofspecial significance, and characterized by the qualities noted by Professor Matthews in “Fifty Years,” is the following:

O SOUTHLAND!

O Southland! O Southland!Have you not heard the call,The trumpet blown, the word made knownTo the nations, one and all?The watchword, the hope-word,Salvation’s present plan?A gospel new, for all—for you:Man shall be saved by man.O Southland! O Southland!Do you not hear to-dayThe mighty beat of onward feet,And know you not their way?’Tis forward, ’tis upward,On to the fair white archOf Freedom’s dome, and there is roomFor each man who would march.O Southland, fair Southland!Then why do you still clingTo an idle age and a musty page,To a dead and useless thing?’Tis springtime! ’Tis work-time!The world is young again!And God’s above, and God is love,And men are only men.O Southland! my Southland!O birthland! do not shirkThe toilsome task, nor respite ask,But gird you for the work.Remember, rememberThat weakness stalks in pride;That he is strong who helps alongThe faint one at his side.

O Southland! O Southland!Do you not hear to-dayThe mighty beat of onward feet,And know you not their way?’Tis forward, ’tis upward,On to the fair white archOf Freedom’s dome, and there is roomFor each man who would march.

O Southland, fair Southland!Then why do you still clingTo an idle age and a musty page,To a dead and useless thing?’Tis springtime! ’Tis work-time!The world is young again!And God’s above, and God is love,And men are only men.

O Southland! my Southland!O birthland! do not shirkThe toilsome task, nor respite ask,But gird you for the work.Remember, rememberThat weakness stalks in pride;That he is strong who helps alongThe faint one at his side.

For pure lyric beauty and exquisite pathos, Wordsworthian in both respects, but no hint of imitation, the following stanzas may be set, without disadvantage to them, by the side of any in our literature:

The glory of the day was in her face,The beauty of the night was in her eyes,And over all her loveliness, the graceOf Morning blushing in the early skies.And in her voice, the calling of the dove;Like music of a sweet, melodious part.And in her smile, the breaking light of love;And all the gentle virtues in her heart.And now the glorious day, the beauteous night,The birds that signal to their mates at dawn,To my dull ears, to my tear-blinded sightAre one with all the dead, since she is gone.

The glory of the day was in her face,The beauty of the night was in her eyes,And over all her loveliness, the graceOf Morning blushing in the early skies.

And in her voice, the calling of the dove;Like music of a sweet, melodious part.And in her smile, the breaking light of love;And all the gentle virtues in her heart.

And now the glorious day, the beauteous night,The birds that signal to their mates at dawn,To my dull ears, to my tear-blinded sightAre one with all the dead, since she is gone.

Yet one other poem of this fine singer’s I will give, selecting from not a few that press for therestricted space. The easy flow of the verse and the ready rhyme will be remarked—and that supreme quality of good lyric poetry, austere simplicity.

THE YOUNG WARRIOR

Mother, shed no mournful tears,But gird me on my sword;And give no utterance to thy fears,But bless me with thy word.The lines are drawn! The fight is on!A cause is to be won!Mother, look not so white and wan;Give Godspeed to thy son.Now let thine eyes my way pursueWhere’er my footsteps fare;And when they lead beyond thy view,Send after me a prayer.But pray not to defend from harm,Nor danger to dispel;Pray, rather, that with steadfast armI fight the battle well.Pray, mother of mine, that I always keepMy heart and purpose strong,My sword unsullied and ready to leapUnsheathed against the wrong.

Mother, shed no mournful tears,But gird me on my sword;And give no utterance to thy fears,But bless me with thy word.

The lines are drawn! The fight is on!A cause is to be won!Mother, look not so white and wan;Give Godspeed to thy son.

Now let thine eyes my way pursueWhere’er my footsteps fare;And when they lead beyond thy view,Send after me a prayer.

But pray not to defend from harm,Nor danger to dispel;Pray, rather, that with steadfast armI fight the battle well.

Pray, mother of mine, that I always keepMy heart and purpose strong,My sword unsullied and ready to leapUnsheathed against the wrong.

Arduous labors in other fields than poetry threaten to silence Mr. Johnson’s muse, and that is to be regretted.

School-teacher, preacher, poet—this is Charles Bertram Johnson of Missouri. And in Missouri there is no voice more tuneful, no artistry in song any finer, than his. Nor in so bold an assertion am I forgetting the sweet voice and exquisite artistry of Sarah Teasdale. Mr. Johnson’s art is not unlike hers in all that makes hers most charming. Only there is not so much of his that attains to perfection of form. On pages 52 and 63 were given two of his quatrain poems. These were of his people. But a lyric poet should sing himself. That is of the essence of lyric poetry. In so singing, however, the poet reveals not only his individual life, but that of his race to the view of the world. Another quatrain poem, personal in form, may be accepted as of racial interpretation:

Charles Bertram Johnson

SOUL AND STAR

So oft from out the verge afarThe dear dreams throng and throng,Sometimes I think my soul a star,And life a pulséd song.

Born at Callao, Missouri, October 5, 1880, of a Kentucky mother and a Virginia father, Charles Bertram Johnson attended a one-room school “across the railroad track,” where—who can explain this?—he was “Introduced to Bacon, Shakespeare, and the art of rhyming.” It reads like an old story. Some freak of a schoolmaster whose head is filled with “useless” lore—poetry, tales, and “such stuff”—nurturing a child of genius into song. But it was Johnson’s mother who was the great influence in his life. She was an “adept at rhyming” and “she initiated me into the world of color and melody”—so writes our poet. It is always the mother. Then, by chance—but how marvelously chance comes to the aid of the predestined!—by chance, he learns of Dunbar and his poetry. The ambition to be a poet of his people like Dunbar possesses him. He knows the path to that goal is education. He therefore makes his way to a little college at Macon, Missouri, from which, after five years, he is graduated—without having received any help in the art of poetry, however. Two terms at a summer school and special instruction by correspondence seem to have aidedhim here, or to have induced the belief that he had been aided. For twenty-odd years he followed the profession of teaching. For ten years of that period he also preached. The ministry now claims his entire energies, and the muse knocks less and less frequently at his door.

Yet he still sings. In a recent number ofThe CrisisI find a poem of his that in suggesting a life of toil growing to a peaceful close is filled with soothing melody:

OLD FRIENDS

Sit here before my grate,Until it’s ashen gray,Or till the night grows late,And talk the time away.I cannot think to sleep,And miss your golden speech,My bed of dreams will keep—You here within my reach.I have so much to say,The time is short at best,A bit of toil and play,And after that comes rest.But you and I know nowThe wisdom of the soul,The years that seamed the browHave made our visions whole.Sit here before my grateUntil the ash is cold;The things you say of lateAre fine as shriven gold.

Sit here before my grate,Until it’s ashen gray,Or till the night grows late,And talk the time away.

I cannot think to sleep,And miss your golden speech,My bed of dreams will keep—You here within my reach.

I have so much to say,The time is short at best,A bit of toil and play,And after that comes rest.

But you and I know nowThe wisdom of the soul,The years that seamed the browHave made our visions whole.

Sit here before my grateUntil the ash is cold;The things you say of lateAre fine as shriven gold.

Even though one be born to sing, if circumstances have made him a preacher he may be expected to moralize his song. Whether we shall be reconciled to this will depend on the art with which it is done. If the moral idea be a sweet human one, and if the verse still be melifluous, we will submit, and our delight will be twofold—ethical and esthetical. We will put our preacher-poet of Missouri to the test:

SO MUCH

So much of love I need,And tender passioned care,Of human fault and greedTo make me unaware:So much of love I owe,That, ere my life be done,How shall I keep His willTo owe not any one?

So much of love I need,And tender passioned care,Of human fault and greedTo make me unaware:

So much of love I owe,That, ere my life be done,How shall I keep His willTo owe not any one?

Truth is, Mr. Johnson is not given to preaching in verse any more than other poets. His sole aim is beauty. He assures me it is truth. Instead of admitting disagreement I only assert that, being a poet, he must find all truth beautiful. Itis only for relative thinking we need the three terms, truth, goodness, and beauty.

I will conclude this presentation of the Missouri singer with a lyrical sermonette:

A RAIN SONG

Chill the rain falls, chill!Dull gray the world; the valeRain-swept; wind-swept the hill;“But gloom and doubt prevail,”My heart breaks forth to say.Ere thus its sorrow-note,“Cheer up! Cheer up, to-day!To-morrow is to be!”Babbled from a joyous throat,A robin’s in a mist-gray tree.Then off to keep a tryst—He preened his drabbled cloak—Doughty little optimist!—As if in answer, brokeThe sunlight through that oak.

Chill the rain falls, chill!Dull gray the world; the valeRain-swept; wind-swept the hill;“But gloom and doubt prevail,”My heart breaks forth to say.

Ere thus its sorrow-note,“Cheer up! Cheer up, to-day!To-morrow is to be!”Babbled from a joyous throat,A robin’s in a mist-gray tree.

Then off to keep a tryst—He preened his drabbled cloak—Doughty little optimist!—As if in answer, brokeThe sunlight through that oak.

Dreams and visions—such are the treasures of suffering loyal hearts: dreams, visions, and song. Happy even in their sorrows the people to whom God has given poets to be their spokesmen to the world. Else their hearts should stifle with woe. As the prophet was of old so in these times thepoet. As a prophet speaks Fenton Johnson, his heart yearning toward the black folk of our land:

THESE ARE MY PEOPLE

These are my people, I have built for themA castle in the cloister of my heart;And I shall fight that they may dwell therein.The God that gave Sojourner tongue of fireHas made with me a righteous covenantThat these, my brothers of the dusk, shall riseTo Sinai and thence in purple walkA newer Canaan, vineyards of the West.The rods that chasten us shall break as strawAnd fire consume the godless in the South;The hand that struck the helpless of my raceShall wither as a leaf in drear November,And liberty, the nectar God has blest,Shall flow as free as wine in Babylon.O God of Covenants, forget us not!

Fenton Johnson seems to be more deeply rooted in the song-traditions of his people than are most of his fellow-poets. To him the classic Spirituals afford inspiration and pattern. Whoever is familiar with those “canticles of love and woe” will recognize their influence throughout Mr. Johnson’s three volumes of song. I shall make no attempt here to illustrate this truth but shall rather select a piece or two that will represent the poet’s general qualities. Other poems more typical of him as a melodist could be found but these have special traits that commend them for this place.

THE PLAINT OF THE FACTORY CHILD

Mother, must I work all day?All the day? Ay, all the day?Must my little hands be torn?And my heart bleed, all forlorn?I am but a child of five,And the street is all aliveWith the tops and balls and toys,—Pretty tops and balls and toys.Day in, day out, I toil—toil!And all that I know is toil;Never laugh as others do,Never cry as others do,Never see the stars at night,Nor the golden glow of sunlight,—And all for but a silver coin,—Just a worthless silver coin.Would that death might come to me!That blessed death might come to me,And lead me to waters cool,Lying in a tranquil pool,Up there where the angels sing,And the ivy tendrils clingTo the land of play and song,—Fairy land of play and song.

Day in, day out, I toil—toil!And all that I know is toil;Never laugh as others do,Never cry as others do,Never see the stars at night,Nor the golden glow of sunlight,—And all for but a silver coin,—Just a worthless silver coin.

Would that death might come to me!That blessed death might come to me,And lead me to waters cool,Lying in a tranquil pool,Up there where the angels sing,And the ivy tendrils clingTo the land of play and song,—Fairy land of play and song.

THE MULATTO’S SONG

Die, you vain but sweet desires!Die, you living, burning fires!I am like a Prince of France,—Like a prince whose noble siresHave been robbed of heritage;I am phantom derelict,Drifting on a flaming sea.Everywhere I go, I strive,Vainly strive for greater things;Daisies die, and stars are cold,And canary never sings;Where I go they mock my name,Never grant me liberty,Chance to breathe and chance to do.

Everywhere I go, I strive,Vainly strive for greater things;Daisies die, and stars are cold,And canary never sings;Where I go they mock my name,Never grant me liberty,Chance to breathe and chance to do.

The Vision of Lazarus, contained inA Little Dreaming, is a blank-verse poem of about three-hundred lines, original, well-sustained, imaginative, and deeply impressive.

In one of the newer methods of verse, and yet with a splendid suggestion of the old Spirituals, I will take from a recent magazine a poem by Mr. Johnson that will show how the vision of his people is turned toward the future, from the welter of struggling forces in the World War:

THE NEW DAY

From a vision red with war I awoke and saw the Prince of Peace hovering over No Man’s Land.Loud the whistles blew and thunder of cannon was drowned by the happy shouting of the people.From the Sinai that faces Armageddon I heard this chant from the throats of white-robed angels:Blow your trumpets, little children!From the East and from the West,From the cities in the valley,From God’s dwelling on the mountain,Blow your blast that Peace might knowShe is Queen of God’s great army.With the crying blood of millionsWe have written deep her nameIn the Book of all the Ages;With the lilies in the valley,With the roses by the Mersey,With the golden flower of Jersey,We have crowned her smooth young temples.Where her footsteps cease to falterGolden grain will greet the morning,Where her chariot descendsShall be broken down the altarOf the gods of dark disturbance.Nevermore shall men know suffering,Nevermore shall women wailingShake to grief the God of Heaven.From the East and from the West,From the cities in the valley,From God’s dwelling on the mountain,Little children, blow your trumpets!From Ethiopia, groaning ’neath her heavy burdens I heard the music of the old slave songs.I heard the wail of warriors, dusk brown, who grimly fought the fight of others in the trenches of Mars.I heard the plea of blood-stained men of dusk and the crimson in my veins leapt furiously:Forget not, O my brothers, how we foughtIn No Man’s Land that peace might come again!Forget not, O my brothers, how we gaveRed blood to save the freedom of the world!We were not free, our tawny hands were tied;But Belgium’s plight and Serbia’s woes we sharedEach rise of sun or setting of the moon.So when the bugle blast had called us forthWe went not like the surly brute of yore,But, as the Spartan, proud to give the worldThe freedom that we never knew nor shared.These chains, O brothers mine, have weighed us downAs Samson in the temple of the gods;Unloosen them and let us breathe the airThat makes the goldenrod the flower of Christ;For we have been with thee in No Man’s Land,Through lake of fire and down to Hell itself;And now we ask of thee our liberty,Our freedom in the land of Stars and Stripes.I am glad that the Prince of Peace is hovering over No Man’s Land.

Blow your trumpets, little children!From the East and from the West,From the cities in the valley,From God’s dwelling on the mountain,Blow your blast that Peace might knowShe is Queen of God’s great army.With the crying blood of millionsWe have written deep her nameIn the Book of all the Ages;With the lilies in the valley,With the roses by the Mersey,With the golden flower of Jersey,We have crowned her smooth young temples.Where her footsteps cease to falterGolden grain will greet the morning,Where her chariot descendsShall be broken down the altarOf the gods of dark disturbance.Nevermore shall men know suffering,Nevermore shall women wailingShake to grief the God of Heaven.From the East and from the West,From the cities in the valley,From God’s dwelling on the mountain,Little children, blow your trumpets!

From Ethiopia, groaning ’neath her heavy burdens I heard the music of the old slave songs.I heard the wail of warriors, dusk brown, who grimly fought the fight of others in the trenches of Mars.I heard the plea of blood-stained men of dusk and the crimson in my veins leapt furiously:

Forget not, O my brothers, how we foughtIn No Man’s Land that peace might come again!Forget not, O my brothers, how we gaveRed blood to save the freedom of the world!We were not free, our tawny hands were tied;But Belgium’s plight and Serbia’s woes we sharedEach rise of sun or setting of the moon.So when the bugle blast had called us forthWe went not like the surly brute of yore,But, as the Spartan, proud to give the worldThe freedom that we never knew nor shared.These chains, O brothers mine, have weighed us downAs Samson in the temple of the gods;Unloosen them and let us breathe the airThat makes the goldenrod the flower of Christ;For we have been with thee in No Man’s Land,Through lake of fire and down to Hell itself;And now we ask of thee our liberty,Our freedom in the land of Stars and Stripes.

I am glad that the Prince of Peace is hovering over No Man’s Land.

From thePrefaceof Adolphus Johnson’sThe Silver ChordI will take a paragraph that is more poetic and perfect in expression than any stanza in his book. Poetry, I think, is in him, but when he wrote these rhymes he was not yet sufficiently disciplined in expression. But this is how he can say a thing in prose:

“As the Goddess of Music takes down her lute, touches its silver chords, and sets the summer melodies of nature to words, so an inspirationcomes to me in my profoundest slumbers and gently awakens my highest faculties to the finest thought and serenest contemplation herein expressed. Always remember that a book is your best friend when it compels you to think, disenthralls your reason, enkindles your hopes, vivifies your imagination, and makes easier all the burdens of your daily life.”

The critical and the creative faculties rarely dwell together in harmony. One or the other finally predominates. In the case of Mr. Braithwaite it seems to be the critical faculty. He has preferred, it seems, to be America’s chief anthologist, encouraging others up rugged Parnassus, rather than himself to stand on the heights of song. Since 1913 he has edited a series of annual anthologies of American magazine verse, which he has provided with critical reviews of the verse output of the respective year. Of several anthologies of English verse also he is the editor. Three books of original verse stand to his credit:Lyrics of Life and Love(1904),The House of Falling Leaves(1908), andSandy Star and Willie Gee(1922). These dates seem to prove that the creative impulse has waned.

Verse artistry, in simple forms, reaches a degree of excellence in Mr. Braithwaite’s lyrics that has rarely been surpassed in our times. Graceful and esthetically satisfying expression is given toelusive or mystical and rare fancies. I will give one of his brief lyrics as an example of the qualities to which I allude:

SANDY STAR

No more from out the sunset,No more across the foam,No more across the windy hillsWill Sandy Star come home.He went away to search it,With a curse upon his tongue,And in his hands the staff of lifeMade music as it swung.I wonder if he found it,And knows the mystery now:Our Sandy Star who went awayWith the secret on his brow.

No more from out the sunset,No more across the foam,No more across the windy hillsWill Sandy Star come home.

He went away to search it,With a curse upon his tongue,And in his hands the staff of lifeMade music as it swung.

I wonder if he found it,And knows the mystery now:Our Sandy Star who went awayWith the secret on his brow.

In a number of Mr. Braithwaite’s lyrics, as in this one, there is an atmosphere of mystery that, with the charming simplicity of manner, strongly suggests Blake. There is a strangeness in all beauty, it has been said. There is commonly something of Faëryland in the finest lyric poetry. Another lyric illustrating this quality in Mr. Braithwaite is the following:

IT’S A LONG WAY

It’s a long way the sea-winds blowOver the sea-plains blue,—But longer far has my heart to goBefore its dreams come true.It’s work we must, and love we must,And do the best we may,And take the hope of dreams in trustTo keep us day by day.It’s a long way the sea-winds blow—But somewhere lies a shore—Thus down the tide of Time shall flowMy dreams forevermore.

It’s a long way the sea-winds blowOver the sea-plains blue,—But longer far has my heart to goBefore its dreams come true.

It’s work we must, and love we must,And do the best we may,And take the hope of dreams in trustTo keep us day by day.

It’s a long way the sea-winds blow—But somewhere lies a shore—Thus down the tide of Time shall flowMy dreams forevermore.

Mr. Braithwaite’s art rises above race. He seems not to be race-conscious in his writing, whether prose or verse. Yet no man can say but that race has given his poetry the distinctive quality I have indicated. In this connection a most interesting poem is his “A New England Spinster.” The detachment is perfect, the analysis is done in the spirit of absolute art. I will quote but two of its dozen or so stanzas:

She dwells alone, and never heedsHow strange may sound her own footfall,And yet is prompt to others’ needs,Or ready at a neighbor’s call.But still her world is one apart,Serene above desire and change;There are no hills beyond her heart,Beyond her gate, no winds that range.

She dwells alone, and never heedsHow strange may sound her own footfall,And yet is prompt to others’ needs,Or ready at a neighbor’s call.

But still her world is one apart,Serene above desire and change;There are no hills beyond her heart,Beyond her gate, no winds that range.

Here is the true artist’s imagination that penetrates to the secrets of life. No poet’s lyrics, with their deceptive simplicity, better reward study for a full appreciation of their idea. Somuch of suggestion to the reader of the poems which follow:

FOSCATI

Blest be Foscati! You’ve heard tellHow—spirit and flesh of him—blown to flame,Leaped the stars for heaven, dropped back to hell,And felt no shame.I here indite this record of his journey:The splendor of his epical will to performLife’s best, with the lance of Truth at Tourney—Till caught in the storm.Of a woman’s face and hair like scented clover,Te Deums, Lauds, and Magnificat, hePraised with tongue of saint, heart of lover—Missed all, but found Foscati!

Blest be Foscati! You’ve heard tellHow—spirit and flesh of him—blown to flame,Leaped the stars for heaven, dropped back to hell,And felt no shame.

I here indite this record of his journey:The splendor of his epical will to performLife’s best, with the lance of Truth at Tourney—Till caught in the storm.

Of a woman’s face and hair like scented clover,Te Deums, Lauds, and Magnificat, hePraised with tongue of saint, heart of lover—Missed all, but found Foscati!

AUTUMN SADNESS

The warm October rain fell upon his dream,When once again the autumn sadness stirred,And murmured through his blood, like a hidden streamIn a forest, unheard.The drowsy rain battered against his delightOf the half forgotten poignancies,That settle in the dusk of an autumn nightOn a world one hears and sees.One was, he thought, an echo merely,A glow enshadowed of truths untraced;But the autumn sadness, brought him yearly,Was a joy embraced.

The warm October rain fell upon his dream,When once again the autumn sadness stirred,And murmured through his blood, like a hidden streamIn a forest, unheard.

The drowsy rain battered against his delightOf the half forgotten poignancies,That settle in the dusk of an autumn nightOn a world one hears and sees.

One was, he thought, an echo merely,A glow enshadowed of truths untraced;But the autumn sadness, brought him yearly,Was a joy embraced.

THANKING GOD

The way folks had of thanking GodHe found annoying, till he thoughtOf flame and coolness in the sod—Of balms and blessings that they wrought.And so the habit grew, and then—Of when and how he did not care—He found his God as other menThe mystic verb in a grammar of prayer.He never knelt, nor uttered words—His laughter felt no chastening rod;“My being,” he said, “is a choir of birds,And all my senses are thanking God.”

The way folks had of thanking GodHe found annoying, till he thoughtOf flame and coolness in the sod—Of balms and blessings that they wrought.

And so the habit grew, and then—Of when and how he did not care—He found his God as other menThe mystic verb in a grammar of prayer.

He never knelt, nor uttered words—His laughter felt no chastening rod;“My being,” he said, “is a choir of birds,And all my senses are thanking God.”

Mr. Braithwaite is thoroughly conversant, as these selections indicate, with the subtleties and finest effects of the art poetic, and his impulses to write spring from the deepest human speculations, the purest motives of art. Hence in his work he takes his place among the few.

Under tropical suns, amid the tropical luxuriance of nature, developed the many-hued imagination of the subject of this sketch. His nature is tropical, for Mr. Margetson is a prolific bard:Songs of Life,The Fledgling Bard and the Poetry Society,Ethiopia’s Flight,England in the West Indies—four published books, and more yet unpublished—are proof. No excerpts can fully reveal the distinctive quality of Mr. Margetson’s poetry—its sonorous and ever-varying flow, like a mountain stream, its descriptive richness in which it resembles his native islands. For he was born in the British West Indies, and there lived the first twenty years of his life. Coming to America in 1897, his home has been in Boston or its environment since that time. Educated in the Moravian School at St. Kitts, he has lived with and in the English poets from Spenser to Byron—Byron seems to have been his favorite—and so has cultivated his native talent. I can give here but one brief lyric from his pen.

George Reginald Margetson

THE LIGHT OF VICTORY

In the East a star is rising,Breaking through the clouds of war,With a light old arts revisingShattering steel and iron bar.Freedom’s heirs with banners blazing,Emblems of Democracy,At the magic light are gazingBattling with Autocracy.Through the night brave souls are marchingWith the armies of the Free;Where the Stars and Stripes o’er-archingForm a sheltering canopy.Allies! hold a front united!Shaping well our destiny;Let each brutal wrong be rightedIn the drive for Liberty!

Through the night brave souls are marchingWith the armies of the Free;Where the Stars and Stripes o’er-archingForm a sheltering canopy.Allies! hold a front united!Shaping well our destiny;Let each brutal wrong be rightedIn the drive for Liberty!

The productions I have seen in the Negro magazines and newspapers from William Moore’s pen give me the idea of a poet distinctly original and distinctly endowed with imagination. If there appears some obscurity in his poems let it not be too hastily set down against him as a fault. Some ideas are intrinsically obscure. The expression of them that should be lucid would be false, inadequate. Some poets there needs must be who, escaping from the inevitable, the commonplace, will transport us out into infinity to confront the eternal mysteries. Mr. Moore does this in two sonnets which I will give to represent his poetic work:

EXPECTANCY

I do not care for sleep, I’ll wait awhileFor Love to come out of the darkness, waitFor laughter, gifted with the frequent fateOf dusk-lit hope, to touch me with the smileOf moon and star and joy of that last mileBefore I reach the sea. The ships are lateAnd mayhap laden with the precious freightDawn brings from Life’s eternal summer isle.And should I find the sweeter fruits of dream—The oranges of love and mating song—I’ll laugh so true the morn will gayly seemEndless and ships full laden with a throngOf beauty, dreams and loves will come to meOut of the surge of yonder silver sea.

And should I find the sweeter fruits of dream—The oranges of love and mating song—I’ll laugh so true the morn will gayly seemEndless and ships full laden with a throngOf beauty, dreams and loves will come to meOut of the surge of yonder silver sea.

AS THE OLD YEAR PASSED

I stood with dear friend Death awhile last night,Out where the stars shone with a lustre trueIn sacred dreams and all the old and newOf love and life winged in a silver flightOff to the sea of peace that waits where white,Pale silences melt in the tranquil blueOf skies so tender beauty doth imbueThe time with holiness and singing light.My heart is Life, my soul, O Death, is thine!Is thine to kiss with yearning life again,Is thine to strengthen and to sweet inclineTo peace and mellowed dream of joy’s refrain.I’ll stand with Death again to-night, I think,Out where the stars reveal life’s deeper brink.

My heart is Life, my soul, O Death, is thine!Is thine to kiss with yearning life again,Is thine to strengthen and to sweet inclineTo peace and mellowed dream of joy’s refrain.I’ll stand with Death again to-night, I think,Out where the stars reveal life’s deeper brink.

Joshua Henry Jones, Jr.

Poets are born and nurtured in all conditions of life: Joseph Cotter the elder was a slave-woman’s child; Dunbar wrote his first book between the runs of the elevator he tended; Leon R. Harris was left in infancy to the dreary shelter of an orphanage, then indentured to a brutal farmer; Carmichael came from the cabin of an unlettered farmer in the Black Belt of Alabama; of a dozen others the story is similar. Born in poverty, up through adversities they struggled, with little human help save perhaps from the croons and caresses of a singing mother, and a few terms at a wretched school, they toiled into the kingdom of knowledge and entered the world of poetry. Some, however, have had the advantages afforded by parents of culture and of means. Among these is the subject of this sketch, the son of Bishop J. H. Jones, of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He has had the best educational opportunity offered by American colleges. He is a graduate of Brown University. Writing has been his employment since graduation, and he has been on the staffs of several New England papers. His first book of poems, entitledThe Heart of the World(1919), now in the second edition, reveals at once a student of poetry and an independent artist in verse. His second book,Poems of the Four Seas(1921), shows that his vein is still rich in ore.

In Chapter VIII I give his “Goodbye, Old Year.” Another poem of similar technique takes for its title the last words of Colonel Roosevelt: “Turn out the light, please.” The reader cannot but note the sense of proper effect exhibited in the short sentences, the very manner of a dying man. But more than this will be perceived in this poem. It will seem to have sprung out of the world-weary soul of the young poet himself. Struggle, grief, weariness in the strife, have been his also. Hence:

TURN OUT THE LIGHT

Turn out the light. Now would I slumber,I’m weary with the toil of day.Let me forget my pains to number.Turn out the light. Dreams come to play.Turn out the light. The hours were dreary.Clouds of despair long hid the sun.I’ve battled hard and now I’m weary.Turn out the light. My day is done.I’ve done life’s best gloom’s ways to brighten—I’ve scattered cheer from heart to heart,And where I could I’ve sought to rightenThe wrongs of men ere day depart.This morn ’twas bright with hope—and cheery.This noon gave courage—made me brave.But as the sun sank I grew wearyTill now my soul for rest doth crave.Turn out the light. I’ve done my dutyTo friend and enemy as well.I go to sleep where things of beautyIn glitt’ring chambers ever dwell.Turn out the light. Now would I slumber.To rest—to dream—soon go we all.Let’s hope we wake soul free of cumber.Turn out the light. Dream comrades call.

Turn out the light. Now would I slumber,I’m weary with the toil of day.Let me forget my pains to number.Turn out the light. Dreams come to play.

Turn out the light. The hours were dreary.Clouds of despair long hid the sun.I’ve battled hard and now I’m weary.Turn out the light. My day is done.

I’ve done life’s best gloom’s ways to brighten—I’ve scattered cheer from heart to heart,And where I could I’ve sought to rightenThe wrongs of men ere day depart.

This morn ’twas bright with hope—and cheery.This noon gave courage—made me brave.But as the sun sank I grew wearyTill now my soul for rest doth crave.

Turn out the light. I’ve done my dutyTo friend and enemy as well.I go to sleep where things of beautyIn glitt’ring chambers ever dwell.

Turn out the light. Now would I slumber.To rest—to dream—soon go we all.Let’s hope we wake soul free of cumber.Turn out the light. Dream comrades call.

The next piece I select from Mr. Jones’s first book will represent his talent in another sphere. I suggest that comparison might be made between this song in literary English and Mr. Johnson’s Negro love song in dialect, page226.

A SOUTHERN LOVE SONG

Dogwoods all a-bloomPerfume earth’s big room,White full moon is gliding o’er the sky serene.Quiet reigns about,In the house and out;Hoot owl in the hollow mopes with solemn mien.Birds have gone to restIn each tree-top nest;Cotton fields a-shimmer flash forth silver-green.O’er the wild cane brake,Whip-poor-wills awake,And they speak in tender voicings, Heart, of You.Answering my call,Through the leafy hall,Telling how I’m waiting for your tripping, Sue.All the world is glad,Just because I’m mad.Sense-bereft am I through my great love for you.Night is all a-smile,Happy all the while.That is why my heart so filled with song o’erflows.I have tarried long,Lilting here my song.And I’ll ever waiting be till life’s step slows.Come to me, my girl,Precious more than pearl,I’ll be waiting for you where the grapevine grows.How my heart doth yearn,And with anguish burn,Hungry for sweet pains awaked with your embrace.Starward goes my cry.Echo hears my sigh.Heaven itself its pity at my plight shows trace.Parson waits to wed.Soon the nuptials said.I’ve a rose-clad cottage reared for you to grace.

O’er the wild cane brake,Whip-poor-wills awake,And they speak in tender voicings, Heart, of You.Answering my call,Through the leafy hall,Telling how I’m waiting for your tripping, Sue.All the world is glad,Just because I’m mad.Sense-bereft am I through my great love for you.

Night is all a-smile,Happy all the while.That is why my heart so filled with song o’erflows.I have tarried long,Lilting here my song.And I’ll ever waiting be till life’s step slows.Come to me, my girl,Precious more than pearl,I’ll be waiting for you where the grapevine grows.

How my heart doth yearn,And with anguish burn,Hungry for sweet pains awaked with your embrace.Starward goes my cry.Echo hears my sigh.Heaven itself its pity at my plight shows trace.Parson waits to wed.Soon the nuptials said.I’ve a rose-clad cottage reared for you to grace.

The title-piece of Mr. Jones’s first volume reveals his mastery of effective form and his command of the language of passionate appeal. The World War, in which the Negroes of the country gave liberally and heroically, both of blood and treasure, for democracy, quickened failing hopes in them and kindled anew their aspirations. In this poem the writer speaks for his entire race:

THE HEART OF THE WORLD

Back to Index Next