Everything you need to understand or teach
James Weldon Johnson.
Products may contain comprehensive summaries, analysis, notes, articles, essays,
lesson plans and more. See below for details on what is included.
Johnson, James Weldon (1871-1938)
James Weldon Johnson enjoyed success as a novelist, poet, songwriter, educator, diplomat, lawyer, and as an official of the National Association for the Advancement o...
Read more
Biography EssayVersatility is the most salient characteristic of the life and career of James Weldon Johnson. Equipped with restless intelligence, abundant energy, and "an abhorrence of spare time," h...
Read more
African American man of letters James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938) was also a teacher, politician, and lawyer. He is best known for his novel, The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, and a book of poems...
Read more
Versatility is the most salient characteristic of the life and career of James Weldon Johnson . Equipped with restless intelligence, abundant energy, and "an abhorrence of spare time," he crowded almo...
Read more
In the following review, Brawley lauds "the simple, direct, and sometimes sensuous expression" of several poems in Johnson's Fifty Years, and Other Poems.
From time to time for th...
Read more
In the following excerpt, Jackson and Rubin recount Johnson 's influential creation of a true black voice in American poetry.
When James Weldon Johnson, putting together his first book of verse...
Read more
In the following essay, Redding investigates Johnson's use of dialect and the "Southern Negro idiom" in his poetry.
In a book entitled Some Versions Of Pastoral, published in 1935...
Read more
In the following essay, Koprince relates Johnson's presentation of women as temptresses or as saintly mothers in the poems of God's Trombones to his impression of Harlem in the 1920s.
Go...
Read more
In the following essay, Fleming suggests that Johnson significantly revised his poem 'Fifty Years ' prior to its publication in order to make it more acceptable to white audiences.
James...
Read more
In the following excerpt, Fleming traces Johnson's development from a writer of conventional poetry to one of experimental free verse in God's Trombones.
During his Atlanta years Johnson...
Read more
In the following essay, Fleming suggests the influence of Johnson 's God's Trombones on William Faulkner's southern black preacher in The Sound and the Fury.
Studies of Faulkner&#...
Read more
In the following review of St. Peter Relates an Incident, Eley summarizes Johnson's career and the significance of his poetry.
James Weldon Johnson's reputation no longer rests—if...
Read more
In the following review, Monroe praises Johnson's God's Trombones as "his own highest achievement as a poet."
For some time Mr. Johnson has been known as a leader among the...
Read more
In the following review, the critic calls God's Trombones "a striking achievement of… reverence."
[God's Trombones] contains what the author calls 'seven negr...
Read more
In the following review, Cullen favorably assesses the poems of Johnson's God's Trombones.
And seven priests shall bear before the ark seven trumpets of rams' horns; and the seve...
Read more
In the following review of St. Peter Relates an Incident, Rosenberg observes that Johnson's conservative poetic temperament undercuts the harsh political realities of his subject matter.
The ti...
Read more
In the following excerpt, Bronz examines the social importance of Johnson 's early poetry in Fifty Years, and Other Poems and comments on his later work as a precursor to the Harlem Renaissance...
Read more
In the following essay, Adelman reflects on Johnson 's life, writing, and contributions to African-American culture between the 1890s and 1930s.
The period running roughly from the 1890'...
Read more
In the following essay, Long surveys Johnson 's poetic works, assessing his evolving notion of "the function of the poet."
The verse output of James Weldon Johnson falls into four...
Read more
In the following excerpt, Wagner explores the conventionality of Johnson 's early verse and describes the poet's ambivalence toward agnosticism and dialect poetry.
Religious and Patrioti...
Read more
When most people think of death they have a negative thought, after all it is the end of their life on earth, but others see it as a freeing blissful opportunity. The poem "Go Down Death" by James W...
Read more
Johnson, James Weldon (1871-1938)
James Weldon Johnson
James Weldon Johnson
Critical Review by Benjamin Brawley
Response to the Poem "Go Down, Death"
