1 min read
Слушать(AI)To America
How would you have us, as we are?
Or sinking 'neath the load we bear?
Our eyes fixed forward on a star?
Or gazing empty at despair?
Rising or falling?
Men or things?
With dragging pace or footsteps fleet?
Strong, willing sinews in your wings?
Or tightening chains about your feet?
This poem asks questions that are hard for even ancestors of slaves to answer. Of course the questions are rhetorical. But ask yourself , and see what answers you bring forth.
James Weldon Johnson
James Weldon Johnson (June 17, 1871 – June 26, 1938) was an American writer and civil rights activist. He was married to civil rights activist G
Comments
You need to be signed in to write comments
Other author posts
The Suicide
For fifty years, Cruel, insatiable Old World You have punched me over the Till you made me cough blood
Lift Evry Voice and Sing
Lift ev'ry voice and sing, Till earth and heaven ring, Ring with the harmonies of Liberty; Let our rejoicing
Down By the Carib Sea
Sunrise in the Tropics Sol, Sol, mighty lord of the tropic zone, Here I wait with the trembling stars To see thee once more take thy throne There the patient palm tree
To Horace Bumstead
Have you been sore discouraged in the fight, And even sometimes weighted by the thought That those with whom and those for whom you fought Lagged far behind, or dared but faintly smite And that the opposing forces in their might Of blind iner...