Analysis of O Black And Unknown Bards
James Weldon Johnson 1871 (Jacksonville) – 1938 (Wiscasset)
O black and unknown bards of long ago,
How came your lips to touch the sacred fire?
How, in your darkness, did you come to know
The power and beauty of the minstrel's lyre?
Who first from midst his bonds lifted his eyes?
Who first from out the still watch, lone and long,
Feeling the ancient faith of prophets rise
Within his dark-kept soul, burst into song?
Heart of what slave poured out such melody
As 'Steal away to Jesus'? On its strains
His spirit must have nightly floated free,
Though still about his hands he felt his chains.
Who heard great 'Jordan roll'? Whose starward eye
Saw chariot 'swing low'? And who was he
That breathed that comforting, melodic sigh,
'Nobody knows de trouble I see'?
What merely living clod, what captive thing,
Could up toward God through all its darkness grope,
And find within its deadened heart to sing
These songs of sorrow, love and faith, and hope?
How did it catch that subtle undertone,
That note in music heard not with the ears?
How sound the elusive reed so seldom blown,
Which stirs the soul or melts the heart to tears.
Not that great German master in his dream
Of harmonies that thundered amongst the stars
At the creation, ever heard a theme
Nobler than 'Go down, Moses.' Mark its bars
How like a mighty trumpet-call they stir
The blood. Such are the notes that men have sung
Going to valorous deeds; such tones there were
That helped make history when Time was young.
There is a wide, wide wonder in it all,
That from degraded rest and servile toil
The fiery spirit of the seer should call
These simple children of the sun and soil.
O black slave singers, gone, forgot, unfamed,
You - you alone, of all the long, long line
Of those who've sung untaught, unknown, unnamed,
Have stretched out upward, seeking the divine.
You sang not deeds of heroes or of kings;
No chant of bloody war, no exulting pean
Of arms-won triumphs; but your humble strings
You touched in chord with music empyrean.
You sting far better than you knew; the songs
That for your listeners' hungry hearts sufficed
Still live, - but more than this to you belongs:
You sang a race from wood and stone to Christ.
Scheme | ABAXCDCD EFEFGEGE HIHIJXJX KLKLBMBM NONOEPXP QJQJRSRS |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 1100111101 11111101010 1011011111 0100101011 1111111011 1111011101 1001011101 0111111011 1111111100 1101110111 1101110101 1101111111 111101111 1100110111 1111000101 1111011 1101011101 11011111101 010111111 1111010101 111111010 1101011101 11001011101 1101110111 1111010011 11001100101 1001010101 1011110111 1101010111 0111011111 101111110 1111001111 1101110011 1101010101 01001010111 1101010101 111101011 1101110111 110110101 1111010001 1111110111 11110110101 1111011101 11011101 1111011101 11110010101 1111111101 1101110111 |
Closest metre | Iambic pentameter |
Characters | 2,093 |
Words | 390 |
Sentences | 20 |
Stanzas | 6 |
Stanza Lengths | 8, 8, 8, 8, 8, 8 |
Lines Amount | 48 |
Letters per line (avg) | 35 |
Words per line (avg) | 8 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 279 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 65 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on May 02, 2023
- 1:57 min read
- 356 Views
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"O Black And Unknown Bards" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/20722/o-black-and-unknown-bards>.
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