Analysis of The Gift to Sing

James Weldon Johnson 1871 (Jacksonville) – 1938 (Wiscasset)



Sometimes the mist overhangs my path,
And blackening clouds about me cling;
But, oh, I have a magic way
To turn the gloom to cheerful day —
I softly sing.

And if the way grows darker still,
Shadowed by Sorrow's somber wing,
With glad defiance in my throat,
I pierce the darkness with a note,
And sing, and sing.

I brood not over the broken past,
Nor dread whatever time may bring;
No nights are dark, no days are long,
While in my heart there swells a song,
And I can sing.


Scheme XABBA XACCA XADDA
Poetic Form
Metre 01011011 010010111 11110101 11011101 1101 01011101 1011101 11010011 11010101 0101 111100101 1110111 11111111 10111101 0111
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 469
Words 94
Sentences 4
Stanzas 3
Stanza Lengths 5, 5, 5
Lines Amount 15
Letters per line (avg) 24
Words per line (avg) 6
Letters per stanza (avg) 121
Words per stanza (avg) 31
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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on May 03, 2023

28 sec read
315

James Weldon Johnson

James Weldon Johnson was an American author, educator, lawyer, diplomat, songwriter, and early civil rights activist. Johnson is best remembered for his leadership within the NAACP as well as for his writing, which includes novels, poems, and anthologies. He was also the first African-American professor at New York University. Later in life he was a professor of creative literature and writing at Fisk University. more…

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