Poem #25: O Black and Unknown Bards by James Weldon Johnson

Estimated Reading Time: 4 minutes

Title: O Black and Unknown Bards

Author: James Weldon Johnson

Source:  African-American Poetry: An Anthology, 1773-1927. Dover Thrift Editions. Ed. Joan R. Sherman. 1997. ISBN:  978-0-486-29604-3.

Link: You can find this poem on this website.

Poem

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 sang 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. 

Reflection

In a world of Wikipedia and Google, a poem like this one reminds us so very succinctly that finding information and tracing one's literary or lyrical roots could be next to impossible just over 100 years ago. I love how Johnson song-drops into this poem articulating some of the most well-known songs during and after slavery for the African American community. It hints at the remixing culture in hip-hop and rap music in the late 20th and early 21st century--a call back to one's musical ancestors as one also sets out to frame the terrain. What I find both absent in its direct recognition but still present by mere consideration is how the absence of bards' names speaks also to the absence of history, family roots, and cultural legacy. Johnson's poem speaks to the artifacts (the songs) but cannot trace them back in a form of lyrical genealogy. This stands in for a very similar experience for many African Americans in the late 1800s and early 1900s who were unable to trace their family back more than 1-2 generations because of the travesties of slavery.  

The poem makes me wonder if our current access to information changes the expectations of what we produce in terms of expecting and demanding more complex outputs at the high school, college, graduate, and scholarly levels. That is, what we would expect of students today is in many ways more intellectually complex because we largely assume that the basic building blocks of research are more readily available.

Those are my thoughts.  What did you find interesting about the poem?

About the reflections
This poem is part of a 365 day challenge project that focuses on a poem a day.  Similar projects have included short shorties and photo reflections. Part of the intention of this year's project is to develop a better appreciation and means of reflecting on poetry, something that has never been a strong suit for me.  These reflections therefore do not represent a definitive assessment of the work by me. They are merely an opportunity for me to have a public conversation about what they mean in order to help myself better understand them and mayhaps have a conversation with readers for further insight.  

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