Produced by Suzanne Shell, Sankar Viswanathan, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net FIFTY YEARS & OTHER POEMS BY JAMES WELDON JOHNSON AUTHOR OF "THE AUTOBIOGRAPHY OF AN EX-COLORED MAN," ETC. _With an Introduction by_ BRANDER MATTHEWS THE CORNHILL COMPANY BOSTON 1917 To G. N. F. ACKNOWLEDGMENT For permission to reprint certain poems in this book thanks are due to the editors and proprietors of the _Century Magazine_, the _Independent_, _The Crisis_, _The New York Times_, and the following copyright holders, G. Ricordi and Company, G. Schirmer and Company, and Joseph W. Stern and Company. CONTENTS Fifty Years To America O Black and Unknown Bards O Southland To Horace Bumstead The Color Sergeant The Black Mammy Father, Father Abraham Brothers Fragment The White Witch Mother Night The Young Warrior The Glory of the Day Was in Her Face From the Spanish of Placido From the Spanish From the German of Uhland Before a Painting I Hear the Stars Still Singing Girl of Fifteen The Suicide Down by the Carib Sea I. Sunrise in the Tropics II. Los Cigarillos III. Teestay IV. The Lottery Girl V. The Dancing Girl VI. Sunset in the Tropics The Greatest of These Is War A Mid-Day Dreamer The Temptress Ghosts of the Old Year The Ghost of Deacon Brown Lazy Omar Deep in the Quiet Wood Voluptas The Word of an Engineer Life Sleep Prayer at Sunrise The Gift to Sing Morning, Noon and Night Her Eyes Twin Pools The Awakening Beauty That Is Never Old Venus in a Garden Vashti The Reward JINGLES & CROONS Sence You Went Away Ma Lady's Lips Am Like de Honey Tunk Nobody's Lookin' but de Owl an' de Moon You's Sweet to Yo' Mammy Jes de Same A Plantation Bacchanal July in Georgy A Banjo Song Answer to Prayer Dat Gal o' Mine The Seasons 'Possum Song Brer Rabbit, You'se de Cutes' of 'Em All An Explanation De Little Pickaninny's Gone to Sleep The Rivals INTRODUCTION