James Weldon Johnson
Teacher, poet, songwriter, and civil rights activist was the son of a headwaiter and the first female black public school teacher in Florida, both of whom had roots in Nassau, Bahamas. Famous author of "Negro Americans, What Now?"

Stony the road we trod (Yes),

Bitter the chastening rod

Felt in the days

When hope unborn had died. (Yes)

Yet with a steady beat,

Have not our weary feet

Come to the place

For which our fathers sighed?

We have come over a way

That with tears has been watered. (Well)

We have come treading our paths

Through the blood of the slaughtered.

Out from the gloomy past,

Till now we stand at last (Yes)

Where the bright gleam

Of our bright star is cast.

"Mortality" - Author Unknown.

Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?
Like a swift-fleeting meteor, a fast-flying cloud,
A flash of the lightning, a break of the wave,
He passes from life to his rest in the grave.

The leaves of the oak and the willow shall fade,
Be scattered around, and together be laid;
And the young and the old, the low and the high,
Shall molder to dust, and together shall lie.

The infant a mother attended and loved;
The mother that infant's affection who proved;
The husband, that mother and infant who blessed;
Each, all, are away to their dwelling of rest.

The maid on whose cheek, on whose brow, in whose eye,
Shone beauty and pleasure - her triumphs are by;
And the memory of those who loved her and praised,
Are alike from the minds of the living erased.

The hand of the king that the sceptre hath borne,
The brow of the priest that the mitre hath worn,
The eye of the sage, and the heart of the brave,
Are hidden and lost in the depths of the grave.

The peasant, whose lot was to sow and to reap,
The herdsman, who climbed with his goats up the steep,
The beggar, who wandered in search of his bread,
Have faded away like the grass that we tread.

The saint, who enjoyed the communion of Heaven,
The sinner, who dared to remain unforgiven,
The wise and the foolish, the guilty and just,
Have quietly mingled their bones in the dust.

So the multitude goes - like the flower or the weed
That withers away to let others succeed;
So the multitude comes - even those we behold,
To repeat every tale that has often been told.

For we are the same that our fathers have been;
We see the same sights that our fathers have seen;
We drink the same stream, we feel the same sun,
And run the same course that our fathers have run.

The thoughts we are thinking, our fathers would think;
From the death we are shrinking, our fathers would shrink;
To the life we are clinging, they also would cling -
But it speeds from us all like a bird on the wing.

They loved - but the story we cannot unfold;
They scorned - but the heart of the haughty is cold;
They grieved - but no wail from their slumber will come;
They joyed - but the tongue of their gladness is dumb.

They died - aye, they died - we things that are now,
That walk on the turf that lies over their brow,
And make in their dwellings a transient abode,
Meet the things that they met on their pilgrimage road.

Yea, hope and despondency, pleasure and pain,
Are mingled together in sunshine and rain;
And the smile and the tear, the song and the dirge,
Still follow each other, like surge upon surge.

'Tis the wink of an eye - 'tis the draught of a breath -
From the blossom of health to the paleness of death,
From the gilded saloon to the bier and the shroud
Oh, why should the spirit of mortal be proud?

Desiderata
Max Ehrman, 1927.
Found in Old Saint Paul's Church, Baltimore, U.S.A. Dated 1692

Go placidly amid the noise and haste
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender, be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly and listen to others,
even the dull and ignorant; they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons; they are vexatious to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others you may become vain or bitter,
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs,
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is.
Many persons strive for high ideals
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself.
Especially do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love,
for in the face of all aridity and disappointment
it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe no less than the trees and the stars.
You have a right to be here.
And whether it is clear to you or not,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive him to be,
and whatever your labours and aspirations in the noisy confusion of life,
keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham and drudgery and broken dreams
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful. Strive to be happy.

William Blake (1757-1827)
America: A Prophecy Preludium (excerpt)

1The shadowy Daughter of Urthona stood before red Orc,
2When fourteen suns had faintly journey'd o'er his dark abode:
3His food she brought in iron baskets, his drink in cups of iron:
4Crown'd with a helmet and dark hair the nameless female stood;
5A quiver with its burning stores, a bow like that of night,
6When pestilence is shot from heaven: no other arms she need!
7Invulnerable though naked, save where clouds roll round her loins
8Their awful folds in the dark air: silent she stood as night;
9For never from her iron tongue could voice or sound arise,
10But dumb till that dread day when Orc assay'd his fierce embrace.

11"Dark Virgin," said the hairy youth, "thy father stern, abhorr'd,
12Rivets my tenfold chains while still on high my spirit soars;
13Sometimes an Eagle screaming in the sky, sometimes a Lion
14Stalking upon the mountains, and sometimes a Whale, I lash
15The raging fathomless abyss; anon a Serpent folding
16Around the pillars of Urthona, and round thy dark limbs
17On the Canadian wilds I fold; feeble my spirit folds,
18For chain'd beneath I rend these caverns: when thou bringest food
19I howl my joy, and my red eyes seek to behold thy face--
20In vain! these clouds roll to and fro, and hide thee from my sight."

21Silent as despairing love, and strong as jealousy,
22The hairy shoulders rend the links; free are the wrists of fire;
23Round the terrific loins he seiz'd the panting, struggling womb;
24It joy'd: she put aside her clouds and smiled her first-born smile,
25As when a black cloud shews its lightnings to the silent deep.

26Soon as she saw the terrible boy, then burst the virgin cry:

27"I know thee, I have found thee, and I will not let thee go:
28Thou art the image of God who dwells in darkness of Africa,
29And thou art fall'n to give me life in regions of dark death.
30On my American plains I feel the struggling afflictions
31Endur'd by roots that writhe their arms into the nether deep.
32I see a Serpent in Canada who courts me to his love,
33In Mexico an Eagle, and a Lion in Peru;
34I see a Whale in the south-sea, drinking my soul away.
35O what limb-rending pains I feel! thy fire and my frost
36Mingle in howling pains, in furrows by thy lightnings rent.
37This is eternal death, and this the torment long foretold."

38The stern Bard ceas'd, asham'd of his own song; enrag'd he swung
39His harp aloft sounding, then dash'd its shining frame against
40A ruin'd pillar in glitt'ring fragments; silent he turn'd away,
41And wander'd down the vales of Kent in sick and drear lamentings.

Notes

1] America, A Prophecy, was first engraved in 1793, in eighteen plates, and deals with Blake's interpretation of the American Revolution. Orc (partly from Latin orcus, hell) is the spirit of freedom inspiring the American revolt. He is associated with the classical Titans, with the Norse god Loki, also imprisoned in a "cavern" (line 18) under a mountain, and with Esau, the rightful heir of Isaac (cf. "hairy youth" in line 11 with Gen. 27: 11). The "Daughter of Urthona" is the land of America which a new civilization is taking possession of.
Urthona: the creative power of the imagination, later identified with Los, the hero of most of Blake's prophecies.

2] fourteen: the age of puberty.

3] iron. Urthona or Los in Blake is a blacksmith: cf. Isa. 54.16.

12] tenfold: an allusion to the ten commandments of the moral law, used to restrain the impetus toward freedom.

13] eagle. The four animals mentioned here and below represent both the four elements and the four quarters of America.

28] Africa. The place of Orc's imprisonment is sometimes given as Mount Atlas in north-west Africa.

Online text copyright © 2004, Ian Lancashire for the Department of English, University of Toronto.
Published by the Web Development Group, Information Technology Services, University of Toronto Libraries.

Original text: William Blake, America, A Prophecy (Lambeth, 1793). Facsimile edn., intro. G. E. Bentley, Jr. American Blake Foundation, 1974. PR 4144 A5 1974 ROBA.
First publication date: 1793
RPO poem editor: Northrop Frye
RP edition: 3RP 2.290.
Recent editing: 4:2002/3/14*1:2003/7/30

Form note: unrhymed