James+W.+Johnson

     James W. Johnson  media type="youtube" key="gQYrF2g_48o" height="231" width="282"   //**Go Down, Death**// **Analysis** http://www.poets.org/viewmedia.php/prmMID/15586  //Go Down, Death// Analysis  The most prominent convention used in this poem is imagery. James W. Johnson uses descriptive writing to portray scenes of Heaven creating a very vivid mental image. “Death” is described riding “his pale, white horses (23),” which are as “pale as a sheet in the moonlight (26).” The poem is written in blank verse, with no rhyme scheme or metrical pattern. Johnson also uses repetition to strengthen his message. God tells the family to “weep not, weep not, she is not dead (1, 74).” The title of the poem is also repeated when God says “God down, Death (32, 40).” The poem is written as a narrative, telling the story of a woman named Caroline, who is dying. Many of Johnson’s poems convey his Christian faith, and this is no exception. Death is portrayed as a good, calm experience; the smooth transition from one world to the next. When God sees that Caroline is dying in pain, he has pity for her and summons “Death” to go down to Georgia and bring her back.The poem is a juxtaposition of the way in which humans view death, and how God views it. To the “Heart-broken husband (4),” the “Grief-stricken son (5),” and the “Left-lonesome daughter (6),” God says to “weep no more (6).” From their perspective, the family is only able to see death as bad thing, because they can’t see the picture. Sister Caroline sees “what [they] couldn’t see (52),” and Death is not frightening to her, but comes like a “welcome friend (56)." Johnson writes the poem as a persuasive poem, trying to show the reader that death is not to be feared. The only reason mortals fear it is because it is unknown, and Johnson reveals that death is simply a transition into something new. And life after death is not an elusive concept, but a tangible place.

John Rosamond, James w Johnson and Bob Cole. Biography James William Johnson was born in Jacksonville, Florida. In 1913, he changed his middle name to Weldon. Johnson grew up to be a teacher, poet songwriter and civil rights activist. His family was from a middle-class upbringing society in Jacksonville where his mother was the first black female public school teacher. His mother came from Nassau, Bahamas where Johnson spent time with his relatives before furthering his education. Johnson attended Atlanta University where he earned his A.B. in 1894. While in college he taught for two years in Hampton Georgia. Johnson experienced the poor African American lifestyle while teaching in Hampton. His final year attending Atlanta University, he was at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago, where, on “Colored People’s Day,” he listened to a speech by Frederick Douglass and heard poems by Paul Laurence Dunbar, who will soon become a close friend.

Graduating from Atlanta University with a teaching degree, Johnson became the principal of the same Jacksonville school where is mother taught. He improved the educational system by adding ninth and tenth grade. On side of being a principle, Johnson studied law and became the first African American to pass the bar exam.

John Rosamond, Johnson’s younger brother, graduated from the New England Conservatory of Music in 1897. John brought musical interest into Johnson’s life and the two brothers began collaborating on a musical theater The two brother produced “Tolosa” in New York in 1899 but it was unsuccessful. After the failed theater, Johnson began to write lyrics, for which his brother composed music, including “Negro National Anthem.” They soon teamed up with Bob Cole, which would make them successful. Johnson resigned from his duty as principle and the two brothers moved to New York where their partnership with Cole proved very successful.

by Miguel Covarrubias ||
 * [[image:http://www.sc.edu/library/spcoll/amlit/johnson/carric.jpg width="117" height="161" align="right" caption="Johnson caricature"]]<span style="display: block; font-size: 110%; font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; background-color: #e1a8c3; text-align: center;"> ||
 * <span style="display: block; font-size: 110%; font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; background-color: #e1a8c3; text-align: center;">Caricature of Johnson

<span style="display: block; font-size: 110%; font-family: Tahoma, Geneva, sans-serif; background-color: #e1a8c3; text-align: left;">In 1903 Johnson began taking graduate courses at Columbia University to further his literary horizons. In 1906 he secured a consul ship at Puerto Cabello, Venezuela, the position allowing him time to write poetry and work on a novel. He transferred to Corinto, Nicaragua, in 1909 where a year later married Grace Nail, the daughter of a prosperous real estate developer from New York. Johnson finished his novel, The autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man, in 1912. Back home in New York in 1917, Johnson published Fifty Years and Other Poems, his first collection of poetry. The book made its first appearance in the New York Times.

In 1916, Joel E. Spingarn offered Johnson the post of field secretary for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People. An effective organizer, Johnson became general secretary of the NAACP in 1920. This position limited him from writing his poetry but found time to assemble three ground-breaking anthologies: The Book of American Negro Poetry (1922), The Book of American Negro Spirituals (1925), and The Second Book of Negro Spirituals (1926). In 1927 marks his last significant creative endeavor with his second collection of poetry, God’s Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse. During his final years he wrote a history of black life in New York that focuses on Harlem Renaissance entitled Black Manhattan (1930), his truly autobiographical Along This Way (1933), and Negro Americans, What Now? (1934), a book that argues for integration as the only viable solution to America's racial problems. Johnson died June 26, 1938 near his summer home in Wiscasset, Maine, when a train struck the car that he was driving. His funeral in Harlem was attended by more than 2000 people. He is remembered for his intelligence and brilliant poetry. <span style="color: rgb(244,21,21); font-family: Georgia,serif; background-color: #e1a8c3; text-align: center;">[]

<span style="font-size: 160%; font-family: Georgia, serif; background-color: #e1c698;">Relations to the Harlem Renaissance <span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; background-color: #e1a8c3;">At the height of the Harlem Renaissance, Johnson’s major poetic accomplishment //God’s Trombones// appeared, which consisted of seven poetic sermons in free verse. He had written conventional poetry in verse form, meter, and rhyme. His anonymously published novel //The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man// (1912), which was later credited to him, also proved to be a significant work //.// Johnson’s last collection of original poems, //St. Peter Relates an Incident: Selected Poems// appeared three years after his death in an automobile accident. Throughout the 1920s he was one of the major inspirations and promoters of the Harlem Renaissance trying to refute condescending white criticism and helping young black authors to get published. While serving in the NAACP Johnson was involved in sparking the drive behind the Dyer Anti-Lynching Bill of 1921.