The Book of American Negro Poetry Quotes

“In spite of the bans which musicians and music teachers have placed on it, the people still demand and enjoy Ragtime.”
― James Weldon Johnson, The Book of American Negro Poetry

“O, de light-bugs glimmer down de lane,   Merlindy! Merlindy! O, de whip'-will callin' notes ur pain—   Merlindy, O, Merlindy!”
― James Weldon Johnson, The Book of American Negro Poetry

“How yo' gloom tu'ns into gladness,   How yo' joy drives out de doubt When de oven do' is opened,   An' de smell comes po'in' out;”
― James Weldon Johnson, The Book of American Negro Poetry

“Temperamentally, he belonged to that class of poets who Taine says are vessels too weak to contain the spirit of poetry, the poets whom poetry kills, the Byrons, the Burns's, the De Mussets, the Poes.”
― James Weldon Johnson, The Book of American Negro Poetry

“The final measure of the greatness of all peoples is the amount and standard of the literature and art they have produced. The world does not know that a people is great until that people produces great literature and art. No people that has produced great literature and art has ever been looked upon by the world as distinctly inferior.”
― James Weldon Johnson, The Book of American Negro Poetry