Bronze: A Book of Verse
5/5
()
About this ebook
Bronze (1922) is a collection of poetry by Georgia Douglas Johnson. As Johnson’s second published volume, Bronze is an invaluable work of African American literature for scholars and poetry enthusiasts alike. Comprised of some of Johnson’s best poems, and graced with a foreword by W.E.B. Du Bois, Bronze showcases her sense of the musicality of language while illuminating the experiences of African American women of the early twentieth century.“Don’t knock at my heart, little one, / I cannot bear the pain / Of turning deaf-ear to your call / Time and time again!” This poem, titled “Black Woman,” contains the tragic lament of a woman for whom motherhood would mean exposing her child to the cruelties of a racist world. “You do not know the monster men / Inhabiting the earth. / Be still, be still, my precious child, / I must not give you birth.” Far from denying life, this black woman knows that the life of a black child would be precious only to her, and that she would lack the ability to defend her “little one” from violence and hatred. Despite this bleak vision, Johnson also foresees a time of peace, a world in which “All men as one beneath the sun” will live “In brotherhood forever.” Throughout this collection, Johnson shows an efficiency with language and ear for music that make her an essential, underappreciated artist of the Harlem Renaissance. This edition of Georgia Douglas Johnson’s Bronze is a classic of African American literature reimagined for modern readers.
Since our inception in 2020, Mint Editions has kept sustainability and innovation at the forefront of our mission. Each and every Mint Edition title gets a fresh, professionally typeset manuscript and a dazzling new cover, all while maintaining the integrity of the original book.
With thousands of titles in our collection, we aim to spotlight diverse public domain works to help them find modern audiences. Mint Editions celebrates a breadth of literary works, curated from both canonical and overlooked classics from writers around the globe.
Georgia Douglas Johnson
Georgia Douglas Johnson (1880-1966) was an African American poet and playwright. Born in Atlanta, she excelled in school from a young age, learning to read, write, and play violin. She graduated from Atlanta University’s Normal School in 1896 before working briefly as a teacher Marietta, Georgia. In 1902, having decided to become a professional musician, she enrolled at Oberlin Conservatory of Music, where she studied music theory and learned the art of composition. She later returned to Atlanta, marrying prominent lawyer and Republican party member Henry Lincoln Johnson, with whom she had two sons. After moving to Washington, D.C. in 1910, she embarked on a literary career against her husband’s wishes, submitting poems to journals around the country. She published her first collection, The Heart of a Woman and Other Poems (1918) to modest acclaim and continued to grow her reputation with poems in The Crisis, the journal of the NAACP edited by W.E.B. Du Bois. Following her husband’s death in 1925, she supported herself and her sons with various jobs and maintained a staggering output of poems, plays, short stories, and newspaper columns. She also began hosting prominent figures of the Harlem Renaissance at her home, which she called the S Street Salon, providing a meeting place for such legendary artists and intellectuals as Langston Hughes, Jean Toomer, Alain Locke, and Eulalie Spence. She is recognized today as a prominent anti-lynching activist, a pioneering poet, and one of the first African American woman playwrights.
Read more from Georgia Douglas Johnson
The Heart of a Woman and Other Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAfter a Thousand Tears: Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Bronze
Related ebooks
The World Will Follow Joy: Turning Madness into Flowers (New Poems) Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Voice from the South: By a Black Woman of the South Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cane Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFor Colored Boys Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Still Not Enough Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Sister Josepha & Other Tales Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsColor Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Talking at the Gates: A Life of James Baldwin Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Lost Plays of the Harlem Renaissance, 1920-1940 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsQuicksand Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Souls of Black Folk Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWrestling with the Muse: Dudley Randall and the Broadside Press Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRachel: A Play in Three Acts Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHarlem Shadows Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSoul Clap Hands and Sing Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsHome Girls, 40th Anniversary Edition: A Black Feminist Anthology Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIs Just a Movie: A Novel Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Struggle on Their Minds: The Political Thought of African American Resistance Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Worlds of Langston Hughes: Modernism and Translation in the Americas Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Sweet Breath of Life: A Poetic Narrative of the African-American Family Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Writing Red: An Anthology of American Women Writers, 1930-1940 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Wife of his Youth and Other Stories of the Color Line, and Selected Essays Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDreaming of Elsewhere: Observations on Home Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5the terrible stories Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Mule-Bone Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsToni Morrison: Memory and Meaning Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDarkwater: Voices from Within the Veil: Autobiography of W. E. B. Du Bois; Including Essays, Spiritual Writings and Poems Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSelected Poems Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Cushion in the Road: Meditation and Wandering as the Whole World Awakens to Being in Harm's Way Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Three Plays Lawing and Jawing; Forty Yards; Woofing Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for Bronze
2 ratings0 reviews