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Deep in the Quiet Wood
By James Weldon Johnson
Are you bowed down in heart?
Do you but hear the clashing discords and the din of life?
Then come away, come to the peaceful wood,
Here bathe your soul in silence. Listen! Now,
From out the palpitating solitude
Do you not catch, yet faint, elusive strains?
They are above, around, within you, everywhere.
Silently listen! Clear, and still more clear, they come.
They bubble up in rippling notes, and swell in singing tones.
Now let your soul run the whole gamut of the wondrous scale
Until, responsive to the tonic chord,
It touches the diapason of God’s grand cathedral organ,
Filling earth for you with heavenly peace
And holy harmonies.
James Weldon Johnson (1871-1938) was an American author, educator, lawyer, diplomat, songwriter, and civil rights activist. Johnson is best remembered for his leadership of the NAACP, where he started working with the organization in 1917. In 1920 he was the first black to be chosen as executive secretary of the association, effectively the operating officer. Johnson was known for his poems, novels, and anthologies collecting both poems and spirituals of black culture, during the Harlem Renaissance.
"Lift Every Voice and Sing" dubbed the Negro National Anthem and often referred to as "Black American National Anthem" is a song written as a poem by James Weldon Johnson. His poem was set to music by his brother John Rosamond Johnson in 1900. Lift Every Voice and Sing is also the name of one of the authorized hymnals in the Episcopal church.
* This poem is found in public domain.
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