The Gift to Sing, a poem by James Weldon Johnson

The Gift to Sing

By James Weldon Johnson  

Sometimes the mist overhangs my path,

And blackening clouds about me cling;

But, oh, I have a magic way

To turn the gloom to cheerful day—

      I softly sing.

And if the way grows darker still,

Shadowed by Sorrow’s somber wing,

With glad defiance in my throat,

I pierce the darkness with a note,

       And sing, and sing.

I brood not over the broken past,

Nor dread whatever time may bring;

No nights are dark, no days are long,

While in my heart there swells a song,

       And I can sing.

*This poem is found in public domain.

James Weldon Johnson (June 17, 1871 – June 26, 1938) was an American poet, author, educator, lawyer, diplomat, songwriter, and civil rights activist. Johnson is best remembered for his leadership of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), where he started working in 1917. He was known during the Harlem Renaissance for his poems, novels, and anthologies, collecting both poems and spirituals of black culture.