Lift ev'ry voice and sing,
Till earth and heaven ring,
Ring with the harmonies of Liberty;
Let our rejoicing rise
High as the list'ning skies,
Let it resound loud as the rolling sea.
Sing a song full of the faith that the dark past has taught us,
Sing a song full of the hope that the present has brought us;
Facing the rising sun of our new day begun,
Let us march on till victory is won.
Stony the road we trod,
Bitter the chast'ning rod,
Felt in the days when hope unborn had died;
Yet with a steady beat,
Have not our weary feet
Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?
We have come over a way that with tears has been watered.
We have come, treading our path through the blood of the slaughtered,
Out from the gloomy past,
Till now we stand at last
Where the white gleam of our bright star is cast.
God of our weary years,
God of our silent tears,
Thou who hast brought us thus far on the way;
Thou who hast by Thy might,
Led us into the light,
Keep us forever in the path, we pray.
Lest our feet stray from the places, our God, where we met Thee,
Lest our hearts, drunk with the wine of the world, we forget Thee;
Shadowed beneath Thy hand,
May we forever stand,
True to our God,
True to our native land.
Leave a guest comment (subject to review)
Comments
-
This poem has been popularly known for nearly 100 years as the "Negro National Anthem." It is in fact, however, the greatest of all American patriotic hymns (how bombastic and shallow "The Star-Spangled Banner" sounds in comparison!) and perhaps the greatest evocation of shared ethnic or racial suffering after Verdi's lament for Zion in Nabuco. Johnson relates in dignified cadences worthy of Lincoln himself the terrible and terrifying story of African-American experience over 400 years in America. But he does so without the least hint of anger or vindictiveness and with an all-conquering faith in the future of his people in America. He acknowledges and celebrates what few would acknowledge or celebrate today: the massive strives which his people have made toward realizing the American Dream despite every imaginable obstacle, natural and manmade, that they encountered on their way to social and political equality. When Johnson wrote this poem, blacks still had to contend with lynchings, Jim Crow and widespread disenfranchisement. But Johnson believed with religious passion that much suffering had won much grace. He affirmed the place of his race in American society and acknowledged no other homeland. His faith in God and loyalty to his native land are absolutes that cannot be splintered into uncertainties or used to sow division. There is no better testament to the self-empowerment that all men derive from forgiveness: the ultimate gift that we can make to ourselves.
-
I love the song lift every voice and sing because im singing in the coir!!!!!
Adding your comment:
