Falls was a noted illustrator and designer especially remembered for the posters he created during World War I and II as part of the Victory Books Campaign. The ensuing poems do read like song and the power of the words are echoed and strengthened by the complementary visusals.īoth Johnson and Aaron Douglas are considered key figures of the Harlem Renaissance. The rhythmical stress of this syncopation is partly obtained by a marked silent fraction of a beat frequently this silent fraction is filled in by a hand clap. There is a decided syncopation of speech - the crowding in of many syllables or the lengthening out of a few to fill one metrical foot, the sensing of which must be left to the reader’s ear. “… The tempos of the preacher I have endeavored to indicate by the line arrangement of the poems, and a certain sort of pause that is marked by a quick intaking and an audible expulsion of the breath I have indicated by dashes. These poems would better be intoned than read especially does this apply to “Listen, Lord,” “The Crucifixion,” and “The Judgment Day.” But the intoning practiced by the old-time preacher is a thing next to impossible to describe it must be heard, and it is extremely difficult to imitate even when heard. There is, of course, no way of recreating the atmosphere - the fervor of the congregation, the amens and hallelujahs, the undertone of singing which was often a soft accompaniment to parts of the sermon nor the personality of the preacher - his physical magnetism, his gestures and gesticulations, his changes of tempo, his pauses for effect, and, more than all, his tones of voice. In the writing of them I have, naturally, felt the influence of the Spirituals. “ I claim no more for these poems than that I have written them after the manner of the primitive sermons. But don’t. Johnson’s preface is critical, for his brief and cohesive insights into religion and the American experience, and for his guidance in how to truly appreciate what he was attempting to do with this book. It would be easy to pick up this book, to skip the preface and go straight to the poems. He makes real even for those not having attended black churches how the preachers – God’s trombones – used word, rhyme and rhythm to give voice to the stories in the bible even when no bible was present. Johnson as scholar as well as poet produced a tome that captured in a unique way the power and importance of religion in the African American experience. Lettering by Charles Buckley Falls (1874-1960)Ī publication was produced that is really quite distinctive with regard to words, images and overall concept.
0 kommentar(er)
