IN POETRY
The Poets

As the artists see, so the poets feel
Inspiring powers that make them steal
Away to write some pictured scene
So to help the world to get serene.
—Harrison.

THE first Colored poetess in America to win national and international fame was Phyllis Wheatley, who was brought from Africa in 1761 and sold as a slave in Boston, Mass. Finding Phyllis to be an unusually quick and apt child to learn, her owner spared no pains to give her the best of education. Her poetry writing began at an early age. She became so intelligent and self-cultured that the most wealthy and refined white people of the day entertained her. All the time she was writing verses of the highest quality. Finally going to Europe her success was even greater there to such an extent that she appeared before the Royal Courts of England and received high honors. Her literary works were reviewed by some of the best scholars in England where much of her poetry was published in London under the title “Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral”.

The late Paul Lawrence Dunbar, Negro Poet-Laureate, is considered the greatest poet the Negro race has produced. Starting as an elevator boy he struggled through one disappointment after another to get an education. All that time he was writing poetry and finally after his works came under the notice of such great white writers as William Dean Howells and James Whitcomb Riley, the genius of Dunbar and the value of his writings became world known. He traveled all about giving recitals of his poetry that took the country by storm. His prose works won just as much admiration and comment. His writings were based on the American Negro in and out of slavery and the pen pictures he has drawn are masterpieces of literature. Chief among his compositions are; “Lyrics of Lowly Life”, “Lyrics of The Hearthstone,” “Heart of Happy Hollow”, “Folks From Dixie,” “Oak and Ivy”, “Uncalled”, “Love and Landry” and “The Sports Of The Gods.”

William Stanley Braithwaite, as editor of “The New Poetry Review” of Cambridge, author of “The Anthology of Magazine Verse”, editor of “The Contemporary American Poets Series” and annual reviewer of the poetry that appears in the leading magazines of America, is recognized as the leading Colored poet and among the foremost world poets of today. A few of his works are: “The House of Falling Leaves”, “The Book of Victorian Verse”, “Life of Lyrics and Love”, “The Book of Georgian Verse”, “The Book of Elizabethian Verse”, and “The Book of Restoration Verse.” He was awarded the Spingarn Medal in 1918.

James Weldon Johnson is a poet and writer of first note, and his poem “The Young Warrior,” that was set to music by Harry T. Burleigh, almost became the national hymn of Italy during the World War. His poem “Fifty Years” that appeared in many of the leading white magazines and newspapers during the first part of 1913, brought forth high comment from all parts of the country. His poems have appeared in the Century, the Independent, the Crisis and other publications. He has published some of his poetry in a book titled “Fifty Years and Other Poems.”

“Mr. Johnson is a young colored poet of America. Some of his verse is in the cultivated English, some in the broken language of the American Negro. The latter rings true. They express with singular intensity the joys and sorrows of a subject race.” The above comment was made by The London Literary World regarding the poetic abilities of Fenton Johnson, Chicago, Ill. Aside from receiving high mentions from The New York World, and Poetry, a magazine of Verse, some of his works were also included in Braithwaite’s “Anthology of Magazine Verse for 1918” and “The Chicago Anthology”. One of his recent volumes of poetry that attracted praiseworthy attention on both sides of the ocean is “A Little Dreaming.”

While the facts, that short stories of the highest order are constantly flowing from her pen point (or typewriter) and that she is Literary Editor of The Crisis, have gained for her the distinction of being a foremost prose writer among Colored women in America today; Jessie Redmon Fauset, on account of the numerous outputs and unusual high quality of her poems, is also recognized as one of the best verse writers among Colored people on both sides of the ocean.

The father and son poets, Jos. S. Cotter, Sr. and Jr., have produced verse matter that stands among the best in the country among Colored writers. Information regarding the works of these composers will be found else-where in this book. But a praiseworthy mention regarding Jos. S. Cotter, Jr., who died in his early twenties and for several years before that had been confined on a bed of affliction, should be made herein. While other poets have had their health, strength and vigor to do their work, young Cotter was suffering almost constant pain in bed while turning out his poetry that came from the depths of his patient soul, and ring as true as a pure-cast bell.

Georgia Douglas Johnson was born in Atlanta, Ga., was educated in the public schools and at the Atlanta University after which she took a course of music at the Oberlin Conservatory. Her first book, “The Heart of a Woman and Other Poems” with an introduction by William Stanley Braithwaite, was published by the Cornhill Co. of Boston, Mass., three years ago; her second book, “An Autumn Love Cycle,” will be out shortly. Her third book, “Shadow Song” is entirely different to the other two, being entirely racial, treated in the over-tone style of suggestion. This book will appear some months after the “Love Cycle.” The above quotation is in part an editorial note that appeared in the May 1921 issue of Music and Poetry. The high standard and amazing numbers of Mrs. Johnson’s verses that appear in leading magazines are attracting wide attention and have already placed her in a class among the leading Colored writers before the public today.