Poems in "The Crisis," 1910-1926
Between 1910 and 1926, the magazine published more than 250 poems by a wide range of authors. Below, you'll find a fairly complete collection of poems by African American authors who published in the magazine. (It's admittedly a large collection, and in the months to come we hope to find ways to organize it to make it more accessible...)
One of the most important figures to have emerged from the pages of The Crisis was Langston Hughes, whose first published poem oriented for adult audiences, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" (1921) became a signature poem both in the poet's career and for African American poetry more generally. Hughes published more than 25 poems in The Crisis between 1921-1926 (he also published a number of poems for children in The Brownies' Book, also edited by Du Bois and Fauset, in 1921).
Intriguingly, many of the writers who published poems most frequently in The Crisis during this period are not the most famous figures of the Harlem Renaissance. Georgia Douglas Johnson, for instance, established her voice as a poet in the 1910s, and published more than 30 poems in the magazine during these years. Other poets who published often in The Crisis include James D. Corrothers, Lucian B. Watkins, Carrie Williams Clifford, and W.E.B. Du Bois himself (Du Bois published eight poems in The Crisis in the 1910s.)
A Few Highlights: The poems in this collection are quite heterogeneous. Some poetry published in The Crisis was relatively anodyne love poetry and occasional poetry oriented to various seasons, sometimes with a religious theme (i.e., poems for Easter, Christmas, and the seasons). The magazine also published quite a number of tribute poems for important figures in the Black tradition, including Frederick Douglass and Paul Laurence Dunbar.
Notably, Du Bois and Fauset published quite a number of poems linked to the African American civil right struggle, and many of these poems will continue to have power over readers. A few this editor might recommend exploring include: Langston Hughes, "The Negro," Roscoe Jamison, "Negro Soldiers" , Lucian B. Watkins, "Song of the American Dove", Georgia Douglas Johnson, "A Sonnet: to the Mantled", James Weldon Johnson's "To America", and Countee Cullen's "Threnody for a Brown Girl.".
Sources: Many of the poems collected on this page were discovered via the digital repostiory of The Crisis at Modernist Journals Project. Others (mainly poems published after 1922) have been sourced from digital versions of The Crisis found on sites like Archive.org and HathiTrust.
Acknowledgments: This page has benefited from the efforts of Christian Farrior, a Graduate Research Assistant who assisted in retyping and formatting poems from page image format in the summer of 2022.
- Alice Dunbar-Nelson, "Sonnet" (1919)
- Alston Burleigh, "The Brave Son" (1919)
- Amedee Brun, "The Pool" (translated by Jessie Fauset, 1921)
- Angelina W. Grimke, "To Keep The Memory of Charlotte Forten Grimke" (1915)
- Angelina W. Grimke, "To the Dunbar High School (A Sonnet)" (1917)
- Anita Scott Coleman, "The Colorist" (1925)
- Anne Spencer, "Dunbar" (1922)
- Anne Spencer, "White Things" (1923)
- Arna Bontemps, "Dirge" (1926)
- Arna Bontemps, "Holiday" (1926)
- Arna Bontemps, "Hope" (1924)
- Arna Bontemps, "Nocturne at Bethesda" (1926)
- Arna Bontemps, "Spring Music" (1925)
- Arthur Tunnell, "On Segregation" (1914)
- B. Harrison Peyton, "Lo, the Dusk-Born Daughter!" (1916)
- B.B. Church, "Africa" (1924)
- B.B. Church, "In This Hour" (1919)
- B.B. Church, "Maybe" (1923)
- Benjamin Griffith Brawley, "Shakespeare" (1915)
- Bertha Johnston, "I Met A Little Blue-Eyed Girl" (1912)
- Bessie Brent Madison, "Down at the Feet of the Years" (1925)
- Bessie Brent Madison, "For Ethiopia" (1921)
- Carrie Williams Clifford, "Spring" (1915)
- Carrie Williams Clifford, "The New Year" (1920)
- Charles Bertram Johnson, "An Old Ex-Slave" (1921)
- Charles Bertram Johnson, "Easter" (1923)
- Charles Bertram Johnson, "Mocking Bird" (1923)
- Charles Bertram Johnson, "Old Friends" (1921)
- Charles Bertram Johnson, "Old Things" (1923)
- Charles Bertram Johnson, "Race Dreams" (1920)
- Charles Bertram Johnson, "Rain-Mist" (1920)
- Charles Bertram Johnson, "Rain-Mist" (1921)
- Charles Bertram Johnson, "Snow" (1920)
- Charles Bertram Johnson, "True Wealth" (1924)
- Clara Burrill Bruce, "We Who Are Dark" (1918)
- Clara G. Stillman, "Dark Dream" (1923)
- Clara G. Stillman, "Mysterious Land" (1924)
- Claude McKay, "A Daughter of the American Revolution to Her Son" (1926)
- Claude McKay, "The Void" (1924)
- Colonel Charles Young, "A Negro-Mother's Cradle Song" (1923)
- Cora J. Ball Moten, "A Lullaby" (1914)
- Countee Cullen, "Bread and Wine" (1923)
- Countee Cullen, "Dad" (1922)
- Countee Cullen, "Icarian Wings" (1921/1924)
- Countee Cullen, "If Love be Staunch" (1925)
- Countee Cullen, "Lament" (1925)
- Countee Cullen, "Mary, Mother of Christ" (1924)
- Countee Cullen, "Night Rain" (1925)
- Countee Cullen, "Road Song" (1923)
- Countee Cullen, "Sweethearts" (1923)
- Countee Cullen, "Thoughts in a Zoo" (1926)
- Countee Cullen, "Three Hundred Years Ago" (1925)
- Countee Cullen, "Threnody for a Brown Girl" (1925)
- E. Lucien Waithe, "To a Brown Child" (1925)
- Edward Silvera, "Happiness" and "Death" (1926)
- Edwin Garnett Riley, "A Nation's Greatness" (1920)
- Edwin J. Morgan, "Rhapsody" (1917)
- Effie Lee Newsome, "Cantabile" (1925)
- Effie Lee Newsome (Marry Effie Lee), "O Autumn, Autumn!" (1918)
- Effie Lee Newsome (Mary Effie Lee), "Morning Light" (1918)
- Effie Lee Newsome (Mary Effie Lee), "Sunset" (1921)
- Effie Lee Newsome, "Negro Street Serenade (In the South)" (1926)
- Effie Lee Newsome, "Sun Disk" (1923)
- Effie Lee Newsome, "The Bronze Legacy (To a Brown Boy)" (1922)
- Esther A. Yates “Fettered Liberty” (1915)
- Ethel Caution Davis, "A Man" (1916)
- Fenton Johnson, "War Profiles" (1918)
- Frank Horne, "My Words" (1926)
- Franke Horne, "Letters Found Near a Suicide" (1925) (Spingarn Prize)
- George Reginald Margetson, "The Surge of Life" (1925)
- Georgia Douglas Johnson, "A Sonnet in Memory of John Brown" (1922
- Georgia Douglas Johnson, "A Sonnet: to the Mantled" (1917)
- Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Afterglow" (1920)
- Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Again it is the Vibrant May" (1918)
- Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Armageddon" (1925)
- Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Attar" (1920)
- Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Calling Dreams" (1920)
- Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Companion" (1925)
- Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Courier" (1926)
- Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Decay" (1926)
- Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Desert-Bound" (1918)
- Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Escape" (1925)
- Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Essence" (1916)
- Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Fame" (1916)
- Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Finality" (1926)
- Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Gossamer" (1916)
- Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Guardianship" (1917)
- Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Heritage" (1917)
- Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Hope" (1917)
- Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Let Me Not Lose My Dream" (1917)
- Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Mate" (1916)
- Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Motherhood" (1922)
- Georgia Douglas Johnson, "My Boy" (1917)
- Georgia Douglas Johnson, "My Little One" (1916)
- Georgia Douglas Johnson, "My Son" (1924)
- Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Peace" (1916)
- Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Prejudice" (1919)
- Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Shall I Say 'My Son, You Are Branded'?" (1919)
- Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Soul's Easter" (1925)
- Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Tears and Kisses" (1917)
- Georgia Douglas Johnson, "The Final Strain" (1917)
- Georgia Douglas Johnson, "The Mother" (1917)
- Georgia Douglas Johnson, "To Your Eyes" (1924)
- Gwendolyn B. Bennett, "Quatrain" (1923)
- Harriette Shadow Butcher, "The Memory of Colonel Charles Denton Young" (1925)
- Ida B. Luckie, "Retribution" (1916)
- James A. Atkins, "The First Wireless Message" (1925)
- James D. Corrothers, "A Song of May and June" (1914)
- James D. Corrothers, "At the Closed Gate of Justice" (1913)
- James D. Corrothers, "In the Matter of Two Men" (1915)
- James D. Corrothers, "Listen, O Isles!" (1914)
- James D. Corrothers, "The Road to the Bow" (1913)
- James D. Corrothers, "Up! Sing the Song" (1913)
- James Weldon Johnson, "Brothers" (1916)
- James Weldon Johnson, "Father, Father Abraham" (1913)
- James Weldon Johnson, "The White Witch" (1915)
- James Weldon Johnson, "To America" (1917)
- Jasper Ross, "King Cotton and the Negro" (1914)
- Jessie Fauset, "Again It is September" (1917)
- Jessie Fauset, "Here's April" (1924)
- Jessie Fauset, "Here's April" (1924)
- Jessie Fauset, "Oriflamme" (1920)
- Jessie Fauset, "Rain Fugue" (1924)
- Jessie Fauset, "Rencontre" (1924)
- Jessie Fauset, "Rondeau" (1912)
- Jessie Redmon Fauset, "Rondeau" (1912)
- John Wesley Work (J.W. Work), "It's Great To Be A Problem" (1920)
- Joseph S. Cotter, Jr., "A Sonnet to the Negro Soldiers" (1918)
- Joseph S. Cotter, "The Prophet" (1920)
- Joseph S. Cotter, "To Bishop Hood" (1919)
- Joseph S. Cotter, "Whatever Road" (1920)
- Josephine T. Washington, "Cedar Hill Saved" (1919)
- Katherine Gillard, "Just a Little Tired" (1916)
- Kelsey Percival Kitchel, "Slave's Song" (1916)
- L. Mattes, "To the Negro" (1925)
- L.A. Proctor, "My Little Love Salome" (1911)
- Langston Hughes, "A Song to a Negro Wash-woman" (1925)
- Langston Hughes, "Aunt Sue's Stories" (1921)
- Langston Hughes, "Brothers" (1924)
- Langston Hughes, "Cabaret" (1923)
- Langston Hughes, "Cross" (1925)
- Langston Hughes, "Disillusion" (1925)
- Langston Hughes, "Fascination" (1924)
- Langston Hughes, "Jazzonia" (1923)
- Langston Hughes, "Joy" (1926)
- Langston Hughes, "Lullaby" (1926)
- Langston Hughes, "Minstrel Man" (1925)
- Langston Hughes, "Monotony" (1923)
- Langston Hughes, "Mother to Son" (1922)
- Langston Hughes, "My Beloved" (1924)
- Langston Hughes, "Negro Dancers" (1925)
- Langston Hughes, "Poem" ("I am waiting for my mother...") (1924)
- Langston Hughes, "Poem (To F.S.)" (1925)
- Langston Hughes, "Prayer Meeting" (1923)
- Langston Hughes, "Proem" ["The Negro"] (1922)
- Langston Hughes, "Ruby Brown" (1926)
- Langston Hughes, "Shadows" (1923)
- Langston Hughes, "Song for a Banjo Dance" (1922)
- Langston Hughes, "Song for a Suicide" (1924)
- Langston Hughes, "Summer Night" (1925)
- Langston Hughes, "The Last Feast of Belshazzar" (1923)
- Langston Hughes, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" (1921)
- Langston Hughes, "The Poppy Flower" (1925)
- Langston Hughes, "The Ring" (1926)
- Langston Hughes, "To Beauty" (1926)
- Langston Hughes, "To the Black Beloved" (1925)
- Langston Hughes, "Winter Moon" (1923)
- Langston Hughes, "Young Bride" (1925)
- Langston Hughes, "Young Singer" (1923)
- Leslie Pinckney Hill, "Armageddon" (1915)
- Leslie Pinckney Hill, "Certainty" (1914)
- Leslie Pinckney Hill, "Father Love" (1919)
- Leslie Pinckney Hill, "In the Still Night" (1917)
- Leslie Pinckney Hill, "The Teacher" (1911)
- Leslie Pinckney Hill, "Vision of a Lyncher" (1912)
- Lillian B. Witten, "Youth Passes" (1920)
- Lottie Burrill Dixon, "A Rainy Day" (1916)
- Lucian B. Watkins, "Ballade to Paul Laurence Dunbar" (1918)
- Lucian B. Watkins, "Paul Laurence Dunbar--Poet" (1917)
- Lucian B. Watkins “Song of the American Dove” (1916)
- Lucian B. Watkins, "Star of Ethiopia" (1918)
- Lucian B. Watkins, "The Black Madonna And Her Babe" (1918)
- Lucian B. Watkins, "Two Poems: War and Peace" (1919)
- Lucian Watkins, "Frederick Douglass-Orator" (1917)
- Lucian Watkins, "Greatness" (1916)
- Lucian Watkins, "Samuel Coleridge Taylor--Musician" (1917)
- Lucian Watkins, "Two Points of View" (1916)
- Mary J. Washington, "Peace on Earth" (1919)
- Otto Bohanan, "Go, Give the World" (1919)
- Otto Bohanan, "God Gave Us Song" (1918)
- Otto Bohanan, "Mammy" (1917)
- Otto Bohanan, "The Dawn's Awake!" (1917)
- Otto Bohanan, "Paean" (1915)
- Otto Bohanan, "The Washer-Woman" (1916)
- Paul Laurence Dunbar, "Black Samson of Brandywine"
- Profiles of William Stanley Braithwaite in "The Crisis": "Resurrection" (1911)
- Roasalie M. Jonas, "Crowded Out" (1924)
- Robert W. Justice, "The Heart's Desire" (1911)
- Walter Everett Hawkins, "Child of the Night" (1924)
- Walter Everette Hawkins, "Ethiopian Maid" (1917)
- Waverly T. Carmichael, "'Taint No Need O' Women Worrin' "(1918)
- W.E.B. Du Bois, "Easter-Emancipation 1863-1913 (1913)
- W.E.B. Du Bois, "In God's Gardens" (1912)
- W.E.B. Du Bois, "Joseph Pulitzer" (1911)
- W.E.B. Du Bois, "Song of the Smoke" (1907)
- W.E.B. Du Bois, "Unrest" (1920)
- Will N. Johnson, "The Call" (1916)
- William H.A. Moore “Here in the Time of the Winter Morn” (1912)
- William H.A. Moore, "That One Might Live in the Sunlight Glad" (1913)
- William Pickens, "'The Crisis'" (1914)
- William Stanley Braithwaite, "Laughing it Out" (1915)
- William Stanley Braithwaite, "Scintilla" (1915)
- William Stanley Braithwaite, "The Vision" (1911)
- Willis Richardson, "The After Thought" (1923)
- Yetta Kay Stoddard, "For a Rose" (1922)