African American Poetry: A Digital Anthology

Poems Published in "The Crisis" 1910-1926

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The Crisis was a monthly magazine published by the NAACP, which began publication in 1910. Throughout its early years (1910-1934), the magazine was edited by W.E.B. Du Bois, who exerted a strong editorial influence over the magazine's contents. The magazine published poetry, fiction, and even drama throughout its run alongside conventional journalistic articles and opinion. By 1919, The Crisis had a large national subscription base, with as many as 100,000 subscribers, greater than The New Republic. The literature published in the magazine -- including poetry, fiction and drama -- was widely read, and critics have noted that the magazine had an important impact on the literary culture of the Harlem Renaissance that emerged in the early 1920s. Between 1919 and 1926, Jessie Redmon Fauset served as Literary Editor for The Crisis. During that period of time, many young writers who would later be mainstays of the Harlem Renaissance began publishing poetry and criticism in the pages of the magazineincluding Langston Hughes, Countee Cullen, Anne Spencer, as well as Fauset herself. In addition to poetry, the newspaper frequently published criticism and reviews of books of poetry by Black poets. The most influential of these might be William Stanley Braithwaite's 1919 essay, "The Negro in American Literature" (a revised version of that essay was later reprinted in Alain Locke's The New Negro: an Interpretation). 

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...)

Contents of this tag:

  1. Langston Hughes, "The Negro Speaks of Rivers" (1921)
  2. Langston Hughes, "Proem" ["The Negro"] (1922)
  3. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "A Sonnet in Memory of John Brown" (1922
  4. Langston Hughes, "Young Bride" (1925)
  5. Langston Hughes, "Jazzonia" (1923)
  6. Joseph S. Cotter, Jr., "A Sonnet to the Negro Soldiers" (1918)
  7. Langston Hughes, "Summer Night" (1925)
  8. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "A Sonnet: to the Mantled" (1917)
  9. Langston Hughes, "Cabaret" (1923)
  10. Countee Cullen, "Mary, Mother of Christ" (1924)
  11. Langston Hughes, "Mother to Son" (1922)
  12. W.E.B. Du Bois, "Easter-Emancipation 1863-1913"/ "Children of the Moon" (1913)
  13. Benjamin Griffith Brawley, "Shakespeare" (1915)
  14. James Weldon Johnson, "Brothers" (1916)
  15. Langston Hughes, "Song for a Banjo Dance" (1922)
  16. Langston Hughes, "Young Singer" (1923)
  17. Anne Spencer, "Dunbar" (1922)
  18. Langston Hughes, "Aunt Sue's Stories" (1921)
  19. Langston Hughes, "Cross" (1925)
  20. Langston Hughes, "To the Black Beloved" (1925)
  21. Langston Hughes, "Negro Dancers" (1925)
  22. James D. Corrothers, "The Road to the Bow" (1913)
  23. Langston Hughes, "Disillusion" (1925)
  24. Carrie Williams Clifford, "The New Year" (1920)
  25. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Gossamer" (1916)
  26. Cora J. Ball Moten, "A Lullaby" (1914)
  27. Otto Bohanan, "Mammy" (1917)
  28. Arna Bontemps, "Hope" (1924)
  29. Waverly T. Carmichael, "'Taint No Need O' Women Worrin' "(1918)
  30. Lucian B. Watkins, "Paul Laurence Dunbar--Poet" (1917)
  31. Lucian B. Watkins, "Frederick Douglass-Orator" (1917)
  32. Leslie Pinckney Hill, "Armageddon" (1915)
  33. Langston Hughes, "Poem (To F.S.)" (1925)
  34. Alice Dunbar-Nelson, "Sonnet" (1919)
  35. Leslie Pinckney Hill, "The Teacher" (1911)
  36. Countee Cullen, "Bread and Wine" (1923)
  37. L.A. Proctor, "My Little Love Salome" (1911)
  38. Langston Hughes, "Winter Moon" (1923)
  39. Angelina W. Grimke, "To the Dunbar High School (A Sonnet)" (1917)
  40. Langston Hughes, "Joy" (1926)
  41. Jessie Fauset, "Oriflamme" (1920)
  42. Countee Cullen, "Night Rain" (1925)
  43. Charles Bertram Johnson, "Race Dreams" (1920)
  44. Leslie Pinckney Hill, "Certainty" (1914)
  45. Countee Cullen, "Three Hundred Years Ago" (1925)
  46. Jessie Redmon Fauset, "Rondeau" (1912)
  47. Lucian B. Watkins “Song of the American Dove”   (1916)
  48. W.E.B. Du Bois, "Song of the Smoke" (1907)
  49. William Pickens, "'The Crisis'" (1914)
  50. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Fame" (1916)
  51. B.B. Church, "Africa" (1924)
  52. Arna Bontemps, "Nocturne at Bethesda" (1926)
  53. James Weldon Johnson, "Father, Father Abraham" (1913)
  54. Joseph S. Cotter, "The Prophet" (1920)
  55. Clara G. Stillman, "Dark Dream" (1923)
  56. James Weldon Johnson, "To America" (1917)
  57. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Soul's Easter" (1925)
  58. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Calling Dreams" (1920)
  59. Langston Hughes, "A Song to a Negro Wash-woman" (1925)
  60. Anne Spencer, "White Things" (1923)
  61. Clara G. Stillman, "Mysterious Land" (1924)
  62. W.E.B. Du Bois, "Joseph Pulitzer" (1911)
  63. Countee Cullen, "Dad" (1922)
  64. Frank Horne, "My Words" (1926)
  65. Carrie Williams Clifford, "Spring" (1915)
  66. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "My Little One" (1916)
  67. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Peace" (1916)
  68. Langston Hughes, "Prayer Meeting" (1923)
  69. Countee Cullen, "Thoughts in a Zoo" (1926)
  70. James D. Corrothers, "Up! Sing the Song" (1913)
  71. Lillian B. Witten, "Youth Passes" (1920)
  72. Charles Bertram Johnson, "Mocking Bird" (1923)
  73. Harriette Shadow Butcher, "The Memory of Colonel Charles Denton Young" (1925)
  74. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Afterglow" (1920)
  75. Otto Bohanan, "Paean" (1915)
  76. Yetta Kay Stoddard, "For a Rose" (1922)
  77. Josephine T. Washington, "Cedar Hill Saved" (1919)
  78. Arna Bontemps, "Dirge" (1926)
  79. Charles Bertram Johnson, "Rain-Mist" (1920)
  80. Effie Lee Newsome (Mary Effie Lee), "Morning Light" (1918)
  81. Lottie Burrill Dixon, "A Rainy Day" (1916)
  82. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "To Your Eyes" (1924)
  83. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Tears and Kisses" (1917)
  84. Langston Hughes, "Shadows" (1923)
  85. William H.A. Moore, "That One Might Live in the Sunlight Glad" (1913)
  86. Charles Bertram Johnson, "An Old Ex-Slave" (1921)
  87. Willis Richardson, "The After Thought" (1923)
  88. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Desert-Bound" (1918)
  89. L. Mattes, "To the Negro" (1925)
  90. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Again it is the Vibrant May" (1918)
  91. Esther A. Yates “Fettered Liberty” (1915)
  92. Katherine Gillard, "Just a Little Tired" (1916)
  93. Walter Everett Hawkins, "Child of the Night" (1924)
  94. Lucian B. Watkins, "Ballade to Paul Laurence Dunbar" (1918)
  95. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Motherhood" (1922)
  96. Arna Bontemps, "Holiday" (1926)
  97. Charles Bertram Johnson, "Snow" (1920)
  98. Clara Burrill Bruce, "We Who Are Dark" (1918)
  99. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Mate" (1916)
  100. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "My Son" (1924)
  101. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "My Boy" (1917)
  102. James D. Corrothers, "A Song of May and June" (1914)
  103. Charles Bertram Johnson, "Old Friends" (1921)
  104. Effie Lee Newsome, "Sun Disk" (1923)
  105. Fenton Johnson, "War Profiles" (1918)
  106. Effie Lee Newsome, "Cantabile" (1925)
  107. Alston Burleigh, "The Brave Son" (1919)
  108. Ethel Caution Davis, "A Man" (1916)
  109. Charles Bertram Johnson, "True Wealth" (1924)
  110. Effie Lee Newsome, "Negro Street Serenade (In the South)" (1926)
  111. Profiles of William Stanley Braithwaite in "The Crisis": "Resurrection" (1911)
  112. Joseph S. Cotter, "To Bishop Hood" (1919)
  113. Will N. Johnson, "The Call" (1916)
  114. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Escape" (1925)
  115. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Guardianship" (1917)
  116. James D. Corrothers, "Listen, O Isles!" (1914)
  117. Charles Bertram Johnson, "Rain-Mist" (1921)
  118. Colonel Charles Young, "A Negro-Mother's Cradle Song" (1923)
  119. Lucian B. Watkins, "Star of Ethiopia" (1918)
  120. Bessie Brent Madison, "Down at the Feet of the Years" (1925)
  121. Angelina W. Grimke, "To Keep The Memory of Charlotte Forten Grimke" (1915)
  122. Jessie Fauset, "Here's April" (1924)
  123. Lucian Watkins, "Two Points of View" (1916)
  124. Countee Cullen, "Icarian Wings" (1921/1924)
  125. Countee Cullen, "Road Song" (1923)
  126. Langston Hughes, "Ruby Brown" (1926)
  127. William Stanley Braithwaite, "The Vision" (1911)
  128. Mary J. Washington, "Peace on Earth" (1919)
  129. Edwin J. Morgan, "Rhapsody" (1917)
  130. Anita Scott Coleman, "The Colorist" (1925)
  131. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Hope" (1917)
  132. Langston Hughes, "The Last Feast of Belshazzar" (1923)
  133. William Stanley Braithwaite, "Scintilla" (1915)
  134. Bessie Brent Madison, "For Ethiopia" (1921)
  135. Gwendolyn B. Bennett, "Quatrain" (1923)
  136. Otto Bohanan, "God Gave Us Song" (1918)
  137. E. Lucien Waithe, "To a Brown Child" (1925)
  138. Arthur Tunnell, "On Segregation" (1914)
  139. Jessie Fauset, "Rain Fugue" (1924)
  140. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Essence" (1916)
  141. Jessie Fauset, "Here's April" (1924)
  142. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Finality" (1926)
  143. Lucian B. Watkins, "Two Poems: War and Peace" (1919)
  144. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "The Final Strain" (1917)
  145. George Reginald Margetson, "The Surge of Life" (1925)
  146. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "The Mother" (1917)
  147. William Stanley Braithwaite, "Laughing it Out" (1915)
  148. Effie Lee Newsome (Mary Effie Lee), "Sunset" (1921)
  149. Countee Cullen, "Sweethearts" (1923)
  150. Leslie Pinckney Hill, "Father Love" (1919)
  151. Lucian B. Watkins, "The Black Madonna And Her Babe" (1918)
  152. Franke Horne, "Letters Found Near a Suicide" (1925) (Spingarn Prize)
  153. Jessie Fauset, "Rondeau" (1912)
  154. Countee Cullen, "Threnody for a Brown Girl" (1925)
  155. Kelsey Percival Kitchel, "Slave's Song" (1916)
  156. Langston Hughes, "Song for a Suicide" (1924)
  157. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Prejudice" (1919)
  158. Langston Hughes, "To Beauty" (1926)
  159. B.B. Church, "Maybe" (1923)
  160. John Wesley Work (J.W. Work), "It's Great To Be A Problem" (1920)
  161. Lucian Watkins, "Samuel Coleridge Taylor--Musician" (1917)
  162. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Armageddon" (1925)
  163. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Let Me Not Lose My Dream" (1917)
  164. Jasper Ross, "King Cotton and the Negro" (1914)
  165. Effie Lee Newsome, "The Bronze Legacy (To a Brown Boy)" (1922)
  166. Jessie Fauset, "Rencontre" (1924)
  167. Leslie Pinckney Hill, "In the Still Night" (1917)
  168. Effie Lee Newsome (Marry Effie Lee), "O Autumn, Autumn!" (1918)
  169. B.B. Church, "In This Hour" (1919)
  170. Otto Bohanan, "The Washer-Woman" (1916)
  171. Langston Hughes, "Fascination" (1924)
  172. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Attar" (1920)
  173. Langston Hughes, "Monotony" (1923)
  174. Edward Silvera, "Happiness" and "Death" (1926)
  175. Amedee Brun, "The Pool" (translated by Jessie Fauset, 1921)
  176. Otto Bohanan, "Go, Give the World" (1919)
  177. Jessie Fauset, "Again It is September" (1917)
  178. Arna Bontemps, "Spring Music" (1925)
  179. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Shall I Say 'My Son, You Are Branded'?" (1919)
  180. Roasalie M. Jonas, "Crowded Out" (1924)
  181. Leslie Pinckney Hill, "Vision of a Lyncher" (1912)
  182. Langston Hughes, "Lullaby" (1926)
  183. B. Harrison Peyton, "Lo, the Dusk-Born Daughter!" (1916)
  184. Lucian Watkins, "Greatness" (1916)
  185. Langston Hughes, "Poem" ("I am waiting for my mother...") (1924)
  186. James D. Corrothers, "At the Closed Gate of Justice" (1913)
  187. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Decay" (1926)
  188. Edwin Garnett Riley, "A Nation's Greatness" (1920)
  189. Charles Bertram Johnson, "Old Things" (1923)
  190. Paul Laurence Dunbar, "Black Samson of Brandywine"
  191. James A. Atkins, "The First Wireless Message" (1925)
  192. Langston Hughes, "Minstrel Man" (1925)
  193. Robert W. Justice, "The Heart's Desire" (1911)
  194. Langston Hughes, "Brothers" (1924)
  195. W.E.B. Du Bois, "In God's Gardens" (1912)
  196. Claude McKay, "A Daughter of the American Revolution to Her Son" (1926)
  197. Bertha Johnston, "I Met A Little Blue-Eyed Girl" (1912)
  198. Countee Cullen, "If Love be Staunch" (1925)
  199. Ida B. Luckie, "Retribution" (1916)
  200. Claude McKay, "The Void" (1924)
  201. James D. Corrothers, "In the Matter of Two Men" (1915)
  202. Langston Hughes, "The Poppy Flower" (1925)
  203. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Courier" (1926)
  204. William H.A. Moore “Here in the Time of the Winter Morn” (1912)
  205. Joseph S. Cotter, "Whatever Road" (1920)
  206. Charles Bertram Johnson, "Easter" (1923)
  207. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Heritage" (1917)
  208. Georgia Douglas Johnson, "Companion" (1925)
  209. James Weldon Johnson, "The White Witch" (1915)
  210. Countee Cullen, "Lament" (1925)
  211. Langston Hughes, "My Beloved" (1924)
  212. W.E.B. Du Bois, "Unrest" (1920)
  213. Langston Hughes, "The Ring" (1926)
  214. Walter Everette Hawkins, "Ethiopian Maid" (1917)

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