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Mint Editions - Georgia Douglas Johnson

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72 pages

English

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The Heart of a Woman and Other Poems (1918) is a collection of poetry by Georgia Douglas Johnson. Marking Johnson’s debut as one of the leading poets of the Harlem Renaissance, The Heart of a Woman and Other Poems is an invaluable work of African American literature for scholars and poetry enthusiasts alike. Comprised of Johnson’s earliest works as a poet, the collection showcases her sense of the musicality of language while illuminating the experiences of African American women of the early twentieth century. “The heart of a woman goes forth with the dawn, / As a lone bird, soft winging, so restlessly on.” Recalling Paul Laurence Dunbar’s classic poem “Sympathy,” which immortalizes the African American experience with the line “I know why the caged bird sings,” the title poem of Johnson’s collection compares the heart to a bird. Musical and dreamlike, Johnson’s poem envisions “the heart of a woman” as it “enters some alien cage in its plight, / And tries to forget it has dreamed of the stars / While it breaks, breaks, breaks on the sheltering bars.” With each repetition of “breaks,” the reader can feel the restlessness and fear of the bird as it beats its wings against its cage, the heart as it beats against the “sheltering bars” of the ribs. In this poem, and throughout the collection, Johnson shows an efficiency with language uncommon to many poets, let alone one making her debut. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of Georgia Douglas Johnson’s The Heart of a Woman and Other Poems is a classic of African American literature reimagined for modern readers.

Sujets

African American

Poetry

American

Black

Informations

Publié par	Mint Editions
Date de parution	14 décembre 2021
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781513293530
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	2 Mo

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Extrait

The Heart of a Woman and Other Poems
Georgia Douglas Johnson

The Heart of a Woman and Other Poems was first published in 1918.
This edition published by Mint Editions 2021.
ISBN 9781513290683 | E-ISBN 9781513293530
Published by Mint Editions ®

minteditionbooks .com
Publishing Director: Jennifer Newens
Design & Production: Rachel Lopez Metzger
Project Manager: Micaela Clark
Typesetting: Westchester Publishing Services

C ONTENTS I NTRODUCTION T HE H EART OF A W OMAN T HE D REAMS OF THE D REAMER G OSSAMER S YMPATHY C ONTEMPLATION D EAD L EAVES D AWN E LEVATION P EACE W HITHER ? Q UEST M ATE E MBLEMS M IRRORED R EPULSE Q UERY P ENT P AGES FROM L IFE R ECALL G ETHSEMANE I MPELLED E VENTIDE T HRALL Y OUTH J OY P OSTHUMOUS O MEGA T EARS AND K ISSES I SOLATION W HERE ? T IRED S MOTHERED F IRES T HE M EASURE I NEVITABLY M ODULATIONS M EMORY R HYTHM G ILEAD F OREDOOM W HENE ’ ER I L IFT M Y E YES TO B LISS D ESPAIR W HEN I A M D EAD S UPREME I N Q UEST R ECOMPENSE P OETRY W HAT N EED H AVE I FOR M EMORY ? A F ANTASY S OUVENIR I LLUSIONS T RANSPOSITIONS T HE W ILLOW D EVASTATION S PRINGTIDE G LOAMTIDE P ENDULUM D ELUGE R ETROSPECT G LAMOUR T HE R ETURN L OVE ’ S T ENDRIL M Y L ITTLE D REAMS

I NTRODUCTION
T he poems in this book are intensely feminine and for me this means more than an thing else that they are deeply human. We are yet scarcely aware, in spite of our boasted twentieth-century progress, of what lies deeply hidden, of mystery and passion, of domestic love and joy and sorrow, of romantic visions and practical ambitions, in the heart of a woman. The emancipation of woman is yet to be wholly accomplished; though woman has stamped her image on every age of the world’s history, and in the heart of almost every man since time began, it is only a little over half of a century since she has either spoke or acted with a sense of freedom. During this time she has made little more than a start to catch up with man in the wonderful things he has to his credit; and yet all that man has to his credit would scarcely have been achieved except for the devotion and love and inspiring comradeship of woman.
Here, then, is lifted the veil, in these poignant songs and lyrics. To look upon what is revealed is to give one a sense of infinite sympathy; to make one kneel in spirit to the marvelous patience, the wonderful endurance, the persistent faith, which are hidden in this nature.
The heart of a woman falls back with the night.
And enters some alien cage in its plight,
And tries to forget it has dreamed of the stars
While it breaks, breaks, breaks on the sheltering bars
sings the poet. And the songs of the singer
Are tones that repeat the cry of the heart
Till it ceases to beat .
This verse just quoted is from “The Dreams of the Dreamer,” and with the previous quotation tells us that this woman’s heart is keyed in the plaintive, knows the sorrowful agents of life and experience which knock and enter at the door of dreams. But women have made the saddest songs of the world, Sappho no less than Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Ruth the Moabite poetess gleaning in the fields of Boaz no less than Amy Levy, the Jewess who broke her heart against the London pavements; and no less does sadness echo its tender and appealing sigh in these songs and lyrics of Georgia Douglas Johnson.
But sadness is a kind of felicity with woman,
paradoxical as it may seem; and it is so be—
cause through this inexplicable felicity they
touched, intuitionally caress, reality .
So here engaging life at its most reserved sources, whether the form or substance through which it articulates be nature, or the seasons, touch of hands or lips, love, desire, or any of the emotional abstractions which sweep like fire or wind or cooling water through the blood, Mrs. Johnson creates just that reality of woman’s heart and experience with astonishing raptures.