English Poetry. James Weldon Johnson. The Gift to Sing. Джеймс Уэлдон Джонсон.

James Weldon Johnson (Джеймс Уэлдон Джонсон)

The Gift to Sing

Sometimes the mist overhangs my path,
And blackening clouds about me cling;
But, oh, I have a magic way
To turn the gloom to cheerful day--
  I softly sing.

And if the way grows darker still,
Shadowed by Sorrow's somber wing,
With glad defiance in my throat,
I pierce the darkness with a note,
  And sing, and sing.

I brood not over the broken past,
Nor dread whatever time may bring;
No nights are dark, no days are long,
While in my heart there swells a song,
  And I can sing.

James Weldon Johnson’s other poems:

1. Down by the Carib Sea. 4. The Lottery Girl
2. The Temptress
3. The Color Sergeant
4. Mother Night
5. Down by the Carib Sea. 6. Sunset in the Tropics

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