Analysis Of Georgia Douglas Johnson's Poem 'Black Woman'

The poem “Black Woman”, by Georgia Douglas Johnson, indicates the message about a woman who’s going to give birth to a child in the world she lives in, and how she does not want to, in order to protect her child. Her poetry reflects the hardships she faced in her life. She expresses the pain, the anger as a black woman in a society where there is injustice. The poem “Black Women” transcend to many generations and cultures because the world is unfair to those who are born with minority. The poem is authored with a black mother experience representing the terror of bringing a child during hard times. The world itself makes it hard for raising children, because of the violence, drugs, and poverty we face. But in reality, it was the violence,

My mother always told me that once I have my child of my own. I would know what it’s like to have mother love towards my own children. But Georgia Douglas indicates that the world in which the poem was developed was an anti-black world and could not appreciated the birth of African Americans. The Harlem renaissance was a time for cultural expression, but also a time of fear and malcontent. African American’s were disrespected and mistreated and children were seeing this as a part of everyday life. Women’s were afraid for their children and the use of villainizing the police and white men was prevalent in the period. The frustrations of the African American woman in a man’s world are through this poem. That isn’t seen in any other poems by the men of this period of time. The poem “Black Woman” describes “Monster Men” as the human beings living on this earth. I believe its referring to the white men or police as monsters. Johnson mentions about evil and hatred in this word, "You know not what a world this is of cruelty and sin. “,. Johnson acknowledge the world she lives in. Yet again she states, "Wait in the still eternity, until I come to you", this represents faith for a more improve future. The phrase explains that there might be a possible way that the future might change. “Until I come to you” simplifies the helpless of knowing you can’t protect those you love from

The poem uses rhyming with words such as “earth, birth”. The usage of repetition is followed with “Be still, be still, my precious child”. The structure of the poem reminds me of a lullaby you sing to a baby. Reading the poem gives me an understanding, as if Johnson is pregnant and signing the lullaby to her unborn child. The tone of the poem is set to be calming but the choice of her powerful word like “cruel, pain, monster’ gives it a strong tone. Proving the poet’s statement, referring her anger towards racism. The poet mentions in the poem “Be still” conveying that the child should not be born. The poet believes the child is better off not being born. Protecting from the tribulations and agony of life there is in the world she