James Weldon Johnson Rhetorical Devices

America lacked opportunities for Black Americans and Africans to live peacefully among themselves. The height of political tension erupted in the American Civil war, and thousands died to “save the union”. The Civil War ended in 1865, but black American issues would last for decades to come. In 1905, James Weldon Johnson wrote Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing, an illustrious poem meant for Africans and black Americans across the nation. While it was originally written as a poem, Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing was performed by Johnson’s brother, and it has since aptly been adopted as the Black National Anthem. Despite this, Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing is not simply a song; rather, is a medium through which pure black pride, passion, and pain exists and can

In the poem, Johnson’s use of inclusive words like “we”, “our” and “us”, fused with anaphoras in each stanza, allow him to address black Americans in the north and south. Johnson uses phrases like “Let us”, “Let our”, and“We have come”, “Keep us”, and “Lest our” to unify black America and build community and culture shattered by American racism and prejudice. Without a strong foundation, how could black America improve from its “Bitter”, “Stony”, “dark”, “weary”, and “gloomy” past? Johnson’s inclusive word choice forces a shared experience among black Americans, making the issues at hand a national issue and not exclusively a southern one; hence Black Americans had to work together to reach “the white gleam” of “victory”. Johnson’s appeals to black America are further extended in his pleas for strengthening faith and progress for black Americans as well;

For instance, Johnson asks black Americans to sing until heaven “Ring with the harmonies of Liberty”; with “ev’ry voice”, full of “faith” and “hope”. Similarly, the second stanza starts with Johnson asking “Have not our weary feet/Come to the place for which our fathers sighed?” and ends with him declaring that “we stand at last” out of the “gloomy past”. Johnson’s cause and effect writing style provides the reader with a reason to sing and its benefits. Johnson recognizes black America’s misery over time; however, he too knows that nothing good comes easy. Organizing his stanzas to illustrate the blessings of drudgery and “steady” perseverance encourages black Americans to continue “treading” forward “til victory is won”. By offering a glimpse of black freedom and pride, Johnson’s poem forges a connection Black American hardships are presented as motivations for singing, pushing forward, and keeping faith in God. This idea is further magnified in the poem itself since Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing has a cause and effect design. There is a shift from high-energy praise of the first stanza in which Johnson asks singers to “Sing a song” of “rejoicing” and “harmonies”, to the prayer of the closing two verses in which Johnson asserts he is “true to our God” and “native land”. Johnson organizes the poem by defining an action related to black Americans - “Lift[ing] ev’ry voice and