Explore "O Southland!" by James Weldon Johnson on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
O Southland! O Southland!
Have you not heard the call, / The trumpet blown, the word made known / To the nations, one and all?
The watchword, the hope-word, / Salvation's present plan?
A gospel new, for all -- for you: / Man shall be saved by man.
O Southland! O Southland!
Do you not hear today / The mighty beat of onward feet, / And know you not their way?
'Tis forward, 'tis upward, / On to the fair white arch / Of Freedom's dome, and there is room / For each man who would march.
O Southland, fair Southland!
Then why do you still cling / To an idle age and a musty page, / To a dead and useless thing?
'Tis springtime! 'Tis work-time!
The world is young again!
And God's above, and God is love, / And men are only men.
O Southland! my Southland!
O birthland! do not shirk / The toilsome task, nor respite ask, / But gird you for the work.
Remember, remember / That weakness stalks in pride;
That he is strong who helps along / The faint one at his side.