Collected Early Poems (AmazonClassics Edition)

Georgia Douglas Johnson was a key contributor to the Harlem Renaissance—hosting an influential salon, breaking new ground as a Black playwright, and playing an important role as an anti-lynching activist. Her poetry, however, is what first brought her to national attention, and in the early works collected here, her wide-ranging talents are already quite evident. In The Heart of a Woman, Johnson’s exquisite verse captures the full emotional terrain of womanhood. These are poems about love and disillusionment, empowerment and fulfillment, loneliness and joy. The poems collected in Bronze, on the other hand, display Johnson as more politically engaged, exploring matters of racial justice and dissecting the particular challenges facing a mother of color. Two additional poems, from magazines of the Harlem Renaissance, show her in a meditative mood, reflecting on love, loss, and the legacy of John Brown.

One of the most remarkable American poets of her era, Johnson—through her art—gives readers a lyrical and moving account of what it was like to be a woman of her time.

Revised edition: Previously published as The Heart of a Woman and Other Poems, Bronze: A Book of Verse, A Sonnet in Memory of John Brown, and Afterglow, this edition of Collected Early Poems (AmazonClassics Edition) includes editorial revisions.