God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse

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God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse is a 1927 book of poems by James Weldon Johnson patterned after African-American folk sermons.

Johnson observed an absence of attention in folklore studies to what he called a "folk sermon," then went on to describe its nature and specific examples from his memory:

“	I remember hearing in my boyhood sermons that were current, sermons that passed with only slight modifications from preacher to preacher and from locality to locality. Such sermons were, "The Valley of Dry Bones," which was based on the vision of the prophet in the 37th chapter of Ezekiel; the "Train Sermon," in which both God and the devil were pictured as running trains, one loaded with saints, that pulled up in heaven, and the other with sinners, that dumped its load in hell; the "Heavenly March," which gave in detail the journey of the faithful from earth, on up through the pearly gates to the great white throne. Then there was a stereotyped sermon which had no definite subject, and which was quite generally preached; it began with the Creation, went on to the fall of man, rambled through the trials and tribulations of the Hebrew Children, came down to the redemption by Christ, and ended with the Judgment Day and a warning and an exhortation to sinners.	”
—James Weldon Johnson, [1]

Johnson explains the title's use of the trombone by discussing the vocal and rhetorical qualities of a preacher he had recently heard who, he felt, exemplified the compelling and persuasive nature of the folk preacher, naming the trombone as "the instrument possessing above all others the power to express the wide and varied range of emotions encompassed by the human voice — and with greater amplitude." (p. 7) He also cited a dictionary definition that noted the trombone as being the brass instrument most resembling the range and sound of the human voice.

[edit] Poems

The book comprises seven poems:

• "Listen, Lord — A Prayer" – an invocation
• "The Creation" – a retelling of the creation myth of the Bible
• "The Prodigal Son" – from the biblical parable of the prodigal son
• "Go Down Death — A Funeral Sermon" – in which Jesus is depicted as sending his servant, Death, to bring to heaven a weary woman who is old and ready to die, so that she can rest
• "Noah Built the Ark" – retelling the biblical stories of Adam and Eve, a myth of how sin entered the world, and of Noah and the Great Flood sent to cleanse the earth
• "The Crucifixion" – telling the Christian story of Jesus' crucifixion
• "Let My People Go" – telling the biblical story of Moses and his work freeing the Hebrew slaves from Egypt, which has often been the basis of comparisons to the African-American slavery experience in the United States
• "The Judgment Day" – the prophetic story of the Apocalypse

[edit] Notes

1. ^ God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse, pp. 1-2

[edit] External links

• Complete electronic edition of God's Trombones, by The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Documenting the American South project