"Down By the Carib Sea (VI: Sunset in the Tropics)" by James Weldon Johnson

View this email on a browser Forward to a friend August 4, 2019   Down By the Carib Sea (VI: Sunset in the Tropics)   James Weldon Johnson

A silver flash from the sinking sun, Then a shot of crimson across the sky That, bursting, lets a thousand colors fly And riot among the clouds; they run, Deepening in purple, flaming in gold, Changing, and opening fold after fold, Then fading through all of the tints of the rose into gray. Till, taking quick fright at the coming night, They rush out down the west, In hurried quest Of the fleeing day.   Now above where the tardiest color flares a moment yet, One point of light, now two, now three are set To form the starry stairs,— And, in her firefly crown, Queen Night, on velvet slippered feet, comes softly down.            This poem is in the public domain. Published in Poem-a-Day on August 4, 2019, by the Academy of American Poets. About This Poem   "Sunset in the Tropics" was published in Fifty Years and Other Poems (Cornhill, 1917).   James Weldon Johnson was born on June 17, 1871, in Jacksonville, Florida. His books include God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse (Viking Press, 1930) and Fifty Years and Other Poems (Cornhill, 1917). He died on June 26, 1938. Poetry by Johnson   God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse (Penguin Classics, 2008) "The Dream" by Winifred M. Letts "I Have a Rendezvous With Life" by Countee Cullen "Aspiration" by Henrietta Cordelia Ray August Guest Editor: Ruth Ellen Kocher   Thanks to Ruth Ellen Kocher, author of Third Voice (Tupelo Press, 2016), who curated Poem-a-Day for this month's weekdays. Read a Q&A with Kocher about her curatorial approach this month and find out more about our guest editors for the year. Thanks for being a part of the Academy of American Poets community. To learn about other programs, including National Poetry Month, Poem in Your Pocket Day, the annual Poets Forum, and more, visit Poets.org.   You are receiving this e-mail because you elected to subscribe to our mailing list. If you would like to unsubscribe, please click here.   © Academy of American Poets 75 Maiden Lane, Suite 901, New York, NY 10038