#MIDDLEBURY
Before a Painting
James Weldon Johnson
I knew not who had wrought with skill so fine
What I beheld; nor by what laws of art
He had created life and love and heart
On canvas, from mere color, curve and line.
Silent I stood and made no move or sign;
Not with the crowd, but reverently apart;
Nor felt the power my rooted limbs to start,
But mutely gazed upon that face divine.
And over me the sense of beauty fell,
As music over a raptured listener to
The deep-voiced organ breathing out a hymn;
Or as on one who kneels, his beads to tell,
There falls the aureate glory filtered through
The windows in some old cathedral dim.
About this poem
“Before a Painting” was published in “Fifty Years & Other Poems” (The Cornhill Company, 1917).
About James Weldon Johnson
James Weldon Johnson was born on June 17, 1871, in Jacksonville, Fla. His collections of poetry include “God’s Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse” (Viking Press, 1927) and “Saint Peter Relates an Incident of the Resurrection Day” (Viking Press, 1930). He died on June 26, 1938.
The Academy of American Poets is a nonprofit, mission-driven organization, whose aim is to make poetry available to a wider audience. Email The Academy at poem-a-day@poets.org.
This poem is in the public domain. Originally published in Poem-a-Day, www.poets.org. Distributed by King Features Syndicate.
