A Banjo Song
W'en de banjos wuz a-ringin',An' de darkies wuz a-singin',Oh, wuzen dem de good times sho!All de ole folks would be chattin',An' de pickaninnies pattin',As dey heah'd de feet a-shufflin' 'cross de flo'.
An' how we'd dance, an' how we'd sing!Dance tel de day done break.An' how dem banjos dey would ring,An' de cabin flo' would shake!
Come along, come along,Come along, come along,Don't you heah dem banjos a-ringin'?
Gib a song, gib a song,Gib a song, gib a song,Git yo' feet fixed up fu' a-wingin'.
W'ile de banjos dey go plunka, plunka, plunk,We'll dance tel de ole flo' shake;W'ile de feet keep a-goin' chooka, chooka, chook,We'll dance tel de day done break.
Words in this poem
- folks n.
- In Anglo-Saxon times, the people of a group of townships or villages; a community; a tribe. [AS. folc; akin to D. volk, OS. & OHG. folk, G. volk, Icel. f, Sw. & Dan. folk, Lith. pulkas crowd, and perh. to E. follow.]
- plunk v. t.
- To pluck and release quickly (a musical string); to twang.
Definitions and etymologies from Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, 1913.
About this text
A Banjo Song is in the public domain. This text is taken from Fifty Years, & Other Poems, Project Gutenberg ebook #17884; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: James Weldon Johnson, A Banjo Song, in Fifty Years and Other Poems (1917), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #17884, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/johnson-fifty-years/a-banjo-song.html, id L08341.
Form and metre
A Banjo Song is 20 lines in 5 stanzas. The metre is trochaic tetrameter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 76%). 95% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 7.9 syllables. 3 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending.
See other poems in trochaic tetrameter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AABCCB ringinA · singinA · shoB · chattinC · pattinC · floB
- 2 ABAB singA · breakB · ringA · shakeB
- 3 AA- alongA · alongA · ringin
- 4 AA- songA · songA · wingin
- 5 -A-A plunk · shakeA · chook · breakA
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against trochaic tetrameter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| W'en de banjos wuz a-ringin', | 8 | ··/····· |
| An' de darkies wuz a-singin', | 8 | ··/˘··/˘ |
| Oh, wuzen dem de good times sho! | 8 | ········ |
| All de ole folks would be chattin', | 8 | ······/˘ |
| An' de pickaninnies pattin', | 7 | ·····/˘ |
| As dey heah'd de feet a-shufflin' 'cross de flo'. | 11 | ··········· |
| An' how we'd dance, an' how we'd sing! | 8 | ········ |
| Dance tel de day done break. | 6 | ······ |
| An' how dem banjos dey would ring, | 8 | ···/···· |
| An' de cabin flo' would shake! | 7 | ··/˘··· |
| Come along, come along, | 6 | ·˘/·˘/ |
| Come along, come along, | 6 | ·˘/·˘/ |
| Don't you heah dem banjos a-ringin'? | 9 | ····/···· |
| Gib a song, gib a song, | 6 | ······ |
| Gib a song, gib a song, | 6 | ······ |
| Git yo' feet fixed up fu' a-wingin'. | 9 | ········· |
| W'ile de banjos dey go plunka, plunka, plunk, | 11 | ··/········ |
| We'll dance tel de ole flo' shake; | 7 | ······· |
| W'ile de feet keep a-goin' chooka, chooka, chook, | 12 | ·····/˘····· |
| We'll dance tel de day done break. | 7 | ······· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.