{
 "id": "james-weldon-johnson/a-banjo-song",
 "title": "A Banjo Song",
 "ordinal": null,
 "subtitle": null,
 "poet": "James Weldon Johnson",
 "poet_slug": "james-weldon-johnson",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "Fifty Years & Other Poems",
 "book_slug": "fifty-years-and-other-poems",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 47,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1917,
  "venue": "Fifty Years & Other Poems (1917)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/fiftyyearsother00johnrich",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17884"
  ]
 },
 "source": {
  "kind": "standard-ebooks",
  "repo": "standardebooks/james-weldon-johnson_poetry",
  "file": "poetry.xhtml",
  "upstream": [
   "https://www.google.com/books/edition/How_the_National_Association_for_the_Adv/AAs-AQAAMAAJ",
   "https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/17884",
   "https://archive.org/details/fiftyyearsother00johnrich",
   "https://docsouth.unc.edu/southlit/johnson/johnson.html",
   "https://archive.org/details/godstrombonessev00johnso"
  ],
  "rights": "public domain (SE dedication; underlying text pre-1931)"
 },
 "verification": {
  "level": "structural-only",
  "last_checked": "2026-08-14"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 20,
  "n_stanzas": 5,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 49,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "W’en de banjos wuz a-ringin’,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An’ de darkies wuz a-singin’,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Oh, wuzen dem de good times sho!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "All de ole folks would be chattin’,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An’ de pickaninnies pattin’,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "As dey heah’d de feet a-shufflin’ ’cross de flo’.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "An’ how we’d dance, an’ how we’d sing!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dance tel de day done break.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An’ how dem banjos dey would ring,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An’ de cabin flo’ would shake!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Come along, come along,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Come along, come along,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Don’t you heah dem banjos a-ringin’?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Gib a song, gib a song,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gib a song, gib a song,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Git yo’ feet fixed up fu’ a-wingin’.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "W’ile de banjos dey go plunka, plunka, plunk,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We’ll dance tel de ole flo’ shake;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "W’ile de feet keep a-goin’ chooka, chooka, chook,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "We’ll dance tel de day done break.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}