{
 "id": "james-weldon-johnson/o-southland",
 "title": "O Southland!",
 "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": 4,
 "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": "2026-08-12"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 32,
  "n_stanzas": 4,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 38,
  "max_indent": 1
 },
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 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "O Southland! O Southland!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Have you not heard the call,",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The trumpet blown, the word made known",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To the nations, one and all?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The watchword, the hope-word,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Salvation’s present plan?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "A gospel new, for all⁠—for you:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Man shall be saved by man.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O Southland! O Southland!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Do you not hear today",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The mighty beat of onward feet,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And know you not their way?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "’Tis forward, ’tis upward,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On to the fair white arch",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Of Freedom’s dome, and there is room",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "For each man who would march.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O Southland, fair Southland!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then why do you still cling",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "To an idle age and a musty page,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "To a dead and useless thing?",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "’Tis springtime! ’Tis work-time!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The world is young again!",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "And God’s above, and God is love,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And men are only men.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "O Southland! my Southland!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "O birthland! do not shirk",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "The toilsome task, nor respite ask,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But gird you for the work.",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "Remember, remember",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That weakness stalks in pride;",
    "indent": 1
   },
   {
    "text": "That he is strong who helps along",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The faint one at his side.",
    "indent": 1
   }
  ]
 ]
}