{
 "id": "james-weldon-johnson/the-creation",
 "title": "The Creation",
 "poet": "James Weldon Johnson",
 "poet_slug": "james-weldon-johnson",
 "language": "en",
 "book": "God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse",
 "book_slug": "gods-trombones",
 "book_kind": "volume",
 "sequence": 1,
 "container": null,
 "epigraph": null,
 "first_published": {
  "year": 1927,
  "venue": "God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse (1927)",
  "note": "First located printing is this volume; an earlier periodical printing has not been established.",
  "uncertain": false,
  "sources": [
   "https://archive.org/details/godstrombonessev00johnso"
  ]
 },
 "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": 91,
  "n_stanzas": 12,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 56,
  "max_indent": 0
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 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "And God stepped out on space,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And he looked around and said:",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’m lonely⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "I’ll make me a world.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "And far as the eye of God could see",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Darkness covered everything,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Blacker than a hundred midnights",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Down in a cypress swamp.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then God smiled,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the light broke,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the darkness rolled up on one side,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the light stood shining on the other,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And God said: That’s good!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then God reached out and took the light in his hands,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And God rolled the light around in his hands",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Until he made the sun;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And he set that sun a-blazing in the heavens.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the light that was left from making the sun",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "God gathered it up in a shining ball",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And flung it against the darkness,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Spangling the night with the moon and stars.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Then down between",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The darkness and the light",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He hurled the world;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And God said: That’s good!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then God himself stepped down⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the sun was on his right hand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the moon was on his left;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The stars were clustered about his head,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the earth was under his feet.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And God walked, and where he trod",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "His footsteps hollowed the valleys out",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And bulged the mountains up.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then he stopped and looked and saw",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "That the earth was hot and barren.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "So God stepped over to the edge of the world",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And he spat out the seven seas⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He batted his eyes, and the lightnings flashed⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He clapped his hands, and the thunders rolled⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the waters above the earth came down,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The cooling waters came down.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then the green grass sprouted,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the little red flowers blossomed,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The pine tree pointed his finger to the sky,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the oak spread out his arms,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "The lakes cuddled down in the hollows of the ground,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the rivers ran down to the sea;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And God smiled again,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And the rainbow appeared,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And curled itself around his shoulder.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then God raised his arm and he waved his hand",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Over the sea and over the land,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And He said: Bring forth! Bring forth!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And quicker than God could drop his hand,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fishes and fowls",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And beasts and birds",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Swam the rivers and the seas,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Roamed the forests and the woods,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And split the air with their wings.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And God said, That’s good!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then God walked around,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And God looked around",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On all that he had made.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He looked at his sun,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And he looked at his moon,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And he looked at his little stars;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He looked on his world",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With all its living things,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And God said: I’m lonely still.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then God sat down⁠—",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "On the side of a hill where he could think;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "By a deep, wide river he sat down;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "With his head in his hands,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "God thought and thought,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till he thought: I’ll make me a man!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Up from the bed of the river",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "God scooped the clay;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And by the bank of the river",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "He kneeled him down;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And there the great God Almighty",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who lit the sun and fixed it in the sky,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who flung the stars to the most far corner of the night,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Who rounded the earth in the middle of his hand;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "This Great God,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Like a mammy bending over her baby,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Kneeled down in the dust",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Toiling over a lump of clay",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Till he shaped it in his own image;",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Then into it he blew the breath of life,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "And man became a living soul.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Amen. Amen.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}