{
 "id": "james-weldon-johnson/the-seasons",
 "title": "The Seasons",
 "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": "2026-08-12"
 },
 "stats": {
  "n_lines": 18,
  "n_stanzas": 3,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 47,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "W’en de leaves begin to fall,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An’ de fros’ is on de ground,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An’ de ’simmons is a-ripenin’ on de tree;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "W’en I heah de dinner call,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An’ de chillen gadder ’round,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Tis den de ’possum is de meat fu’ me.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "W’en de wintertime am pas’",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An’ de spring is come at las’,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "W’en de good ole summer sun begins to shine;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Oh! my thoughts den tek a turn,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An’ my heart begins to yearn",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Fo’ dat watermelon growin’ on de vine.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Now, de yeah will sholy bring",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "’Round a season fu’ us all,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Ev’y one kin pick his season f’om de res’;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "But de melon in de spring,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An’ de ’possum in de fall,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Mek it hard to tell which time o’ year am bes’.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}