{
 "id": "james-weldon-johnson/tunk",
 "title": "Tunk",
 "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": 42,
 "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": 26,
  "n_stanzas": 13,
  "n_parts": 0,
  "longest_line_chars": 76,
  "max_indent": 0
 },
 "site_ready": true,
 "parts": [],
 "stanzas": [
  [
   {
    "text": "Look heah, Tunk!⁠—Now, ain’t dis awful! T’ought I sont you off to school.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Don’t you know dat you is growin’ up to be a reg’lah fool?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Whah’s dem books dat I’s done bought you? Look heah, boy, you tell me quick,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Whah’s dat Webster blue-back spellah an’ dat bran’ new ’rifmatic?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "W’ile I’m t’inkin’ you is lahnin’ in de school, why bless ma soul!",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You off in de woods a-playin’. Can’t you do like you is tole?",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Boy, I tell you, it’s jes scan’lous d’way dat you is goin’ on.",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An’ you sholy go’n be sorry, jes as true as you is bo’n.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Heah I’m tryin’ hard to raise you as a credit to dis race,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An’ you tryin’ heap much harder fu’ to come up in disgrace.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Dese de days w’en men don’t git up to de top by hooks an’ crooks;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Tell you now, dey’s got to git der standin’ on a pile o’ books.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "W’en you sees a darkey goin’ to de fiel’ as soon as light,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Followin’ a mule across it f’om de mawnin’ tel de night,",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Wukin’ all his life fu’ vittles, hoein’ ’tween de cott’n rows,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "W’en he knocks off ole an’ tiah’d, ownin’ nut’n but his clo’es,",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "You kin put it down to ignunce, aftah all what’s done an’ said,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "You kin bet dat dat same darkey ain’t got nut’n in his head.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Ain’t you seed dem w’ite men set’n in der awfice? Don’t you know",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Dey goes der ’bout nine each mawnin? Bless yo’ soul, dey’s out by fo’.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Dey jes does a little writin’; does dat by some easy means;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Gals jes set an’ play piannah on dem printin’ press muchines.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Chile, dem men knows how to figgah, how to use dat little pen,",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "An’ dey knows dat blue-back spellah f’om beginnin’ to de en’.",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ],
  [
   {
    "text": "Dat’s de ’fect of education; dat’s de t’ing what’s gwine to rule;",
    "indent": 0
   },
   {
    "text": "Git dem books, you lazy rascal! Git back to yo’ place in school!",
    "indent": 0
   }
  ]
 ]
}