O'Black and Unknown Bards

This collection of 65 poems, read by professional actors, demonstrates the remarksble talent of James Weldon Johnson. It ranks with Johnson's acclaimed novel "The Autobiography of An Ex-Colored Man" (a MasterBuy selection) and his enduring "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing", called by many the African-American National Hymn (recorded in MasterBuy's "Seven Family Kwanzaa Programs"). The poems range over a number of Johnson's interests: the intriguing beauty of the tropics; the "sorrow songs" rough hewn wisdom; the intoxicating effect of romance; dialect poems that provide insightful yet amusing truths. There are also other poems here, such as the brilliant "And The Greatest Of These Is War." ("O'Black and Unknown Bards" originally was published under the title of "Fifty Years").