Northboun’
O’ de wurl’ ain’t flat,
An’ de wurl’ ain’t roun’,
Hit’s one long strip
Hangin’ up an’ down—
Jes’ Souf an’ Norf;
Jes’ Norf an’ Souf.
Talkin’ ’bout sailin’ ’roun’ de wurl’—
Huh! I’d be so dizzy my head ’ud twurl.
If dis heah earf wuz jes’ a ball
You know the people all ’ud fall.
O’ de wurl’ ain’t flat,
An’ de wurl’ ain’t roun’.
Hit’s one long strip
Hangin’ up an’ down—
Jes’ Souf an’ Norf;
Jes’ Norf an’ Souf.
Talkin’ ’bout the City whut Saint John saw—
Chile, you oughta go to Saginaw;
A nigger’s chance is “finest kind,”
An’ pretty gals ain’t hard to find.
Huh! de wurl’ ain’t flat,
An’ de wurl’ ain’t roun’,
Jes’ one long strip
Hangin’ up an’ down.
Since Norf is up,
An’ Souf is down,
An’ Hebben is up,
I’m upward boun’.
From The Book of American Negro Poetry (Harcourt, Brace and Company, 1922), edited by James Weldon Johnson. This poem is in the public domain.
Lucy Ariel Williams
Lucy Ariel Williams, who was called “Ariel” by friends and family, was born in Mobile, Alabama, on March 3, 1905. Her mother, Fannie Brandon, was a teacher and choir singer, while her father, Dr. H. Roger Williams, was a physician and pharmacist who also wrote creatively in his free time. Williams was the youngest child in her family and the only daughter. Her eldest sibling died in infancy, leaving only her brother, Herschell, to whom Williams was close, until his death in 1949.