God's Trombones

African-American writer and diplomat James Weldon Johnson’s book of poems God’s Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse (1927) comprises a preface, an introductory prayer, and seven poems written in Johnson’s characteristic style, which borrows thematic and formal elements from the Black preaching tradition. As such, it relies heavily on Biblical stories and symbols. The collection is often named as Johnson’s magnum opus, alongside Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man; both works explore the construct of race and the power of language to place race into new historical, intellectual, and spiritual contexts. It also honors the influence of black preachers on the American literary tradition.

God’s Trombones begins with a preface, in which Johnson remembers the sermons he listened to as a child. He compares black preachers to “trombones,” asserting that the trombone’s sound most closely matches the human voice compared to other instruments. The sermon Johnson remembers most clearly from childhood is one that described the creation of Adam and Eve, humankind’s banishment from the Garden of Eden, and the consequences of humankind’s fall from grace during the Exodus and the Passion of Christ. This sermon ended with the promise of Judgment Day. It roughly links together the progression of the poems in the book.

The introduction is followed by a verse prayer entitled “Listen, Lord - A Prayer.” In this prayer, a female speaker asks God to give the preacher wisdom. The body of the collection contains the poems “The Creation,” “The Prodigal Son,” “Go Down Death—A Funeral Sermon,” “Noah Built the Ark,” “The Crucifixion,” “Let My People Go,” and “The Judgment Day.” Though Johnson identified as agnostic, he stated that his poems’ Biblical themes and distinctly sermon-like forms were intended to help convey the raw power of the Black oral tradition. Each of the poems is presented as a real-time transcript of a sermon delivered at a church, embellished with punctuation and line breaks that capture the preacher’s idiosyncratic cadence and voice.



The first poem, “The Creation,” retells Genesis, beginning with God’s creation of light, the celestial bodies, earth, and its creatures, including Adam (but notably leaving out the creation of Eve). Here, Johnson invokes imagery of the rural American South, setting man’s first home in a “cypress swamp.” This setting is where Johnson lived and attended sermons as a child. The second poem, “The Prodigal Son,” starts to depart from the Bible, utilizing references to world history, such as Babylon and Black artistic history, such as brass blues bands. This poem takes place in a nightclub in Johnson’s present-day Harlem. “Go Down Death: A Funeral Sermon” depicts a nun on her deathbed. God sends Death down to earth to take her to heaven. The fourth and fifth poems, “Noah Built the Ark” and “The Crucifixion,” reframe these two Biblical stories in modern allegorical contexts. “Let My People Go” refers to the story of Moses and the Pharaoh. “The Judgment Day” is the most cautionary, closely resembling the classic “fire and brimstone” sermons of the biblical tradition of the American South. The poem concludes with the preacher warning an audience of sinners to turn to God before it is too late.

God’s Trombones expresses the full range of power Johnson perceived in the Black preaching tradition and the compelling stories of the King James Bible it frequently used.