Welcome to this exploration of modern American poetry. Today, we turn our focus to one of the most striking and uncompromising poems of the early twentieth century: 'Tired' by Fenton Johnson.
Historical Context
Born in Chicago in 1888 to a middle-class African American family, Fenton Johnson was a poet, editor, and educator whose work bridged the turn-of-the-century poetic tradition with the emerging voices of the Chicago and Harlem Renaissances. When 'Tired' was published in 1919 in the magazine 'Others: A Magazine of the New Verse,' the United States was experiencing profound social upheaval. Black veterans were returning from World War I expecting the democracy they had fought for abroad, only to encounter Jim Crow segregation, systemic violence, and the racial conflicts of the 'Red Summer' of 1919.
Against this backdrop of disenfranchisement, Fenton Johnson wrote a poem that abandoned Victorian sentimentality and traditional poetic meters in favor of direct, prose-like free verse. Instead of offering an optimistic call to perseverance or a moral appeal to white conscience, 'Tired' articulated a profound, fatalistic despair—a complete rejection of a social order built on racial exploitation.
Before we examine its deeper themes, symbols, and literary devices, let us hear the poem in its entirety. Here is 'Tired' by Fenton Johnson:
I am tired of work; I am tired of building up somebody else's civilization.
Let us take a rest, M'Lissy Jane.
I will go down to the Last Chance Saloon, drink a gallon or two of gin, shoot a game or two of dice and sleep the rest of the night on one of Mike's barrels.
You will let the old shanty go to rot, the white people's clothes turn to dust, and the Calvary Baptist Church sink to the bottomless pit.
You will spend your days forgetting you married me and your nights hunting the warm gin Mike serves the ladies in the rear of the Last Chance Saloon.
Throw the children into the river; civilization has given us too many.
It is better to die than it is to grow up and find out that you are colored.
Pluck the stars out of the heavens.
The stars mark our destiny.
The stars marked my destiny.
I am tired of civilization.
Analysis & Key Themes
Upon hearing 'Tired,' one is immediately struck by its refusal to offer comfort or easy resolve. Written in free verse, the poem's unrhymed, prose-like rhythms mirror the breakdown of the social contract it describes.
The opening lines establish the central conflict: "I am tired of work; I am tired of building up somebody else's civilization." Here, the speaker identifies the fundamental alienation experienced by Black Americans whose physical labor built the infrastructure, wealth, and domestic comfort of a society that systematically denied them full equality. The term 'somebody else's civilization' exposes the deep sense of exclusion felt by those forced to construct a world in which they are denied citizenship.
As the poem unfolds, Johnson uses vivid, grounded imagery to contrast labor with escapism. On one hand is the relentless burden of domestic work—washing 'the white people's clothes' and maintaining 'the old shanty.' On the other hand is the retreat into the 'Last Chance Saloon,' where alcohol, gambling, and physical collapse offer an anesthetic against daily humiliation. The speaker addresses 'M'Lissy Jane,' bringing an intimate human relationship into the narrative to illustrate how systemic oppression strains family structures and marriages.
Even religious institutions are re-evaluated. When the speaker calls for the 'Calvary Baptist Church' to 'sink to the bottomless pit,' Johnson signals a profound disillusionment with traditional spiritual comfort. For many in the African American community, the church was a sanctuary of hope and endurance; here, however, the speaker views institutional religion as insufficient to address the overwhelming weight of worldly injustice.
"Throw the children into the river; civilization has given us too many. / It is better to die than it is to grow up and find out that you are colored."
Perhaps the most unsettling moment in the poem comes with the lines above. Literary scholars note that Johnson employs extreme hyperbole and dark irony here. The speaker is not offering a literal directive, but rather expressing extreme existential horror. In a society that penalizes individuals simply for their race, bringing a child into the world is framed as subjecting them to unavoidable suffering.
"Pluck the stars out of the heavens. / The stars mark our destiny. / The stars marked my destiny."
In the final lines, the poem shifts from social realism to cosmic symbolism. Stars are traditionally symbols of aspiration, divine guidance, or hopeful fate. By demanding that the stars be plucked from the sky, the speaker rejects a universe that has decreed a destiny of subjugation. The poem concludes where it began, framing the speaker's fatigue not merely as physical tiredness from labor, but as a complete exhaustion with 'civilization' itself.
When James Weldon Johnson included 'Tired' in his landmark 1922 anthology, 'The Book of American Negro Poetry,' he noted that Fenton Johnson was unique among Black poets of his era for voicing this specific note of fatalistic despair. While many of his contemporaries focused on protest, political uplift, or cultural celebration, Fenton Johnson captured a raw, unfiltered voice of psychological burnout. Through its bold form and uncompromising imagery, 'Tired' remains a significant work in American literature, illuminating the profound human cost of racial injustice.
Backgrounder Notes
As an expert researcher and library scientist, I have identified several key historical, literary, and cultural concepts from the article that would benefit readers with additional background context.
Here are brief explainers for each key concept:
1. The 'Red Summer' of 1919
Backgrounder: The "Red Summer" refers to the period between late spring and early autumn of 1919, characterized by white-supremacist race riots and violent attacks on Black communities across dozens of U.S. cities, including Chicago. Driven by post-WWI economic anxiety and systemic racism, these attacks triggered widespread Black resistance and marked a critical turning point in early 20th-century civil rights history.
2. The Chicago Renaissance
Explainer: The Chicago Renaissance (roughly 1910–1950) was a major movement of African American writers, artists, and intellectuals who documented Black urban life and the Great Migration. Parallel to the Harlem Renaissance, this movement produced groundbreaking realism and modernism that transformed the landscape of American literature.
3. Others: A Magazine of the New Verse
Backgrounder: Founded by poet Alfred Kreymborg in 1915, Others was a influential modernist literary journal that championed experimental, avant-garde poetry. By publishing Fenton Johnson's "Tired," the magazine provided a key platform for non-traditional free verse that rejected 19th-century Victorian sentimentality.
4. Free Verse
Definition: Free verse is a poetic style that lacks a fixed pattern of rhyme, meter, or line length, relying instead on the natural cadences of spoken language. Writers like Johnson used free verse to break away from rigid European poetic forms, allowing them to mirror the raw, direct emotional reality of modern life.
5. The Black Church as a Social Institution
Context: Historically, the Black Church served as the bedrock of African American civic, political, and economic life, offering sanctuary and organized resistance under legal segregation. In "Tired," Johnson’s imagery of the Calvary Baptist Church sinking into a pit underscores a radical breakdown of faith in traditional institutions to shield Black Americans from systemic violence.
6. James Weldon Johnson & The Book of American Negro Poetry (1922)
Backgrounder: James Weldon Johnson was a legendary writer, diplomat, and civil rights leader whose 1922 anthology was a landmark publication in African American literature. The anthology validated Black poetry as a vital contribution to modern art and introduced key voices like Fenton Johnson to a broad national audience.
