"The Creation" was written by James Weldon Johnson in 1919, but later appeared in 1927 in God's Trombones: Seven Negro Sermons in Verse. In this poem, Mr. Johnson tells the biblical story of God's creation of the world, from the first night and day to the shaping of a lump of clay to form a human being. The poet's free verse captures the rhythm and character of southern black country sermons in the 1800s. Imagery from the South, such as "darkness covered everything, blacker than a hundred midnights down in a cypress swamp," gives a distinctly regional flavor to the poem.

Mr. Ransome's illustrations are a tribute to the oral tradition of black folk stories, since they portray a storyteller who relays Mr. Johnson's beautifully cadenced text.

From the dust jacket