lection in Part I is a compilation of American Negro Folk Rhymes, and
this study primarily concerns them; but it was necessary to have a
Foreign Section of Rhymes in order to make our study complete. I have
therefore inserted a little Foreign Section of African, Venezuelan,
Jamaican, Trinidad, and Philippine Negro Rhymes; and along with them
have placed the names of the contributors to whom we are under great
obligations, as well as to the many others who have given valuable
assistance and suggestions in the matter of the American Negro Rhymes
recorded.

When critically measured by the laws and usages governing the best
English poetry, Negro Folk Rhymes will probably remind readers of the
story of the good brother, who arose solemnly in a Christian praise
meeting, and thanked God that he had broken all the Commandments, but
had kept his religion.

Though decent rhyme is often wanting, and in the case of the "Song to
the Runaway Slave," there is no rhyme at all, the rhythm is found almost
perfect in all of them.

A few of the Rhymes bear the mark of a somewhat recent date in
composition. The majority of them, however, were sung by Negro fathers
and mothers in the dark days of American slavery to their children who
listened with eyes as large as saucers and drank them down with mouths
wide open. The little songs were similar in structure to the Jubilee
Songs, also of Negro Folk origin.

If one will but examine the recorded Jubilee songs, he will find that it
is common for stanzas, which are apparently most distantly related in
structure, to sing along in perfect rhythm in the same tune that
carefully counts from measure to measure one, two; or one, two, three,
four. Here is an example of two stanzas taken from the Jubilee song,
"Wasn't That a Wide River?"

1. "Old Satan's just like a snake in the grass,
He's a-watching for to bite you as you pass.

2. Shout! Shout! Satan's about.
Just shut your door, and keep him out."

An examination of stanzas in various Jubilee songs will show in the same
song large variations in poetic feet, etc., not only from stanza to
stanza; but very often from line to line, and even from phrase to
phrase. Notwithstanding all this variation, a well trained band of
singers will render the songs with such perfect rhythm that one scarcely
realizes that the structure of any one stanza differs materially from
that of another.

A stanza, as it appears in Negro Folk Rh