4 10 650 https://digitallis.isg.siue.edu/files/original/0e4d9de0c5ca0e6a9c3111a6f1aea657.jpg c1de1ebe12b7fc2468edcd6cd8af3280 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Jean Kittrell Digital Collection Still Image A static visual representation. Examples include paintings, drawings, graphic designs, plans and maps. Recommended best practice is to assign the type Text to images of textual materials. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Color photograph Physical Dimensions The actual physical size of the original image 4 x 5.9375 in. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context JMK_2015_7_51_0200 Title A name given to the resource The St. Louis Rivermen Performing on JazzSea Caribbean Cruise, 2006 Subject The topic of the resource Kittrell, Jean Lehr, David Maihack, Jim Lilley, Steve Grimm, Bobby Kaletsky, Noel Description An account of the resource The St. Louis Rivermen performing on stage on the JazzSea Caribbean Cruise in 2006. Pictured L-R: Jean Kittrell on electric keyboard, Jim Miahack on trombone, Steve Lilley on trumpet, Noel Kaletsky on clarinet, and David "Red" Lehr, seated, on sousaphone. Behind the front row, not easily visible in the picture, are the drummer (unidentified) and Bobby Grimm on banjo. The band is wearing blue polos, and Kittrell is in a red fringe dress. Photo taken by Bill and Muriel Nunn of Bradenton Beach, Florida. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Nunn, Bill Nunn, Muriel Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1/1/2006 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource For digital rights and permissions, see <a href="https://www.siue.edu/lovejoy-library/about/policies.shtml">https://www.siue.edu/lovejoy-library/about/policies.shtml</a> In copyright. <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a> Relation A related resource Jean Kittrell Digital Collection Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Caribbean Type The nature or genre of the resource Still Image Bobby Grimm Caribbean Cruise JazzSea 2006 Jean Kittrell Jim Maihack Noel Kaletsky Red Lehr St. Louis Rivermen Steve Lilley https://digitallis.isg.siue.edu/files/original/46801ff637141fccbcbc9beaf6cb35d5.mp3 5e67783025757bd6b36728eb42a9e4b0 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Clip from track 5, "See See Rider," on the Old Guys Jazz Band with Jean Kittrell album, "Jazz on Campus." https://digitallis.isg.siue.edu/files/original/d3ebdd0f619ef641d379d94ac94fdeb9.mp3 cd1e960278aa074ea59ae32288a5c141 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Clip from track 8, "Just a Closer Walk with Thee," on the Old Guys Jazz Band with Jean Kittrell album, "Jazz on Campus." Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Jean Kittrell Digital Collection Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Archival compact disc Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context Meridian_R-2522 Title A name given to the resource Jazz On Campus Description An account of the resource Jazz recording by the Old Guys Jazz Band with Jean Kittrell for Meridian Records. Personnel of the Old Guys Jazz Band includes Warren Brown on clarinet, Ray Helsel on acoustic bass guitar, Lyman "Zeke" Holden on tuba and piano, W. Deane Wiley on trombone, Jim Hansen on drums, Dan Havens on cornet, John "Jack" Ades on banjo, Bill Feeney on piano, and Jean Kittrell on piano and vocals. Tracks on this recording include Milenburg Joys, Mood Indigo, Yellow Dog Blues, Tin Roof Blues, See See Rider, Maple Leaf Rag, Angry, and Just a Closer Walk with Thee. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Old Guys Jazz Band with Jean Kittrell Publisher An entity responsible for making the resource available Meridian Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource For digital rights and permissions, see <a href="https://www.siue.edu/lovejoy-library/about/policies.shtml">https://www.siue.edu/lovejoy-library/about/policies.shtml</a> In copyright. <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a> Relation A related resource Jean Kittrell Digital Collection Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource Undated Jean Kittrell Old Guys Jazz Band https://digitallis.isg.siue.edu/files/original/6d16168e56517eef7b78aad2b584cd51.mp3 09784a0a48078d20e58afb22a4ce5df9 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Clip from track 1, "St. Louis Blues," on the Old St. Louis Levee Band album, "Plays the Blues." https://digitallis.isg.siue.edu/files/original/da4281221ce49d06bf249f0116ee1f65.mp3 cabb95f5733f67678e10a0005c028970 Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Clip from track 4, "Wild Women Don't Have No Blues," on the Old St. Louis Levee Band album, "Plays the Blues." Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Jean Kittrell Digital Collection Sound A resource primarily intended to be heard. Examples include a music playback file format, an audio compact disc, and recorded speech or sounds. Original Format The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data Archival compact disc Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context MCRP-1091 Title A name given to the resource Plays...the Blues Description An account of the resource Dixieland jazz recording by the Old St. Louis Levee Band, recorded on March 5, 1983 at Technisonic Studios. The engineer was Bob Brose. Songs on the recording include St. Louis Blues, Basin Street Blues, Bye Bye Blues, Wild Women Don't Have No Blues, If I Had You, Jazz Me Blues, The Blues My Naughty Sweety Gave to Me, Trombone Man Blues, Royal Garden Blues, Beale Street Blues, and Weary Blues. Performers include Bobby Grimm on banjo, Rick Schaumberger on drums, Jean Kittrell on piano and vocals, Pat Arana on trombone, and David "Red" Lehr on sousaphone. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Old St. Louis Levee Band Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 03/05/1983 Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource For digital rights and permissions, see <a href="https://www.siue.edu/lovejoy-library/about/policies.shtml">https://www.siue.edu/lovejoy-library/about/policies.shtml</a> In copyright. <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a> Relation A related resource Jean Kittrell Digital Collection Type The nature or genre of the resource Sound Bobby Grimm Jean Kittrell Old St. Louis Levee Band Pat Arana Red Lehr Rich Schaumberger https://digitallis.isg.siue.edu/files/original/fab06539d5cbc67286e219a6a1620c9d.pdf 711092e3362028741d138ab8c709e56f PDF Text Text Origins of Black Expression 00/Black Folk Roots in America 00/ Spirituals 00/Folk Seculars 00/Folk Anthology Section(Samp le) 00 Moses Sla · tion n Swin teal y ow, ong, Many a ousand Die, ree om, Rain ow oun Mah Shoulder, John Henry Hammer Song, A Big Fat Mama, How Long Blues 00/ ( -- �I ~ I DRUMVOICES I • It . '. . ! \ I t d, ... ,1,. IL ' - ,,, 1 1 {) l J' -t-,<6'i) '-( 1 .J. , �(card plate for DRUMVOICES by Redmond) OT:HER ANCHOR I PRESS BOOKS OF INTEREST • o/, ,, .. /. The Poetry of the Negro -z. Edited by Langston Hughes and Arna Bontemps How I Got Ovah '/if:! Carolyn Rodgers The Gospel Sound rp Tony Heilbut Black-eyed Susans r:/J Edited by Mary Helen Washington Morning Yet on Creation Day Chinua Achebe The Black Aesthetic Edited by Addison Gayle, Jr. �• f I. u 1tJ I ~· k z i{ p.:. I DRUMVOICES: I.._ «.ttL,f.. ' it, .# - ~e ~ ission Qf Afro -American Poetry _. \.# s'J Id , I;, •1JJ by Euge~e B. Redmond Anchor Press/Doubleday l. Garden City, New York i976 ) ,,,_ u{1 1,L j // -/ /.,. '4') , I < I 2 I. /7 I,, ,l I I I I �, I Eugene Redmond h ac~ poetry, drama, ed distinction in several e,.r~as ism, and scholarly articles ~ volumes of poetry. He i ha in demand as a speaker, lect~ er, consultant to various worksn&ps, symposium~ and conf before audiences at UCLA, Berkeley Brown, Yale, Howard, an Presently, Redmond is}4-ofessor of English and / oet iny(esidence at California State University, Sacramento. ISBN: (J -3i~- 0~ I tr,f- lJ Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: Copyright © 1976 by Eugene B. Redmond All Rights Reserved I Printed in the United States of Ameri ca ) :;,. 5 ._, J;.cl/i1/ AI [. { . 7S' -1,. I 7 1 I { J 1/ �E~gene B. Redmond, a native of East St. Louis, Illinois, ls a graduate of Southern Illinois University and Washington UniversitykSt. Louis) has and/achieved distinction in several areas of writin~ including poetry, drama, journalis~ and criticism. He has published five books . of poetry 111,. and recorded an album reading his own verse to musical accompani,1\ent. Co founder and publisher of Black River Writers Press, Redmond is also literary executor for the estate of the late poet vand fiction .wpiterv Henry ~ThJ.mas; " Currentfry Redmond is professor of English and poet-inresidence at California State University, Sacramento) {and is one of the c o rdinators of the Annual Third World Writers and Thinkers Symposium held on that campus. He is in demand as a speaker, lecturer, reader, and consultant to various •IDrkshops, symposia, and conferences, having appeared before audiences at UCLA, UC Berkeley, in~Harlem, in Watts, Howard University, Southern University, and many more. �/VDEDICATION In Memoriam: Georgia Douglas Johnson, Melvin Tolson, Langston Hughes, fQ ,,._j Conrad Kent Rivers, Henry Dumas, Arna Bontemps Z) ,,,- And for the still-burning lamps: Sterling Brown, Owen Dodson, Margaret ..) Walker, Gwendolyn Brooks, Robert Hayden � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Eugene B. Redmond Digital Collection Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context EBRWritings_09_01 Title A name given to the resource Editor's proof, Drumvoices: The Mission of Afro-American Poetry: A Critical History, front matter, typed with handwritten edits Relation A related resource Eugene B. Redmond Digital Collection Language A language of the resource English Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource For digital rights and permissions, see <a href="https://www.siue.edu/lovejoy-library/about/policies.shtml">https://www.siue.edu/lovejoy-library/about/policies.shtml</a> or contact <a href="mailto:library@siue.edu">library@siue.edu</a> for direct inquiries. In copyright. <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Redmond, Eugene B. https://digitallis.isg.siue.edu/files/original/b056dcd6301c199a365adfb928bbc9cb.pdf e1d296ba635d21e2930572a8bb92a063 PDF Text Text - -- ll .R 11 M \' ti I ,: E S : TheMi~sion ofAfro-Arner· c.a11 R etr BY ECGE ER. �- t- .... :'.'fl3DE.:::Jl:J;:.J.ZJK:::A"~Jil.-JJ1.KJ<~7'~D..D~:\'!JJ..N UAUIJS X:BlC\D ~ �� Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Eugene B. Redmond Digital Collection Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context EBRWritings_09_02 Title A name given to the resource Editor's proof, Drumvoices: The Mission of Afro-American Poetry: A Critical History, front matter card plate on onionskin with handwritten edits Relation A related resource Eugene B. Redmond Digital Collection Language A language of the resource English Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource For digital rights and permissions, see <a href="https://www.siue.edu/lovejoy-library/about/policies.shtml">https://www.siue.edu/lovejoy-library/about/policies.shtml</a> or contact <a href="mailto:library@siue.edu">library@siue.edu</a> for direct inquiries. In copyright. <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Redmond, Eugene B. https://digitallis.isg.siue.edu/files/original/97e7e9754096894f727e9f7a4879e1ac.pdf ea36f4028d6ba841eae1db28171e2a9d PDF Text Text ~ ~ I j PREFACE "'i;:r L-- At this perilous juncture in,J'l ack history, on the eve of America's / i jtentennial and a.mid~ a new wave of Third World/ umanism, Drumvoices comes as a partial rebuttal to those who say poetry's impact on ma~ind's conscious i o( 9!::v,...,.v01e._J>.s 't-ness has been insignificant. The thesisAis simple: vthat God's trombones have {: historically lared through or soothed the harsh and stark realities of the Afro= American/ xperience; and that the sources (records) of these blarings and soothl, sayine;5, locked in cultural safe-deposit boxes of drums and the intricate acoustics " of the folk, remain accessible to anyone desiring to tap them. Such source \ spirits ("roots") are what the author has tried to conjure up in Drumvoices, which owes great debts to a lengthening line of marvelous visionaries, ; known and unknown / As a reference work, this text makes a modest attempt to follow in the tradi{-tion of Vernon LogginW ~he Negro Author in America, Benjamin Brawley's Early I Negro American Writers and The Negro Genius, Sterling A. Brown's Negro Poetry and Drama and J. Saunders Redding's To Make ;/ Poet Black . 7 We have also profitt" ed immensely from related works by George Washington Williams, Benjamin E. Mays, - gohn Hope Franklin, Fralz Fanon, Loften Mitchell and Dorothy Porter . A Of the literary historians and critics, only Brown is concerned exclusively with poets /4 th! ough Mrs. Porter's many offerings also include a chect ist of~ lack poets. Loggins' study views .Zlack authors up until 1900; and Reddingi , Brown and Brawley examine them through the mid 1930s. Drumvoices combines all previous ·-~ ventures in the area of the poetryMgiving new interpretations and updating an / exciting history which began with Lucy TerrYi who wrote a poem 229 years ago. Initially conceived as a monologue and later enlarged to its present size, Drumvoices is aimed at students and teachers of)Elack poetry, literature, history and culture . will benefit . However, the author hopes that all who read from these pages The very general thesis stated above is consistent]q implied in �the book's approach . And unlike some recent works, this one does not present a consciously labored construct or aesthetical matrix, · lack/ationalism, /an- Africanism, the /J-ack/esthetic or p..ienation, though none of these alternatives " has been overlooked whenever and whereJver poets or critics have dealt significantly with them. Occasionally chronology is violate~ since any time barrier is, by definition, arbitrary0 (It was impossible to find birth or death dates for some of the early poets . ) Also arbitrary is the author's selection of poets and emphasis on various styles, techniques, themes or periods . Yet the organization of the text is somewhat original since, at the time of this writing, no single work has discussed)3lack poetry from its beginnings into the 1960s and 1970s. ----------- As a history, Drumvoices includes six chapters: I, :Entrodud::::i:on-I3lack Poetry: ~ "" III, Views, Visions, Conflicts; II, The Black and Unknown Bards-t-=Folk ~oo4;.s; L c~) ,.,.,. ,. Africanf oice in Eclipse~ Imitation and Agitation (1746~1865); IV, Jubile~, Jujus and Justices (1865/jJ-910); V, A Long Ways ,,/rom Home (1910~1960); VI, Festivals and Funerals : Black Poetry of the 1960s and 1970s. Finally, there is a / iblio graphical_;/n-dex . a The historical aspect of this two-pronged study (critical and historical) dominates . the rationale being that a text I chronicles the development of the poetry is a prerequisite to sound critical assessment . Also, the author was not unmindful of the fact that most anthologies or studies oFrecent f lack poetry are generally "loaded" and top - heavy with hoi sehold namest but none of them has extended ~ vision to include a representative ("complete" is out of the question) look at the numerous important centers where this poetry is being created. It seemed a worthwhile task, then, simply to suggest the demographic range of the new poetry . ~ ,1,•'"' the author Such is the attempt made in Chapter V~ wl:.e.J:::.e h has purposely decentralized a star-dominated pattern in the new poetry in favor of a more truthful and historical picture of its development . One can pick up �' < a journal or book in practically any library and read glowing praise of the new poetry; hence the aut S has simply referred readers to these comments instead of ret hashiI?,g them here. Unfortunately, significant were not available to the aut~ 9t ~centur;'1-ack poetry while c~ ters on these areas were being written. But Jean Sherman's Invisible Poets: Afro- Americans of the 19th Century and M.r , Richmond's Bid the Vassal Soar: Interpretive Essays on the Life and Poetry of P ~llis Wheatley and George Moses Horton, when finally received, provided additional insight and caused some slight reshuffling of this text. servic~ Of great Early Black American Poets, William Robinson's important anthology (with notes); at this writing, it remains the best such source for the period. The author is also indebted to a number of important works on@ h~century .,..ziack poetry: Jean Wagner's Black Poets of the United States: /rom Paul Laurence Dunbar to Langston Hughes, Arthur P. Davis' From the Dark Tower: Afro-American Writers, 19ooi4196O, Donald Gibson's Modern Black Poets, Blyden Jackson~ and Louis Rubin's Black Poetry in America, George P . Kent's Blackness and the Adventure of Western Culture and Joy Flasch's Mtvin B. Tolson . A book does not just happen1 and the fuel for this one has. been pouring in over a number of years and from a great many sources. Germinating ideas came from various quarters: students, friends, teachers ana..,most importantly, ~ at Southern Illinois University's Experiment in High~ ucation in East St. Louis . The literally hundreds of poets, writers and thinkers (in Watts, New York, Chicago, New Orleans, Atlanta, Detroit, Cleveland, etc.), with whom the author has met and talked through nights and days, now stand faceless and nameless, but they are as much a ~art of this book as the author himself. - Of special significance were the critical readings of sections of this text by Ted Hornback, friend and former teacher; critic Clyde Taylo) who prompted much X �r¢ hinking and ret writinglj\ and Charles Rowel~ who should have been commissioned to write the chapter on folklore. Likewise, for their patience, assistance and great stores of information, debt is ......,0wed to librariaas at California State While a book does not just happen in the mind, neither does it miraculously ,f.A- ;J appear on the page. ,,;v Hours of meticulous and relentless work~ invested by my graduate assistant Julie Blattle:s, who worked ~ bibliographical and tefua1 problems~/ ounger assistants in these matters ±fie~~eith Jefferson and Ronald Tibbs. However, a lion's share of producing this book was assumed by A/ Marie Collins, supervisor of Sacramento's Oak Park School of Afro-American a -1)[; .t.l ,t. <&,,,-...j.;( Thought, who typed criticize~ and oi:/.herwise committed herself to the project. ~ Beverly Williams, CSUS English secretary, also shared a portion of the typing r) load. Finally, my gracious editor, Marie Brown, deserves a huge salute for her encouragement, concern and continued support of the writing-research through to the end. Onward, the FOETS! Eugene B. Redmond ¥arch ,~97~ ...:!!!Y Sacramen , California �:...:,, I , ( (acknowledgements to come { 5 ms pages) .) AC !{)I GVJ i- e;·\ ~&:ftvl t NT S "'-- I \ f I( I �,;,,,.J I'I JvJ DRUMVOICES > I </ I I .'r2 ~ y...,.af - <:_ I /.:), # ., J '-{j-O(;i) � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Eugene B. Redmond Digital Collection Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context EBRWritings_09_03 Title A name given to the resource Editor's proof, Drumvoices: The Mission of Afro-American Poetry: A Critical History, preface, acknowledgments, title page, typed with handwritten edits, p. vii-xvii Description An account of the resource Drumvoices: The Mission of Afro-American Poetry: A Critical History, editor's proof, preface, p. vii-xvii. Page numbering includes five manuscript pages for the Acknowledgements section that had not yet been written but were included in the anticipated page numbering. Relation A related resource Eugene B. Redmond Digital Collection Language A language of the resource English Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource For digital rights and permissions, see <a href="https://www.siue.edu/lovejoy-library/about/policies.shtml">https://www.siue.edu/lovejoy-library/about/policies.shtml</a> or contact <a href="mailto:library@siue.edu">library@siue.edu</a> for direct inquiries. In copyright. <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Redmond, Eugene B. https://digitallis.isg.siue.edu/files/original/bda4b937b4255dd6e3ced4e9979ac5aa.pdf fdbdbbce3c1db47d2c196b8abdc529f2 PDF Text Text INTRODUCTION: CHAPTER I-- G BLACK POETRY: ..,VIEWS, VISIONS, CONFLICTS It ••• the double obligation of being both Negro ~d American is not so unified as we are often led to believe. n 'l,,,,. 1,_ '2"' J I -Countee Cullen i\i"\ C- In recent years,j ~l lack American po try has emerged from what appears to have been its assigned position as an illegii timate-Csometimes embarrassing-Lchild of American literature M M into an official flower in the garden of world writinfs@ Everyi where~ Afro-American poetry is being vigorously read, listened to and imitate. Disc jockeys on Black-oriented radio stations quip: "often imitated but never duplicated" ~ assuring their - listeners p~1 . 1· ve, ~ ,. ,/II 1.s a 1. that the 11 soul 11 or ~~~eJ 11 heirloomu of their tradition v~vltrs well, andlt'28 elcca in ancestrall\.11afe ,bps 1 i 111111 a , ' Howeve~ a silent reading of the DJ's casually delivered quip belies the charismatic power and verbal dexterousness in 'iiow• it is said But, inJ lack poetry, the "how" is always important and will be one of the cornerstones of the discussions in this book. To say that.Jilack poetry is read or heard all over the world is not to say that it is studied in equitable proportion to other poetry Indeed the recent rash of anthologies and individual cal lections, and the re issuing of previously published volumes, suggest that a vast literary vacuum has existed The flood of publications, coupled with the appearance of new j :i.a:ck~_ and other=ethnic publishing houses, makes this vacuum glaringly, paradoxt 1 �ically obvious The absence of/ lack poetry (orJ ~1ack literature) courses from English departments and at predominantly white colleges and public schools is ignominiously aided and abetted by the culp~ able negligence at many predominantly/5-ack learning centers ~ where for example ;istudents are exposedj to Walt Whitman, W •r • Yeats, T•f • Eliot, Robert Frost, Carl Sandburg, Marianne Moore t and Edith Sitwell but t,a.ey- receive no instructi-on!, in the works ~ of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Jean Toomer , Melvin B. Tolson, Owen Dod son, Robert Hayden, Gwendolyn Brooks and Margaret Walkers One could go on, of course, reciting the cultural and literary negligence so officially a part of the academic and grants-in-aid patterns. However, the purpose here is to explore the vast richness of)Slack poetical and mythical life. I II Black poetry presents many frustrations, challenges and problems. Instructors preparing to teach the subject must be aware of the many pitfalls, not the least among them the tendency of teacher and student alike to stray from the "study 11 of the poetry into poli tical and rhetorical catharses® "Black" is a political worcy and to study or teach any aspect of the /5-ack come embroiled in ----·-~ - 2 j xperience is to be �cs controversy and burdened with sociopolitical stress~ That thin line between the ideological implications of a poem and those ntrial ""scenes" :tn which individuals~particularly in classrooms) find -----. t Athemselves victim is a line walked by all teachers and students of the_/lack..J'xperience. In approaching_,Jlack poetry, then, one must "set" the atmosphere by dealing, from the -- outset, with substantive background materials~ the deepest philosophical, religious, ethical, artistic and aesthetic tenets o~lack lif'e and expression. a,, -e ~ purposeAintent of' this Thus!1'he t&"1' . . ._____,, is to examine the scope and range of_A'!lack poetry via folk origins, methods of delivery, language, phonology, religiosity, racial character, recurring themes, individual and group identity, and poetic devices as they are developed indigenously or borrowed from other poetic traditions. ;a;-,, I III Like all" bodies of writing, j 1ack literature stems f'rom a folkloristic trunk, making the job of' teacher or student twofold: '-- one).to deal with the great and complex storehouse .) J of' f'olk materials and themes; and two.>_,, to explore the chrono logical development of)eflack poetry--from about 1746 to the I ofopiri 10;.1 present. There are minor' _ differences" among scholars R.hlJ"t '---"' where ,.....,--- , the study of/ ✓, beqin.s lack written poetry~ For example, in The Poetry of the Negro, Hughes and Bontemps begin with Lucy Terry's "Ba Fight," the account of an Indian massacre o.c.h~elTi in Deerf'ield, Mass/\, in 1746. The Negro Caravan --(aa :tmJbt.l'hee 3 �dited by Brown, Davis and Lee) omits t b e Terry l?~ o F' Caravan was f'irst issued in 194~ while 1b,a 'Poe~y sec.Ttbn ~~//~~ was published in 1949. Cet~\/0-'fl's A begins poem. ·_ ,_ ------'--- with -Phillis Wheatle~ who f'irst published poetry in 1770. Also omitted from Caravan is the work of Jupiter Hammo~ whose poetry was published in broadside in 1760. In Ca~vqcade J.Eegro American Writing from l'.l_60 to the l?r~s.en~ ), published in 1970 and edited by Davis and Redding, neither Terry nor Hammon appears \and the poetry section beg~ ns with Phillis Wheatley. Early Black American Poets (Robinson) acknowledges Terry~ but Johnson's The Book of American Negro p~l~~n~ Poetry opens withABunbar. _ Kerlin's Negro Poets and their Poems (1923) makes no mention of' either "Bar's Fight" or its author~ but Dudley Randall's The Black Po~ts {1971) r\owe.ve V\, includeA t h e poem. A.-thl.s '!' -,,ii~ _a random survey :r.rom the dozens of' general and specialized anthologies t..-Jcl tC4.te -~ ~ that o; many teachers of f lack poetry begin with Phillis Wheatley despite the f'act that at least twoJ lack poets were writing before her. - . '\ . . . .. . . - • -t, te ~~Ai1,.,~ y i f 1 o t . , ~ ~ ~~~ ~ ~~~~~ ~ . ' ! • .~\J'.~~~,~~~-- 4 r �a cgl •IWI ii I I J9 tWdj I! P;gn Pi B ihddif2or ¥n ;Lash El 2 hizbo2loai ds:etsp&& a r I SJ Pl a pg 1/-@ne of the main f:' ea.iv ~es - of this 7I ,.s a. y,a. Ly s a @Ls Sit -I &i.. ; Will be the study of related and integral forms of expression such as fol1fongs, spirituals, blues, jazz, =~-= rhythm ,t: blues and what is known today as s o u l ~ C f o ~ ~ ~ a c-k,,.Zxp;rience is complex and frustrating. 1 At each juncture in the study of the poetry, #i,rt f'or example, oneAteaching it will meet difficulties 11lllllll~may vead1n~ o.ntl MIit seem insurmountable. • Some of these difficulties will be presented in familiar questions: Is a poet considered ,;(lack · if he writes cons istentlyM or temporarilyM.I- out of the "whi t e" I experience? Can a / lack poet really record/ lack experi ences T one considers the cross-fertilization of fol k and literary culture in this country, together with the existence of hybrid cultures all over Latin America and other parts of t he world, the term '-'31-ackfa perience" does indeed 4!. e~y nooT definitio j It is hoped, however, that through~continual return to the idea of the} lackf a perience {and discussion of~ lack life), the complexity and range of the term can be appreciated al s ~ 1 ( ee ( bibliography). 5 �and feelings in English? Can a white poet write a_/1ack poem (like the white musician who has developed a "feel" for/ lack music and bas learned to master the technical vocabulary of that music)? Can white people "understand",J{lack poetry? Should white critics or/ lack poetry be taken seriously? 2 p Is ack poetry primarily emotion and lacking in intellect? there a )3lack/ poetry? esthetic? Is Can a white professor teach ~ lack How does )31.ack _/'a nguage differ i'rom white language or English? And does_;ITT-ack poetry express the universal human condition? ,,\ Re4.dt ►s. sltotJ/J L t■,-·•F· 7 £ 7 • • • ~·)?) ...;r.-.- --. ask these question~ ? <4$ 4n indicat loft that they want more reaiistic and direct answers to some of the • · • issues I /4 i,,fl'=f-'1,--t"~ have consumed~ lack activists, artists, ~academicians, and white scholars of thefa ack/ xperience. -! wi,o o."'e es ~eacherS,f oni'ronting a. racially mixed clasW ~ all-J3lack classe.S -::. or • ~ ~oc:.e_ all white clas~, will sometimesl\cetJ!f'2 eni; a distressing - panorama of anger, rejection, fear , conddscension, accusation, anti-intellectualism, intellect 1 1 sno isbness, racism, dis ' ~, trust -and any number f other vombtn4uon, of the contemporary stude~ personality. (J.i kc. o'U,e. ... poeTs) poets do not fis.sert·fbe.~ The ,,Zlac / ~ ,coru 11--'\-le~ - since,\they, critically and thematically, are dispersed along a boundless spectrum of opinions, attitudes, creative For a balanced discussion of this and related subjects, see l-lpbahle le I s Voices in the Whirlwin~ 17JJ, 6 11-l 11,:s �approaches, ideologies, techniques and literary philosophies. At teacher or student preparing for either a semester or V year-long course (or for a -'3lackn unit to be integrated into a?fumanities course, an American literature course, or a J3iack interdisciplinary project) should l ' e 4 ( { ~ the literature and lore of the jlack past in order to give tentative answers and carry on adequate discussions when questions such as those above arise. After having been exposed t ~ lack poets of national statut'e ~ via television programs such as Soul and Black Journal, at campus readings and conferences,_)!(lack / rts festivals and comr:mni ty book parties / many students (es peciall:r p ack students) may be informed, at the popular level, about the opinions and reading styles of the poets. However, neith er student nor teacher must- and this point bas to be stressed /II\ again and again-l succumb to the temptation to "skip all poetry up until 1965. 11 ""' IV c::.. I True, there is great and growing interest in the / lack poetry produced out of what has been variously called the_/'lack / onsciousness ¢ lack African,,)'°vement. ower~ lack ationalis~ ack) 'rts ¥ eo/ an~ 9oes~¥,<~ Yet one who ,tt Ci "'-the )flack (or any) tradition will find himself engulfed in a maelstrom of conjecture and ideological hysteria; and the class, whose posture will be anti-historical, will be riddled with soap: opera ty~e rhetoric about revolution and liberation~ 2 zrt1 f tSIICGB Ii I Zl!IQGEJ ------ g I ; < Jimr r ; : :ld Cruse (The Crisis of the Negro 7 �Intellectual) points out that each generation of~ lack artists and activists suffers from a lack of historical/cultural tinuity. :t/.J ~ That is, -they fail to study or are unaware of - con '..J ✓ the mistakes and the pitfalls of past struggles and consequently find themselves in predicaments not dissimilar to t hose of their predecessors. Needless to say, such "cultural amnesia" is not the state from which one approaches the study of/ lack poetry. As observed earlier, the poets are not in agreement con cerning what j lack poetry is supposed to do, why it is written or wheth er whites can (or should) write or criticize it. 3 Reasons for the diverse beliefs and positions are numerous: ......,t h e situation attending t he birth and upbringing of t he poet (note, for example, the distinctions between Claude McKay and Countee Cullen); his religious affiliation (Robert Hayden is of t h e Baha'i faith; Askia Muhammad Toure is a Sunni Muslim; El-Mubajir An important point at this juncture of J lack poetry . For t h ere is growing feeling among some poets and writers (many of whomr ill not express themselves in public) that there are concerted attempts to muzzle, circumvent or circumscribe some authors because of their personal political viewy oints or t h eir brand of writing. For further allusion to this, see back issues of the Journal of Black Poetry, Black World, and other periodicals dealing with the contemporary.)'l ack / rts scene. 8 �(Marvin x) is a member of' the Nation of' Islam; & s K. Curtis Lyle was raised ..., & ,L &f!J(t£££&& ,..._ .. IS.a: & .. •• ~ ,.._ eu ~ ,. J Catholic)~ tvE.. ~ his ..( .. political leaning (which, in the case of' many writers, is also religious); his preparation f'or r lb if a crtr a ts 7! ft associations with o-ther • ..2- poets (many )!lack poets, f'or example,aSSotitf.1.€ ~nd this is - 111,Js tv1'o" historically tru~ with writers of' other races;./\ met one j lack poet in 1970 who had two masters' degrees but had not heard of' l f 1 IJ 1 bis current personal situation (does he live in the inner city? teach? time? play a musical instrument? '- write f'ull '-' write in other 3enres? read primarily_Jlack poets?); and his f'eelings on the question: 11 Are you a poet f'irst and then Black; or are you Black f'irst and then a poet?" &~ Harmless as it may seem, that rhetorical utter~has entrapped scores of' Jlack writers in ideological arrl political prisons ~ f'rom which some would like to extricate themselves by asking simply: "What dif'f'erence does it make? 11 For - -c:: many poets, however , it matters a great dea\ and they have written prof'usely on the implications of' this question and the several others listed earlier. The teacher or discussion leader must sample opinions of' writers and students, sharing the a,,J~to;t;Lf'o-t¾ , t iversity of opinions~with the same vigor and thor~ughness that IS 9 �~"eStITTe.& '"' tk~ i fstt.f ~? r ii f\Poifr.y,!' 1 Such parity allows - 21522 51, ~ or a continu&l balance in criticism, social undercurrents nd the poems th~ rs F g■ a r7 r hn Ti Novelist Ralph Ellison has suggested that he is a writer first and that his racial identity is subor dinate to that fact. Poet Robert Hayden bas taken a similar stand {see introduction to Kaleidoscope, Poems by American Negro Poets, 1967). The same position bad been taken several decades earlier by poet Countee Cullen. In bis critical~ biographical introduction to Cullen's poetry {The Book of American Negro Poetry, 1922), James Weldon Johnson observed: ( tb et4- .._/J Some critics have ventured to state that Cullen is not an authentic Negro poet. This statement, of necessity, involves a definition /' of "a Negro poet" and of "Negro/ oetry. " There might be several definitions framed, but the question raised is pure irrelevance. Also there is in it a faint flare-up of the old taboo which would object to the use of "white" material by the Negro artist, or at least regard it with indulgent condescension. Cullen himself bas declared that, in the sense of wishing for con sideration or allowances on account of race or of recognizing for himself any limitation to "racial" themes and forms, he has no desire 10 �or intention of being a Negro poet. In this / 9,.~ is ~ not onl_y within his right; he is right. talics mine.J~ Johnson went on to note that because Cullen "revolts against" racial enclosures, the "best of his poetry is motivated by race." One could make a similar comment today about Ellison or Hayden. The works for which both are internationally acclaimed delve into the deepest regions o f ~ t 1ack psyche and feeling. ') - -------- Meanwhile some younger poets-M~those who ~ gained exposure in the 1960 s-Land several poets and critics who straddle both generations lash out, sometimes not so diplomatically, at what they see as compensatory actions a nd unnecessary self-deprecation by the older poets. Pulitzer ~ riz e "'1 inner Gwendoly n Brooks said in a preface to Poems ,J'rom 9 Prison that Etheridge Kni ght was not the "stifled artiste." The comment represented an i mplied rebuttal to,;nack and wh ite "academic II poets. Elsewh ere · - _/J, e.. --.. referred to the "inelegance n of some~ lack poetry as being consistent with t h e bleak, drab landscape of h opelessness and despair inner-city dwellers. g,P (Other critics, however, support the position of poet-critic Larry Neal that t h e~ lack,)efxperience should not be defined in terms of "negatives.") G u.,tod;t'-¥ I') lateJfixties, /\ During t he ('_•_ 1J! Brooks became a kind of ttlo'Uae~r,qvt-ej\"' t he New Blac k Po etry {v\ove~ent (at least in Chicago), ceased puhi lish i ng with Harper and Row, and :)egan to rel ease h er writings t:srougb Bi-•oad3ide Press -/4.. a ~ De troi t-:'.'asey lack publish ing 11 • ◄ �bouse under the supervision of Dudley Randall• 4 He r- ~ new con • sciousness, she declares, came about as a result of having attended a .Jflack writers conference It (1967) at Fisk UniversitY. f>6."T1t.1po.Ted l ~ cl ,.sc ui,-♦o~s ) where she heard and · I\ . with poets Imamu Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones), Don L. Lee, ·Nikki Giovanni, novelist John Oliver Kil lens, and mo." y other writers, activists and artists. The violent social explosions in the cities, the Vietnam ~ t-,J/ ~a~ t.ba-t took lives and crippled ~ others, •••f.Jflack - I .,I, the persistent emergence of Africa--all, ,,,-- p, e... ' ----. said . aided in the development of her new consciousness. She has written that it "frightens II her to think that if she had died before she reached fifty, "I would have died a 'Negro' fraction." Hayden, disclaiming the Gwendolyn Brooks' - position, assumes he has been 1•Black" all along and continues to reject any singular, unarguable position on the Black, /esthetic /Jf or / the poet-first, Black-second/Black-first , poet-second contro versy. Assessing Baraka, Hayden admits that he recognizes the younger poet's power but deplores "his Black nazism." J. Saunders Redding, a dean of the lack critical establish ment, feels there is no such thing as a "Black ,A.esthetic "; Poet Paul Vesey @amuel Allen} calls it "a voyage ~ - of discovery~ ! think it will yLeld _return not as greatly as in music, perhaps, where the black aesthetic dominates an entire cultural area of the wes -tg 11 ~0iher- poets and critics, �however, ignore questions dealing with aesthetics, the level of ;6-ackness in their work, their primary audience, and the mood or spirit that influences their writin At the same timeJ there are trends, some regional and some national, that can be identifie. Ident~ fying and exploring these trends can be immensely rewarding. Some prerequisites to an understanding of trends and att ti tudes that stem from the ont going creative process. are: a study of slavery as it was instituted by Europe and refined in the United State~ an examination 0 Y5-ack social history, and a scrutiny of West African and Afro-American folklor ~ thorough student of.,..Zlack poetry wil~ The teep ' hi~sel:7 · ivilizationj he will r also · develop an C in the history of Western appreci ation for the complex web off a ack-white interf relation! All this is necessary in +' ships in America. ·/\ pr?paring to participate fully and knowledge~ t ably in the often tens •:filled readings and discussions stimulated by the works of/ lack poets and writers. I V Much of the subject matter of p ack poetry is unpleasant9since it is pervaded with the weighty memory and impact of slavery. /"'\ . And if slavery is among the lesS-M" ~pleasant items to be discussed, "-' . I ~-~~ lynching becomes even more repugnantM especially"'-so much~ such activity occurred "after" slaveµ officially ende~e But one soon sees that practically eve;.•y /\poet since .the -end of /\. Civil War has written a poem about lynching _, . The poets who do not deal with actual lynchings, as we have come to know or interpret them, write about half-lynchings , character or cultural defilement and the 13 �mental and physical destruction ofr ack bumani ty. If a discussi on of slavery is unpleasant, then, a consideration of lynching is horrifying. However, skilled di SC. U~4ia.: its will maneuver judiciously through the rough waters of such sessions k keeping emotional deluges to a minimum by admitting facts and clear interpretations. During such occasions, ;t everyone must be on guard les • the classroom become t a V' courtroom. At the same ti me, a convener who cannot preside over vigorous and thorough discussions of these painful events and details may find himseli'l C later :.iii:; trying to bridge even wider gulfs of d ubt, frustration, mistrust and alienation. Again, the ----....... ( or any aspect of . . ./ lack P,U-c.,~ r Y.ir • of the _)t.Lac1;,-.perience itself . study ,----..,,_ v{ of /"'lack poetry ) · assumes the complexities Svc 1--\ study Nevertheless f A is infinitely rewarding1 because it is a vehicle distills the particular insights and perspectives of ? ack Americans into concise and authentic forms: ..._,m erging the rich ruralf'3iblical-ur'ban idioms with colorfully luscious iCTagery and (in many cases) peerless technical proficiency in the use of literary English and Hes tern poetic forms. Fo"' U(lmpLe.J W~0\ 'I students are confronted with the various poems on lynchings, E! ► di i uic; study can be underscored by an examination of language, for m, posture, poetic toolery and ove ' all achiev +- mentor effec,tveness of the poems. "Between the World and Me,'' the In Richard Wright's ~ poet becomes the ,--====:.:::.~ the oak tree narrates the lynching in Dunbar ' s 14 11 Tbe Haunted Oak." 9 �Coo(lle,t, A Cull s "I" in "Scottsboro, Too, Is Horth Its Song " ~ " whic ~l'i'te1ni":!rtn:rn 1 white American poets .for remaining silent over unjust treatment of/lack men while they sing j .£l j'C> t ... sharp and pretty unes for Sacco and Vanzett ,, •• i LY!Hl Clo.'-« Ink'1cKay' : nThe Lynchin~" the killing or th~ lack man is made analagous to the crucifixion; a sonnet, and awesome through out, the poem descends to its rhyming couplet with a final ghCLstly irony: / And little lads, lynchers that were to be, o/ Danced round the ✓-~ul thing in fiendis h glee. '--- these poems ~, and the dozens of others t hat employ the lynching t heme i -th ere is much l')\<\Ttr\o..l discussion. tot-- ~ut,\tht'tt ~"&dy a.nd In the four poems mentioned, the poet:;!~.• such diverse .forms as the sonnet, the ballad (Dunbar) and free verse (Wright). hislowc.at be the additional~inquiry Helpful in this area will -------=~ into the development of white hate groups such as the Ku Klux IQan 15 �and tbe history of race riots in America. Riots in at least a dozen American communities in 1919, for example, helped spur McKay to write r If We Hust Die t , a poignant sonnet with its even more poignant and popular ; nding couplet} \ Like men we'll face the murderous, cowardly pack, J...; Pressed to the wall, dying, but fighting back! -'- a poem ._....,_. '' •- Winston Churchill read before the House of Commons , I during World War II, to spark bis countrymen in the dim hours• 1 during the 1972 prison rebellion in Attic\ I f journalists ~ found the poem scribbled on the wall of a cell and t h e national press attributed it to a prisoner! Of great assistance, to ~ is a knowledge of tle history of slave revolts (many f lack poets write about them) and the patterns of violence in America. Attuned teachers and students will want to consult sources such as 100 Years of Lynching (Ginzberg), back issues of f lack and liberal white news journals and papers and especially past issues of The Crisis, the official news and opinion arm of theNJlACP.. .r W ~B. n11fois, l)lllong 1h e first Blacio~ to r i ceive a Ph.D., edited The Crisis for over ~ O year~ from its beginning in 1910. For further readi gs, the teacher can I,~. / ,. refer t .o tlie extensive bibliogr phy plus appropriate sections 'rn /\ anthologies, textbooks and C>ihei-i-:~eo.K~ · sources. VI tr 11177 r " R st 1 ·: kh&t IM 211 16 r C �/ V-I arm h i mself to t h e best of his ability with the tools of criticism and a knowledge o~lack culture. He must unde~Tii11d -th·e - part "duality " plays in the lives of ;(lacks and how such "twoness" is fest n the poetry; he should reco g nize t h e k ey issues being raised Wand debated among J 'lack artists, sch olars and 17 �activists ~ and have some feel for t h e histori c al circumstances J I\ 1 outl\.wh ich t h ese issue s and deb ates grew; h e oug:1 t to under J &.c.,\,'Clt rne~s ,., kis standABaraka A referen to some/ lack poets as 11 inte grationists 11 + and "art:.r poets rr; b e wil l h ave to know what many of t h ? w W ?PU poets ;.:ean "Wh en t h ey say t h e y reje c t :.Jes tern rrrorr:is 11 and refuse to be j udged 'oy t·Jl:. i te s tand ard s (3 arak a, fo r ex a,.:pl e , talks about post-American forms), !)e wi ll also want to reco nize p.ack in-house humor and intracor.ununal disparagement in . ,,,.---, ~ . - words and ohras es t1:ire "nigger , ,r "ne ro , " "Uncle Tom , "oreo , " "colored, " "the man , " "dicty, a nut, 11 · "brother, • 11 "crumbcrusbers, 11 11 11 11 bad mouth , " "main squeeze , 11 11 b ust and • "Mr. Charlte. ," phonol oe;icaJ (For .further i ndication of t h is d ictional a nd i ch ness and t b e breadth o~ lac k ~ anguag e, see The Dictionary o.f American Slang , :Iajor•s Dictionary of Afro-American Slang , the 11 Cl Gloss • ry of Selected Terms" i n Th e Psych ology of Black Languag e (Haskins and Butts), Ab rah a m's Deep Down in t h e Jungle, Andrews and Owens' Black Language, I Claer bo.u t ' s Black Jar gon in 1-Jh i te America, Twiggs ~ Pan-African Languag e in t h e Western Hemisphere, Welmers ' African Languag e Structures , Kochman•s Rappin' and Stylin' Out, and Dillard's Black E nglish . Additionally the- ~eckittr - ·. the motiv ations of some of the poets. ~ will want to know All poets, for example, do not rate being called "poets" in the traditional (white or / lack) sense . Redding , in a recent Muhammad Speaks interview, accused some o.f t h e new J nack writers o.f lacking If moral and 18 �,•. them ''literary hustlers/y~ Observing that Baraka recently signed a l ~year contract witb Random House, Redding said such an act is inconsistent with the poet's nationalistic assertio·ns and positions. In a ~ recent ~la,Qk ~ior:J.d article, novelist;. _ poet Ishmael Reed spoke disparagingly of some of the net? -ack critics ( "Blackoi, paths") and poets ("nationtime poets," was the reference). -+JA\(.1 \. IY\odhubuT, (Oor,L,Lte) Poet-essayis"tj 'A,_c has chided poet Nikki Giovanni for being an "individual" who lacks technical abilities; and in '-2!!!!J' ~ issue of J'et magazine a reader irately asked if M~s. Giovanni deserved respect after accepting a Woman-of-the-Year award from a national white women's organization. 81#, f irre and Reed were nominated for Pulitzer/ rizes in 1973. Hayden, a member of the older group of poets, wh o was only ~ years old when the Harlem Renaissance burned out, feels that ll!lilM~hub~17 ............. (praised by Gwendolyn Brooks, Hoyt Fuller of Black World, Randall and Baraka) has potential as a poet but lacks discii pline and seems unable to separate poetic technique from ideological ranting . On the other hand, Stephen Henderson, it1,i_ author-editor of Understand~e New Black Poetry praises @_!)11,eyov~ 1 relentlessly and says his popularity is "tantamount to star~ dorrlf,; Henderson, who holds a Ph.D., is currently chairman ,4todhv of the new Humanities ~ivision at Howard Universit~ where fllre..~ : :. G1.Ve.,"foL, "> , is a writer-in-residence. :,11111,._Brooks gives k~ credit t) n e. l-"' @J \ -✓".Xntroduction'' to The Poetry of Black America much of the contemporary - for spawning lack~consciousness literature. 19 �{/4.ny serious Jidilw~!.°10'<\ oF the de ve lopme nt of/ iac k poetry must 111 1 co7,Jit1e;- sf these intense feelings and positions . One must also organize orderly discussions or readings arou~d the divergent viewju;►oug I,~ 1■ SW SP pp 7 ■ 1a as b BSCO!ilb lii0!!652 dial UCl.~"t- participants C~\"\ dev e.Lop a complete picture of theArichness ~Ylc..(..~ of ----___::;7 3 I ti-,~ ~ poetr ~4iilli the political, social and historical tensions out 1 of wbich#•-•' i-t- • ·-···~ is generated . <//Robert Hayden, for one, un~ derstarids ~his confluence -of _issues BI?-d temperment 8J as li:i.tnessed by his·· comments on the;dew )D.ack_/oetcy f with appropriate historical footnotes: The emergence of a so-called school of' Black I f Poetry in America h as been one of' the signif'icant literary developments of' the modern period. Although the Harlem Renaissance of the 1920fs brough t certain Af'ro-American poets into prominence, it was not until t h e intensif'ication of t he civil ri gh ts struggl e during t h e 1960 1 s t h at a separate group of black poets began to take sh ape. Avowedly nationalistic (th at is, racially proud) and scornful of' western aesthetics, these poets cont inued t he protest tradition, h istorically associated with Negro writers. But they were more radical in outlook than t h eir predecessor~. Unlike t h e Harlem group, t h ey rejected e ntry into t h e mainstream of American literature as a desirable goal. Th ey insisted t h at t h eir poetry 20 �could not be judged by wh ite standards, ureing its i mportance as an expression of black coq(:,, scious ness. )i LeRoi .Tones J -tbe most influential of t h e M young activist poets 4 Don L. Lee, Nikki Giovann i, Sonia Sanchez, Mari Evans, Eth eridge Kni gh t, and David Henderson attune their l yres to t h e '' blac k esthetic. 'f Not yet satisfactorily defined, t h is term, originating in t be sixties, nay b e i nter preted as a sense of t he spiritual and artist i c I: t ; pu naps, a I g values of blackness. I tee lilil6!1G&d 1&61&1 &bl ii: 2 rrnnfsed ky tbs sJs@sr "' s csacsp t J 'DJ I aIn • I l p s1 rt 3 7 J3 t f fp] I Ws 7 7 f : :h s a I e ga: d ih gs 1 773 11 I I I I 1j . 1 I t tJs f 1th ,._ ... J:~:-, _..,.,_ ......A~'4~~~-y...__,_" .... ~ ~ i ' t a el 1uc:rsnt • 11 tl ., aJnds Heron· t \la2kt ~~ iiUiiiilii iii i& .... il•i~■-• . II I ~ Ii I 7 fl Pl D a I SJ l ? :r Bneelzs 3 ii li lii~ LE!i~un\ted sTCQ,1e.S lb.bre~o.Jvre_)v\i\\Er, 1-la.-.,den) O'Ne~l ,\C/73) • 21 �( Hayden•s opening comments, then, corrob orate the opening sentence to this introductionf tbat j lack poetry - - - - - -- - is one of the most important move ments on t h e literary scene today. Yet, while it is exciting to study this "poetry in process" (if you please), the en thusiast must be on guard not to skip the tradition (the folk c:u1d ucu,.\cilions precedents)Ain favor of plunging into a,)!lack poem t h at h eaps wrath on Watergate conspirators+ or urban policemen who sh oot rioters and looters. ~•-■ t1111?6i■ r•a••■-1111J••t•illlillllt-.aPWC~&ig~11mlf!O~fl~Gllllllt0~li~c~t~-'9 ( r/k' VII t::= Many of the "literary hustlers" to whom Redding refers h ave capitalized on the topical and episodic issues-l with M little or no training in t he ~ lack tradition or writing . hu, -f Hence, t h e student mustAassume that just because a statement is "relevant," it is poetry ! The ~ lack or wh ite research er will "dig ••• deeper to the gold "/,::;; in the words of James David . / V 0 - Corr t h ers-- and "establish II a sound tradition against which M~ to measure t h e/ lack poetry of today. If the~ lack poet i n question fails, he fails because he collapses fro m t h e weight I of the past--instead of being b'uoyed up by it. In establish ing t h is sound tradition, --- must realize N\ .f irst ---------- One, that theJ iac) lxperience is not monoli thic J -al t h ough ~ ' 22 �recurring trends and broad ir.1plications do exist in the areas of language, religion, humor, dance, music and general life style. /(,-J ocMo.s , t ~· S t ~1._ _,, there is often more consistenry 1 tito.."' 1'9"\Who,t;iney)'now in ~ Blacks' /lrVewLc~~ or' popular "American II cul turj'* Ther are several reasons for such a paradoxical imbalance and lack of focus i many of them locked in the enigmatic see saw of ;nack history . Ellison observed in the 194c[s that i 1 /lack leaders ever unraveled the puzzle of the zoot suit and t h e dark glasses (meaning the secret o::,faack urban "styling" habits), they could, perhaps, take the political and psy ;--' chological eii._, ns of j lack masses from whites. Ellison's observation was accurate • .James Baldwin has written that, in Europe, he looked at the great Renaissance masterpieces and felt ashamed that his race had not produced such work. Baldwin · dad \\OT ~hew· that the great Spo..n1sn painter{-, Pablo Picasso had borrowed heavily from African motifs . . architect Letf Corbt usier ..._,, V was '-' &@!!Sf or t hat influenced byAf~~Gn The thatched-roof huts. implications of t h is part of the discussion are many and far~· ·-- --..... --.... -•-. - ·---- Ellison's, For an exciting recitation and indictment via a "cultural qui ~ listen to poet-critic Stanley Crouch's Ain't No Ambulances for no Nig , man). 23 ht (Flying Dutch ~ l1011t'fhl'n~s:e~ �-- Croucb 's and Baldwin's ob servations are tj_ mely and i n portant. ____ i-o...,. -fbo Th ey sugeest • • • ttatN~anytJA••••■• of t h e students ;;;:---_ who are in pack poetry )%lack ytudies) classes do not b ave a working knowledge of t h e tradition out of which the poetry grew. v:rt bas b eco me popular, in some quarters, to i gnore this fact_. . ,. itll R?Jis r-o.toz usihs V E775ftF ' 11J bl!SIS ildbb Sb p&hA&liig -·m« ,,,,!L. ..._l!I .srrassad. ·1Jlrn ts@@N a .. t:19 ; I l l ts) 1na :r:a &lass Ube about tho 1i1Jmai1 Th·e importance of a knowledge of the )flack literary traditio~ ~ is a · _ · ~ m.t pointAcannot b e stressed too often or too e mph atically. I nteresti ngly 1 L@!!3 t h e majority of t h e persons wh o want to know someth ing a b out ,..g'lack poetry are not preoccupied with t h e craft of poetryJ--/V\ ...__,, the hows and whys of poetry. .Li~o} ~ students and casual reader~ J _ not, an& to b e more interested in t h e sociological (some "path olog ical") aspects of t h e poetry. !)k:: 5 ----seem ----- say Tbe situation varies, of course, fro m campus to ca.mpus_:;ill!-®M a b111&0p1.1ez:'1!'59e :etree 4 2 if i!w,~ nd from)3lac k to white to interracial settings. t h e enthusia stj houL& ll • I) 3f # f?vt- keep t h e pf r suit of the w ori~ '"" "ti ght" in terms of t h e discipline demanded b y the poetry itself. Anoth er prob lem -~~~ '-,;; . .J organize segme nts . , I I t I so ugb t. s~,o"' ~ ~ l- -, -t...st "-tl .,L when~:\'a.p preciation'i vf the is bow to material is '}°""<..'-'. a.n ., - ---:--~.. approach could be ~ by one's initial conception of t h e poetry or 24 die"t;je,d �by the level of interest and preparation A casual reader, for example, would not study the same poems with the same intensity as would a senior or graduate literature majo. Nevertheless, teachers, students and poetry lovers must bear in mind that they are looking into/ ;3'l ack poetry and not merely some fair-to-middling imitation of traditional Western poetryi even though the two often converge on many point ~ Moreover, the differences are not always easy to identify; but on:'~~ssimilates the Afro-American world view into his study of the poetry will have L problems recognizing the differences than those who read the poet~ ttcol 11 Black and ·wite poets select the same words but for different reasons(!) There a,.-J are many variable ~ and one has to be cautious about hard~fast judget ment But we can say that the Afro-American poet is almost always its apt to select a word forf typographical, phonological and political dimensions@ Word selection among European and American poets, on the other hand, is more often made for allusory and intellectual reason8') This is not to say that_;(lack poets are not intellectual or that Euro-American poets are not musica. Exceptions to the foregoing groupings are legen. But it is important to identify music lsongified language) as a dominant influence on the Afro~ American poett-not just in an aesthetical or inspirational sense, but in terms of architectonics, in terms of basic (original) structures. Again we are treading on sensitive ground, because in the context of racial and intellectual mixtures, a curious melting s . pot i • likely to boi • Example: white students, well grounded in their own literary tradition but having a skeletal knowledge of )!iack/ ultur~ may want to speed up the treatment of the poetry • ' Failing to recognize that many students do· not lmow .the 25 names �and meanings of simple poetic devicesl(metaphors, similes, alli t eration, onomatopoeia), insensitive teachers and aggressive stu-t,, dents often cause premature destruction of group interests® Such situations do occu Even the best literature teachers sometimes assume students have been drilled in the use of figurative lan guag9(j) Ironically, most students have been "drilled" in the figures; but the holes from the drillings allowf..v information to go in one ear and out the othertff Many students, in the whir of words, will not aclmowledge their ignorance of the language of poetic criticism and analysis, especially if they happen to be~ lack students and thi nk the instructor expects them to be "experts" on thefa ack ~ xperienc0c:t7 On the other 9,.-an,d, t e intellectual snobbery often ~P-' { , accompanying t h e stude~ should not be tolerated in a ' )f discussion of~ lack poetry@ Luckily, however, the curves, crests and peaks of p ack poetry keep bringing all aspects of human nature full circle. Many of the ideas, theses, axioms and broad statements ma.de thus far will be re-examined on a continuing basis throughout the remainder o f t his boo~ Within the running history of Afro-American poetry, we will identify the poets' preference for lexical and phonological items; their reliance on major and minor archetypes (as they are derived from the larger a s well as the~ lack mythic tabl~ts) ; thei r feti sh for themes and positionJ (as these strains e rfnea.. occo.sionAl -, becomel\.clust e reA or I'\. . ) ; their relationships to each otp.er and ("school") the folk and/or literary roots; and their individual and/or group achievement Obviously, the folk influences are pot a~ easy to place within the chronology as are the dat ~ o..c:t"tvtt'ie.s I\ , literary of the poets. So the r eade r should think o f the folk world as one ' . iconstantly hovers over the whole of Afro-American literary and cultural life h 1 sometimes ca~li n g it to ~ts t a1~s , other times p r oviding it with just n ee.Jecl J.iF:t o.nd ma9u:,, . _/t, e � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Eugene B. Redmond Digital Collection Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context EBRWritings_09_04 Title A name given to the resource Editors proof, Drumvoices: The Mission of Afro-American Poetry: A Critical History, Introduction: Chapter I, typed with handwritten edits, p. 1-26 Relation A related resource Eugene B. Redmond Digital Collection Language A language of the resource English Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource For digital rights and permissions, see <a href="https://www.siue.edu/lovejoy-library/about/policies.shtml">https://www.siue.edu/lovejoy-library/about/policies.shtml</a> or contact <a href="mailto:library@siue.edu">library@siue.edu</a> for direct inquiries. In copyright. <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Redmond, Eugene B. https://digitallis.isg.siue.edu/files/original/e16bb192d1b16103f777882a54c32042.pdf 6e9cb4d46bd2295d61d4f733d71a5276 PDF Text Text 0--V 0 CHAPTER II THE BLAC K AND UNKNOWN BARDS 7~ , l o black and unknown bards [ of long ago, ~✓ How came your lips to touch the sacred fire? - '- James Weldon Johnson t-1\ (j) Origins of Blac k Expression c:, In this chapter, as in subsequent ones, e.mpha.~3 ;wH..LJoe on ~ic,~i,t1g J Let..c:\<.. ?t)~""TT-y ~ within the spirit and letter of • African-American cultural t radition . Unfortunately, many early sch olars either played down or i gnored African influe nces., ~~ "tttouj4~ -~~ ISt_ - I!. @ ___ .. ¥£ .ft. f!i hu ,i. 1n s was certainly not true of all os:'-t1\erq. ~ ,; ii z G Gd! lg aSI I 1. For while some gloated over t he "findings " 'f of ') (outh ern whit e s 1 purp orting to prove that t he ;(piri tuals were derived sole ly f rom Engl ish ~ ymns and Psalms) sources /4 ~ ,q~t, .3-oL ,1.1. L Johnson (Book of America n Negro Spirituals, 192~, J t ilD,.. ~__s ~Y Work {Folk Song of t he American Negro, 1915), and othersi dist of Africanisms existing in practically allJ 'l ack American folk materials . ~ef'\> this cha pteJ ~ill e ~ . e)(a.r}une ~~I.OYl : upda ting some of the t h i nking on traditional African t't,on l . views a nd ma nneris m~~in, Jlack America. ~ ~r ief consideration _ will be given t he major trunks of the folk poetry: ,a _j piritual ~ 1 - and the / eculars (or religio~~ folk poetry and everyday wor~ -r ,; (~ and-play folk poetry) . . . . . .~.uicludedAa fair representation -.. -I of t he original folk poetry . 27 �Nost anth ologies • these items J -- - - -- - ----- Ii ell B?IWi &AIM a 3 t t l omit - - - - - - b~-t , "with out a knowledge of Svt,h i.-r Cs dtff'ricult ei~e ..the1'-' deve Lo,o~r,1' """ / . ,,,,. \ to understandAthe_;Black poet's of f='ttt.,, 1, CV "-Hl rlt iener,t,use (see Dunbar, Johnson, Brown, Hugh es, Hayden, Walker and others}. However, before discussing the origins of__,,Black - - - -.-no1"e Tl, e ~ou o F expression, we should id 1 ii ? A.,_ ~rio.~'°~ 16 i societies. or story telle~- in pre industrial African M The p ack poet, as creator and chronicler ]J "1 artisans .~ OWll 3110Lve.s LLI Afrom t h e'><' ~ ~ human~recordA~f family a nd national f!!Sgitt jilv trained to recite -without flaw-Lthe gene f M ~ lore. j 1ogies, eulogies, victories and calamities of the folk,.., griots (like ~ lead singers of ;(piri tuals) had to spic~ ~itet~ ,,,..- and r:-; ----...., no.~raTton eme1t1etJ.n Jlac "youngsters 1 ew .,. Qu,dan# (rolYl grew up (even in recent times) without § I _ -A.a sort of t It g with drama-~excitement. griot (uncle, grandmother, big brother) w- sister, mother1 • hvs1le.11 '...;;;;,' I father, pre acher, etc.). The job of the ~ injo ndent: At'('lwn SO<cWt$j I -. was so i mportant t h at ~ a n e,.rcr could cost him his life. gr iot be gan at a very early a g; ~ mastezt • - information. m~~-re~ The technique and Like the~drummer, he understudied an elder sta t e sman of t h e trade. His training demanded a certain psychological adjustment to t he significance of h is j ob C.vlt,,t-&C.. /\') which was to cont ain (and give advice on) t he,theirlooms" of t h e community. As years and centuries passed, this "f'actual" information was · Y''iiuo.. U3ed i nto a lore, myt hology, cosmology and le gend; it became a part of t h e vas t web of r a cial conscious 28 �ness and memory. .., It became t he legacy with which every new.. __, born child entered the world. Clearly, then, the myth- and legend: buildingJlack poet bas a past into wh ich to dip and a future to ~ project and protect. jc ~ And any violation of the past, present or future constitutes a serious crime against one's ancestors ¾ against one's parents, against one's blood, against one's god. So it follows that the poet-~ griot l M..-- fV\ is not some haphaz1ardly arrived~hipster or slick-talker ~ simply mouthing tired old phrases. ~ •k~ To the J lackAgrio -singer~ poet the job of unraveling the complex network of h is past and present-future worlds is a paiorul but rewarding labor . of love. We can say, then, that t he _J{lack_/xperience i n the United States continues via the African~ ontinuum: . . ., a complex of mythical (see Jahn), linguistic (see Twiggs), gestural (see Emery; Black Dance), psychological, sexual, musical, physical and religious forms. This complex is evidenced in the day-to-day attitudes and activities of Blacks: ~their sacred and secular (organized and random) expressions, t h eir physical appearancel , t h eir dress patterns and t h eir family ..; life. Not only in the United State~, but in the Caribbean, in Latin A:nerica, in all areas of t he world where Blacks live in substantial numbers~ they exhibit characf, teristics peculiar to the nature and culture of indigenous Africans. Naturally, general/ lack expression evolves from the myriad components of Jlack culture; and the artistic (song, poetry) expression- traditional / lack (African) M. 29 �com.muni ties did not separate l_ife. f'rom art i is a :nore soph is l, f_otA"' 'r°'f~\_r,,t •t.lK' "'~_.,al,.~ It\ - ticated J/Jff!!llll" w 1119"'1'from,.,the general "storeh ouse) 1111 has yet idtnTi~sed --- 11 ti/_ rnro one ___________, "tlt\-e. "" exac tiy- - t h e first Afr i can sounds or i,1 ovements were incorporated into "white tr 1-.7e ster n frames of ref'erence• or vice versa; 01, _,/ but we do know t hat it did bappen . Unfortunatel~r, inept reporting on t hefa ackj cperience has muddied t h e waters so much that one is .of.Teti S'h •c."ed ~ M4tt&V conclusio ns of" r II i iad1 1.Ri: , ~ by~ tser vati ons and 1: • be "researcher s. " I n an uni'linchingly brilliant analysis of' ~ lack African.)1ral iterature presented at t he First World Festival of Negro (1966) i n Dakar, Senegal, B il7 Juleat ouda, not ing _/ "oral literature is as old as creation," coined the phrase _;,!trch ival} iterature of )feature. important revelations, Fouda said: n Concluding 'h is "Thus in the Black Africa of tradition, literary art is an ano nymous art because it is a social art; it is a social art because it i s a functional art; and it is functional because it is humanist." research is not b ounded by color. Good Black sociologist E. Franklin Frazier (Black Bourgeosit)P~rong~_!_jthat t here were no significant carryovers (cultural transplants) from Africa to the United States. (Slavery, Frazier said, "stripped II t he African of bis culture and "destroyed" his personality . ) 1'1hite anthropologist Melville Herskovits (The Myth of the Negro ~ ) proved without a doubt that there were African "survivalisms" operating daily in Jfiac k American,! culture. 30 v~r ~e\~~ �..to'1tt 1i\e on this see Jahn ts Muntu,A:'7ork ' s findings ,~memoirs of Katherine IA~ Dunham, works of Lorenzo Dow Turner~ Negro Folk Musi c of Africa and America (Folkways Lp). 2u 0511!1 i!IINi.. Rudimentary/ lack expression and the numerous fol k forms it produced (field hollers, vendors 1 shouts, chants, wor + ongs , / Pirituals, blues, jospels, jazz, rhytbm=-~ blues, soul music) form the linguistic and modal bases for mostJ lack poetry. The early song and chant for ms were almost always accompanied by what we have come to call "dramati c ideograms 11 ~ or dances. Dance became one of the t hree basic ar tistic modes encapsu~ lated by folk expression. The other two aref-ong and/4rum. Aside from being the first means of communicating over disi, tances, the drum also played a major role in the social lives of traditional African peoples. The career drummer, like t he )flack American musician today, went through years of grueling pract ic e and preparationJ -learning not only drumming tech niques M but the legends, the myths, the meanings and symb ols /11¥··-w hich the drum was derivative. Dance always accompanied songi Fouda refers to the "acoustical phonetic alphabet";tso that the com~ plex web of oral nuances was illustrated vividly and graphicall3J Obviously, when teaching or entertaining, the artist/teacher had to present his material in interesting and exciting ways so as not to bore the audience. Thus repetition became a backbone of J lack expressionf a flexible, buoyant repetition that was designed to reinforce and increase group participation. The three essential modesl""-drum, song and dance f'\heightened 31 �the i mmediate experience, which was ecstatic, t h erapeutic, spiritual, visceral and revelatory . Added to t h ese intricate and vary ing modal patterns were t h e colorful costumes, make-up, props and i mportant subject matter. The ach ievement was not -+~t..1"o~ just~the vicarious experience but one of t h e act and s ymb ol being actualized together! While such a prospect boggles t he mind, a serious study of t h ese forms and the general tradition will prove eye-opening for many a disbeliever. Ohe. ~e.e.d onLy h~c.o1ne. enme.she.i '"' Atl'f •~pec.'t O ~~to.,k ",tu a.lp Pc.. 1o ~h• 1-U OAcl u11de.-~u.~ 'ltl,~ potnt. Early,.)3lack American oral and gestural art forms ini herited t h e qualities described thus far. dancet In language, in and, more i mportantly, in points of view (attitudes) toward time, life and death , t he cosmology of Africa "continued" (with some modifications) in the j lack culture of the Western Hemis phere. Specifically , informatio n was conveyed by way of aph orisms, riddles, parables, tales, enigmatic dances and sounds (tonal scales)~ j okes a nd poetry . ~lique and cryptic utterances, puzzles, ea- The patt ern remains irCtact today . II One 0 \ 1/ For a brilliant and cogent stateme~t on t his aspect of / CT V (P4'Jl v~sey9 Zlack expression see Samuel Allen'sA"The African Heritage" in 1 . (Jano1u"yJ1<17t) is an acknowledged auth ority on both African and Af'ro-American culture. ~r .. Black Worl"a;r' Alle n In the article, he finds African "carryovers 11 in t h e ;(lack American church (Baldwi n ), l i terature £~ (Sterling Brown, ~Cleaver) and secular life. 32 �find.Sthe tradition in_/lack poets, in the sermons offilack ministers and in family apd other social gatherings. me.t.-vo, Tbe scintillating/'lack poet~olson operates in the olq, enigmatic (word-fencing ) frame when in "An Ex-Judge at the Bar" he says: I r;; \...[ 1 I Bartender, make it straight and ma ke it two M · One for the you in me and one for the me in you. Tolson (known to carry this~ lack nature into his teaching at Langston Universit~ where he reportedly gave a student an 'F~ ..,, to the ~ power) ends the poem with an equally enigmatic mock: debts to the African tradition i_ance and ,hum. So too in the shouts and hollers ..;w..~~ actual African words and phrases were often used. 2 ./ Hence we can say that 911 traditional -...__/ African phonology and ritual, modified on the anvil of slavery, were operating and continue to e represented in different forms of , flack American expression. The African slave, forced to acquire functional use of English and to reject surface aspects of his religion, went "underground}' so to spea19 and became bit ingual and bi';)hysical. (j) ~ Hence, while much of the Raymond Patterson (26 Ways of Looking at a Black Man) is currently assembling a book listing several hundred African words that are used daily in the American 33 �thematic material of the Jlack folk tradition is taken from the harsh difficulties the slave encountered in America, t be form, spirit and phonology were essentially African . The use of polyf r hyt hms 3 and the intr o uction of syncopation, the reliance on various rhythmi c instruments (drum-related and sometimes invented), the adh erence -h-,--,....., on-European tonal scale and the employment of the blues~ one, t h e development of a distinct body of folklore and a rich langua ge to convey the lore ~ all represent the African's resourcefulness. Cross-cultural inputs are also evident • Ir) the piritual~ which, in many cases, were influenced by the English 7-'ymn and the Psalm. o_.,_. o.u.et-s lb Other considerations in .l'MIMu elude the slave's use ofaEuropean instruments (Baraka n ,._ \ out, in Black Music, that the piano was the last instrume~t to be mastered by the )3'lack musician e I house, If $ 4)~inA I G&Boii caghiJ w iilR ) ~'lack adaptation of songs heard in the "big the continual re r tyling of American fads) and t he vocabulary . See b ibliography for more on -th11 little ~known area of sch olarship . 3 Isaac Faggett, a y oung QI 5 composer-band director in '(li.<J.. ......__, Sacramento, Cali1V: has said that the word 11 po1Yf}'hythm11 (Le., many rhythms overlapping each oth er) should perhaps be replaced by or alternated with the wordl "Y 11 poly meter" or "poly metrics. V Eileen Southern, in The Music of Black Americans, sets forth a thorough and accurate discussion of t he se points. 34 She 11 �employment of / i blical i magery a nd language i n so ngs a nd sermons. / Langston Hughes noted t hat t he ~lues usually dealt fw i t h the theme of the rejected lover and personal depressio n. Hugh e s 's f irst volume of poems, in fact, was entitled The Weary Blues. However, the /iues, like the / piri tuals, do not simp11 preach resignation or submissiveness . _lhJ•~w1!L) Rather, as J ~ r~~and Howard Thurman (The Negro Spiritual Speaks of Life and Death ) note, underneath the complaint is a "plaint": or change ! t h ings must get bett er For as the slave said: / Freedom, ~• Freedom, h ow I love t hee! -- Freed~ eedom, how I love t he e! And before I 1 11 be a slave I 1 11 be buried in my grave And go home to my Maker and be Free! II C'f) Black Folk Roots in America "Get it together or leave it alonerr i Jackson Five )}l e-- Black poets have been writing in the English literary tradition since t he middle of t he eighteenth century. But notes with some detail b ow t h e Africans (made slaves) had to learn to use t h e instruments of the New World. Professor Southern als o relates how~lack music influenced wh ites in the early days of America. 35 �it is the fol k literature - Lthose productions of t he e veryday ('I\ mus t be examined before a literary or poetic tradition can be viewed in its entirety . There are few persons in the United States who have not been touched or influenced (in one way or another) by the folk expression of ~ lack America. White Americans began collecting)3lack folk lyrics and stories in the early ~ars of t h e nineteenth century (see bibliography) . In the same century , this aspect of~ lack culture reached wide audiences via at least three major veh icles. The first was the abolitionist movemen~ which E v. featur ed_)3iack poets (Francis Harper , James Whitfield, Benjamin Clark, and oth ers), orators and prose writers (David __, Walker , ~ rick Douglas Russwurm••·) -~ . ;~■), and journalists (John The second veh icle was the national and Euro pean tours (i n t he 187ot s) of stud~nt choirs from Hampton Institute and Fis k · { ,' J ubile e Singer;\ University '~Tbe abolitionist movement popularized anti-slavery and freedom song) and the c ollege ch oirs gave wide exposur e to t he~p irituals, considered by most sch olars (of,;Black culture ) t o be t he first authentic poetry of~ lack America. The t h ird major veh icle was t he publication (in t b e l ate=ninetee nt h ce nt ur y ) of Brer Rab~ it tales by Joel Chandler Harris . I n studies and wri ti nes, Harris r ecognized t be mythi c worth in j'lack fol~+ ales a nd exposed readers t o s uc!:1 cl1 aract ers as Brer Terra pin , Brer Bear , Brer Fox, Brer ·.101£' and others . Hany of t hese tales and characters have African counte rpart s . 36 �if III spirituals: C::- Use {£:: 11 Tryin I to get home 11 of the word "spiritual" to describe or identifyJ 1ack religious or church life is, in many ways, a corruption of the modal adaptations of African life in the United ~tate ~ Learned interpretations, outlined against new information and empirical tenacity, reveal the entire/ lack world as 11 spiritual 11 : i.e., informed by and responsible to a "higher order" i the order of God or ·the • gods. ' This spirituality drapes the interdependence V and integration of various modes and points of view flowing through and evolving from the community(!) Such a 11 6V feel 11 -aad "sense" is witi nessed in '111~ exuberance, spontaneity, ecstasy, trance, tongue ~ talking, racial flavor and flair in dress/( church or nightclub), and songified comm ications systems which are · the backbone of \Iv- . {Jr\ Afro-American lif • 11.Work describes this phenomena as "this difi ference and this oneness." Robert· Hayden eplploys an unders~anding () r,I (#I,,,, ; -..when, in a poem to Malcolm X, he,,az l ii~tmi'_y the "blazing oneness II of Allah Further proof of this fusion is seen in the emotional abandonment of church folk during picnics, socials and other events of merriment@ Listening to Aretha Franklin immediately recalls the / . ospel-blues alternation in the unity of expression. S; And it is found, without a doubt, in the works of-------- - - - . : : , r observe that the most brilliant and influential vnde~sliud ack poets have intimately~this aspect of the culture Almost without exception (and Kerlin, Brown and ~ 37 - q �the Staplet ...., Singers, the Edwin Hawkins Singers and in a :nore vulgarized manner in Flip Wilson's Rev. Leroy"...., . In t he words of one brother, "the preach er and the pimp style out h eavy." - Still, it is important that we offer the traditional portrait and breakf down of/4lack folk expression•••••:•1•1•••1•cwsllll!!IISWS•tMllll&B~G!!!JIII' - .~ . . .. .,L..,.. • • - ... ~ ( The .1-:Pirituals have been the source of continuing de ,, ate among scholars: Are they completely African in origin? Are ~...i11 <fflve oP ----.. '7 they primarilyAEnglish (Methodist, Wesleyan!__) ) . Sov~Ct{.. \ Or do they represent the coJ joining of African/European t h emes and r e l i g i o s i t y ? ~ : - ~ • 1a ef :ewaelr p e e t ~ ::;;_·➔,. : : t, ,,,.,....._,,._.~ -- iL-a- po abs s:rn!" detatcl! and ?ello'- ~e~ usi ees of and his brother, .r. :~'s,&.,, ::: :: ¥' ~ , ~t'l'\es tA,,eldot\ tbiXill: ..r.. I\ .Johnson RosamondA put togeth er the best ~known collection of these songs in The Book of American Negro Spirituals I {1925), and The Second Book of ~ r ~-Negro Spirituals (1926). The~pirituals usually deal with physical or figurative con~ tact between the singer _ or congregation ~ and God. / ..-ftll~a...---r-i (Early u. fro-Americans often used the words God, .Jesus, Savi~,1 and Lord interchangeably. For a more thorough discussion of t h is see Benjamin !1ays 'I; !The Negro' a God. ) The songs also deal with others warn young pack writers to follow example i _,,t1ack poets since the Civil War have availed themselves of integral folk rudiments -even when they did not use them in poetry. . rv.., still a fact that It is lack culture (despite the racist and techno 38 J /\ <) �a longing for rest and the ove rcoming of for midable obstacles or adversaries. Work 's 1915 study was seminal and remains a lan~ - ~L~ ~ mark re.~e""tnce war"- Oki African and_/J-ack America. rti:songs. His work provides many answers to questions and issues that had /4i, I l been (and 1f ontinueq \"'o be ) muddied by the waters of insensi tivity and careless r e s e a r c h . - "Undertaken for ~ eswdy the love of our fathers' songs, 'jAgi ves clear connections b etween ~ African and Afro-American • • song . ......_., His main ft1it-t>eS'T is in religious songs J -although his comments on form and style M 1{f are of general value: In America we hear it [ the song] and see it acted in t he barn dance, on t he stage, in the streets {i) among the children; in fact, many an occasion is enlivened by t h is species of music , t h e interest in which is intensified by the rhythmical patting of hands and feet. This rhythm is most strikingl y and accurately brought out in their work songs. Citing the emotionalism and songified intensity of the / lac k American, Professor Work says., "He worships not so much because _" ~,. ~t,916u.s ,-e.-,.s~ 1 be ought, as because he lo~ worship." This "worsh ip "I\. of course, is the kind we~rofr ;e.J ]!) 39 to earlie · t he integration �of sensuality and ecstasy into the sweeping ritual of live and i mmediate drama.. Such musical activity is "as natural to the American Negro as his breath 11 : Indeed, it is a portrayal of his soul, and is as ch aracteristic as are bis physical features. Hear bim sing in his church , b ear hio preach, moan, and gi ve '' gravery'' in h is sermon, hear t h e wasberi woman singing over her tub , b ear the laborer m singing b is accompani ae nt to bis toil, hear the chi ld babb ling an extemp oraneous tun6(9 ••· Even th ose Negroes who have been educated and wbo h ave been inf'luenced by long study, find it diffi t cult to express their musical selves in any other way . Black song, as is readily observable, possesses both pure~song (the verse and chorus plan) and chant (use of interjections and expletives) qualities: Poor man Laz'rus, poor as I, Don't you see? /'7;\ Po or man Laz'rus, poor as I, \_ V Don 't you see? When he died he found a home on h igh, \ He h ad a home in dat rock, Don't y ou see? Alluding to the deeper, more psychological meaning of these songs, Professor Work says1 "there are closer relations between - 40 �beefl the soul and musical expressions t han have~satis.factor j.l y explained. These relations can be felt, but a ny accurate description seems beyond the grasp of man 1 s mind. 11 Never theles~ this i mportant study goes on to classify a nd number these songs 01' Jove, ~ ope, )!umility. / oy, / orrow, f orrow with j ote 01' / oy, .,Faith , '-- , etermination, ,Kdoration, / atience, ,lourage a nd Like most scholars of t b e~ pirituals, t h is one points out t h at there is no b ate, resentment or v indictive ness in them. Howo."'Cl However, ~Thur ma n, t heologian a nd ph ilosoph er , bas excavated underpinni ngs of tur bulence. In The Negro Spiritual,~ Thurman tells us death was i omediate a nd '----" ever present for t he slave. In such an atmosph ere of a nxi ety and fear, the slave developed a rath er stoic attitud~ i n which he saw death as i nescapable arrl as, possibl y , t h e only remaining vehicle for mediation with t h e plantation lords. could take his own lifet i f he wanted to ~ as h e did in preference to slavery or separation fro CT family and/or loved ones. • - Tburma n 1 s brilliant analysis must be '-,.../' read by any serious student or/ lac k t h ought and culture • .Johnson (wh o also clas s ified the songsf t said a h ierarchy of poets for t h e/ pirituals i ncluded the song1ma ker (writer) and the song, leader. The leader had to remember leading lines, .Johnson, Brown, Kerlin and~ Thurman also give co~ to the "poetic" content of the / piri tuals. ? _______, and ? .Joh nson Work discuss t he preservation and promotion of '----' 41 �pitch tunes true and possess a powerful voice. (like Professor Work) believes the earliest Johnson, wa o lack American songs were built on the common Af'rican form, says th: /pirituals were written by individuals and set to tre moods of groups. Like the blues, their secular and structural cousins, the / pirituals incorporated~=.:::::==~~ all-and-respons ~ which allowed for audience (congregation) participation (either by alternatingt or interminglin4 Leader: ~ 1uf) ri} "iJ--1'-vJ { j ~ ? , .)- , with the leader): h, de Ribber of Jordan is deep and wide, ~ Congregation: One mo' ribber to cross. Leader: I don't know how to get on de other. side, Congregation: One mo' ribber to cross. .. w Heavily influenced by Christian imagery and mythology, t h e creators of the _/pirituals often ch ose the most militant of biblical personalities as their heroes. This aspect of these "poems" opens up an entire area of questions and research for and the student seeking to compare!(contrast biblical themes and e charactf rs to the )3"pirituals. Certainly there is need to exi, amine the English "Wymns and Psalms in the framework of such / -· a study. co'>d The/ pirituals should also be compared1contrasted to the/ lack 11 terary verse of the period during which they these songs t hr ough arch ival holdings, choir concert tours and t he attention paid to them by composers. �were forged-~ especially the work of Jupiter Hammon, Phillis 'Wheatley and George Hoses Horton. j IV W Folk Seculars Don wid massa's bollerin '; Don wid massa's hollerin'; 0 Don wid massa's hollerin' Roll Jordan roll. C::::-- We observed that there is a thin line between · ~ f lack reli gious a nd secular worlds. This is true for many reasons N-.. some of t hem s temming from the African tradition of i nteri, relati ng all aspects of life. As John M'Biti (Afr ican Rel igions and Philosophies ), Gabriel Bannerman-Richter and oth ers point out, t h e African takes his religion (his beliefs) with h i m where~ ever he goes . :rems i:aee IZQI n• l iahn. @1§3£3 end bfb&SE ►1'1e.7 also remind us that most African languages have no word for religion or art. The two are inseparable. Again the ways of African peoples (see Hphahlele 's 'W hirlwind) are expressed in nintegrated" terms. True, in/ lack America there is some tension between secular and religious communities ~ but so r, often { and most Blacks understand this well though they do nest always admit it) they are the same: on dti'ferent oc?nons. - wearing different hats ~ Stud:.:.,.:rain, the case of a Re , Jesse ,,; , vi Jackson or a Re\! . Ike or a RefioAdam Cla ~on Powell"1t,..~r,tdl'irn4~ We have also observed that many motifs and components of ) lack expression are interchangeable. 43 That 1s, songs and ab . l, �speeches designed for church or other religious activity are often re$ ut (modified) for a secular-t3ocial affair. are numerous examples of t h i.s practice. There During the ,iiv i l ,,/(igh ts era., we would .sing: \t I woke up this mornin' with my mind stayed on freedom ) Ir though 1ve were fully aware that church folk were used to singing it this way: ~ 11 1r I woke up this morain' w1 th my mind stayed on Jesus •••• v- el.c:H~'"C\ AA.Ts t-CompoS'e ... Hany ofACurf'is Hayfield's (and the Impressions') songs rely strongly on the material of songs sung in ~ la ck churches. Ma.yf'ield 1 s more recent tunes (see "If There's / Even Hell Below") carry the f l ack church flavor-l with their !_Rrnl ng~ admonish~ ments., thr a.ts of societal destruction., and ple,,as for love ~ ~ B - (SIIIIP also/\ :Marvin Gay,.tita. pieces ~ . "Save e Children"). Some ~ 1\ w9-y Child Running Wild") reflect works by the Temptations ( "Run the historical theme of "searching" found in / lack religious songs. -Up This same group I s "Poppa Was / Rolling Stone" describes in the name of the Lord." :::::. B•r• King s 1 "Woke This Morn n" is a blues treatment o 1 above in the/ Piri tua~~ "I Wolce Up This Morn the old Supremes singing "Stop in the Name of Loven -.; we to replace "love" with "God." "Mothe~ "i ''Bapy" and ''Goq, ~ "Captain" and "Maker7 . . "t t we When~heard ~1ed. Often the songs contain words such as "Lord" and "Sweet thing" and "Sweet Jesu~ " and "God" and "Ma ' • . The reasons for ' such usages, as we have stated, are deeply enmeshed in the 44 t �mythos of Blacks. Richard Wright's "Bright and .1 Iorning Star" (in the Jible, a metaphor for Jesus) becomes t he son of old Aunt Sue in the short story by that name. ~ Th e b ero of Joh n A. Williams I novel{ The Man Who Cried I Ami say s, "~hank, youJ - v - - _TJJB-n" to God after a sex act. "Slipping into Darkness 11 ( When we hear a tune lik~ '"~hen I heard my mother say " ~ we must understand tre\historic;l significance and function of social (therapeutic) art J just as we must understand t h e function of the mother like voice that admonishes Isaac Hayes to "shet yo mouf" ft~t. 11 When conservative J1ack Christians complained of Duke Ellington's use of religious themes in jazz, be replien "I'm just a ecumenical cat "-'- meaning he avoided fine J _ . fl\ distinctions in where or to whom he played. Tbe church has been the training ground (acade~ if you ~ ~ : r • s 1 The Negro Church in America) for most •£ 91, _~ t t t s,144~....s~, · J lack popular~ usic~as ~ell as for i•p11~a8t orators, race leaders and community businessmen. '\)\-e." ( o o.s Against the ~, 23 • ti@"discussion we can view the f olk jeculars in their ri ght perspective as a vital part of t he rich storehouse of / lack folklore. Through songs, aphorisms (my own grandmother: .._ ''You don't believe fat meat's greasy!" and "If you ain't gon' do nothing> get off the pot!"), fables ~ (see Aesop), jokes (_. minstrelsy and the J31-ack comedy tr _..., dition), blues and other enduring forms>\13lacks capture severe hardships and tribulations, folk wisdom, joys and tragedies, -~-.a~nd __J and '@_, longings and h opes cf BJ ;l during/siaver~ aftg Jr 45 O( �The/ eculars, mortso than the fipirituals, give important clues to t h e inner~workings of t he common~lack mind. And a closer look at the total folk tradition will reveal the structure and principles of folk psychology. all, liiii It is, after Si . . t hese folk materials that researcher s \1've.sTi~£1e will have t i • if they are serious about delineating t he feelings, emotions and thought patterns of Blacks. The/eculars are surer ind~ es to the workings of the folk mine'!, because t h ey are not as limited as the~pirituals. Though most Blacks in the United States are aware of and have heard ~ / pirituals, an even larger number h ave b ad sustained exposure (directly or indirectly ) to t h e secular vocalizations and gestures 01/lack culture. Contemporary ;i'iack popular music and culture cont tinue to be informed by 4lt ~ street and home utterances. An exciting reciprocity allows entertainers to b orrow freely from what they hear while the folks "run and tell that" once it's recorded. Some examples of songs, titles and other epithets borrowed directly from t h e people are: New Bag , 11 "Licking Stick" (see "honey stick" in McKay 's story "Truant"), "Give It Up or Turn It Loose, 11 James Brown's ''Brand 11 "The Payback" and It's Hell"; Harvin Gaye' s "What's Gong On" and "Let's Get i t On"; Curtis Hayfi eld' s "Superfl y"; t h e .Jackson Five's "Get It Together or Leave It Alone "; Fli p Wilson 's "What You See J.s What You Get" (and the Dramati cs' tune by the same name); Aretha Frankl in 's "Respect" and "Run and Tell That"; and Jean Knight's "Mr. Big Stuff" /Y1 to name just a few. 46 �As with the ..Zpiri tuals, whites ( primarily abolitionists) were a mong the first to collect/ eculars of whatever type. William Wells Brown, the first publishe<;llack novelist and playwright, collected "anti-slavery" songs. Thomas Wentworth Higginson, writer and abolitionist who led a/ lack re gi ment in the Civil War, collected songs be heard among his me n around campfires and during marches. Though primarily co ni, cerned with religious songs, h e also describ ed some of t he Properties of general .Jnack song delivery. One of the most important collections of these seculars was put together by Thomas w. Talley '--"of Fisk University, <l oLLe.~c,e, "; ~~htt wo.-.k 4 I Talley did pioneering work in t he identifi cation a nd -----_ ./ classilication of Negro Folk Rhymes.~ 1 f) g 1.l s 1l1s sl2act£SJ t &2!£32) ~ o t 1il Fisk scholar collected well over @ examples. §) i- g; cb'tfr examples and discussions of t h e artistic products of i??t11,~ .I. i mportan! secular fol k life can be found i n t h e works of Hugh es and Bontemps, Brewer , Spalding, Dodson, Ch apman, Brown (Negro Poetry), A ra"1ar.is (Deep Down in ,.1he Jungle) and Bell (The > Folk Roots of ontemp orary Afro-Ame rican Poetry ). ( work - {:'e ce::.;r I'------ I I ) --I ila Bell's J is somewhat vague in perspective as a result of an · i mposed ("foreign ") - i-I · ,, ~ct~ ~~ {.:J ~ Also valuable to an examination of t h e/ eculars are regi onal ·w orks ( such as Abrah a ms') including Drums and Shadows (Georgia and South Carolina), Goldstein's - ........_,,, 47 Black Life csn_ ~ �and Culture in the United States , Lorenzo Dow Tur ner's 1-1ork in the Gullah culture, Dorson's Negr o Folktales in Hich i gan, and others ( see b ibliography ). By far the most faithful representatio n of secular or religious fol k materials in t b e written poetry is in t h e work of Sterling Br own (see h is Southern Road, especially Johnson's introductio n , and h is critical comments in Negro Poetry ). Brown takes exception to Johnson's comment that dialect poetry h as only two stops /4 "humor and pathos "-/4- and i mplies that.f1ack poets up until h is time had been remi ss (or lazy) in not developing broader uses and deepening the meaning of.J'lac k life t hrou gh t h e use of folk materials. The tradition of "tall" tale} telling is, of course, s uo.t merged in the American my thos. So t he/ lack narrator fo und a flexible atmosphere into which he could introduce hi s own manner of storytelling and his own tradition of song . As he had do ne in the/ pirituals, he gained a resourceful ness in the use of language, acquired i nstruments to accompany t he song or story, and developed an a'!J ility to seize upon a good or amenable context in which to tell or sing h is story ; be also made use of t h eme s and ideas from the vast ethni c pot-t, pourri of America. the ji,irituals. Tbe j eculars grew up side t by side wi t b Tbe/ pirituals emerged from t h e attempt of the slave to web together h is disparate (ye ___ ) wound s. Spirituals represent the slave's persei verence and (in many instances) h is hope and faith in mankind. 48 The / eculars, also �developing in t he shadows of the "big house," reflect the social life of the/ lack American on t he plantation and later. In songs and ditties, the J lack American couched bis longings and bitternessesJ but voiced bis hopes and cynicisms through the oblique, e)-i tical and encoded words and seemingly unini, telligible phonetic symb ols. These African forms (see Rappin' and Stylin' Out, Kochman) have continued up to the present. Few,Jflack youngsters are "~,, able to sidef step the rigorous (and sometimes painful) verbal deX~ erity demanded by playmates during that inevitably take place. sparring matches The forms of such behavior were in~tact during slavery -when a slave might be discussing a ,__, M master's "moma" or "old lady " during a rather harmless "rap" (rhapsod~? rapport?) with his fellow field workers. Frederick I '" hisouTo\:,ioq..,•pl11'c. a{ .-:h Douglass reports '\_Narra£ive ~that slave over~ eers t h ough t . slaves sang because they were happy . not the case (s~Df ois We . know that such was ouls of Black Folki ) and t hat such refrains as "stealing away" implied a lot more than wanting 1.1,h~ti - to reach t he arms of~esus on t he cross. similar codes in his stories and poems. Henry Dumas chronicles And Mel Watkins (Amistad 2) discussed an updated version of at least part of t h is _ phfLr>omenon in _is article on f olk singer-hero James Brown. Though b e is discussing a secular character, Watkins ' revelations are similar - to ~ Thurman's: ~that in the absurd context of being owned by someone else, 1 t is not life or death that looms\so importantly. One lives, Ellison sugges ts (Invisible Man}, the day-to-day 49 �absurdity in a sort of comic-tragic vi~e. Watkins says: James Brown's initial acceptance by a black audie nce is fixed in this crucial factor. From the moment be slides onto the stage, whether unconsciously or intentionally, his gestures, his facial exf pressions and even the sequential arrangement of _is materials are external affirmations of a shared ' acceptance of t h e absurd or, more ingerf(>usly, of jiving. The i mpe4i,bly tailored suits, whic'h b e brandishes at the outset, become meaninGless accoutrements as his act progresses and, sweati n; and straining, he gets down, literall:r down on t he floor, to wring t ":1 e last drop of emotion fro .. a son3 . Watkins is incorrect ab out t h e dress becoming "meanin.s;less" to a / lack audie nce, but his general thesis is on target. Elsewhere Watkins, firmly understanding the i mportance of verbal agility a mong Blacks, sa:rsJ "f t is cor.1mon to _ ear hla.ck women discussins a ma n 's 'rap' or 'program' on t he same level ,ri,4.1 •~hey di s cuss h is ba nk account." Blacks ge nerally wi t h~old their judg , ent on ( or acc eptance) of a speaker or e ntertainer unti 1 '!-: e ex:~ i b i ts, i n b is dr es s- .::;esture-rap, t 1: at : ,e , r1de r+ stands t'-:e -: cllspri ng t l"} a t ~, r oduced the ';Z(lac k and t~~1known bard s . 11 J.c tur nin 6 hrieflyi to our h istorical assess ment, we can now see h oH t h e folk strain i :;}5lack written art e•rol ved. 50 �From t h is "s o ng " r ecord ed in t ~J e 1 '350t s ' y Dougl a ss, Dey g i c us de liquor, ..---.., And say dat 's good enoug~ for ..___ :e:1 ~ · gge r > to t h e fear of "de Cunjah Han" captured in nGullab II by Ca:apbell in t he l a tter part of the 1906,'s, __, @ De Cunjah man, de Ctrnjah man, 0 ch illen run, de Cunjah man! the dece ptively 11 s simple II eMplo:rment of folk express ions "ha ""6- prevailed as an i n portant antidote for the social maladies inherited by Blacks in the Western Hemispbere. rtne Cunjah Han" is, of course, equivalent to the rrtbing s that g o bump ~ in the ni gh t" in Ireland~ and tbus has ties to ge neral fol k supe1"sti tions and mythology. But there was also t h e rr1Ju ggah-: man 11 (Dun~ar 's "Little Brown Baby 11 ) , the "raw-head and bloody bones" and 11 obeah man. 11 11 rag -:na rfr&J "peg=le g , (in -tit" We~t-rV\dte.S 11 r) ) t h e '--' Most of these supernatural characters a.re t h r ow __. - b acks to various African religious and ritual practices. Of \ the new generation of poets, Ish mael Reed (/atechism of a ~~U I r,--• neoamerican h oodoo church ) is the innovator in the use of 2'.h.tL~<.i=e~~ super natural t h em-6s;~and v ocabulary. The t h eme of the 2nd Annual John Henr:r Memorial .Auth entic -- lues and Gospel .Jubilee ~ i Sartsrl?Sr < 1974) was ~ 1t°''"'"""' Vt\~ ·::1 _p!,f _2f!Jit{cliff Top, ltJi 11 Tryin' to Get Home. 11 t g J'f How stead t fastly the folk tradition runs like a vein througbj'lack h istory ! In the ~ , culars ( and the / piri tuals ) we repeatedly hear some,l thing si milar to the last stanza of 51 11 Ra1nbow ou Mab Shouldern: �gonna break ri ght , break ri gh t pas t hat s h ooter, goin :'1 ome, Lawd, I'm goi home. Agai ~ the use of the word "Lawdn in a "secular" song furt her bears out the communal integration of the folk::J.ression. Bu..t. J:S n.• v,.eqvLo..rly-----.. interject or exclaim "Lord" •t\nLawd" in every ay discussions. d I 111 ! 7 It is next to impossible to list all {or each type) of the ,/eculars. We have mentioned Professor Talley's pioneering efforts at classifying t h em. But many o?stacles lay in the way of recorders of secular folk life. of censureship of language. One problem was t h at Such censuring marked all types of )Slack creativity, from the slave narratives to reli gious songs. Hence the more "protesting" aspects of tbe works were deleted, as were "authentic 1~ 11 offensi ve words. 11 Anyone wh o bas h eard ack folk songs knows t hat t h ey reflect t he cont, vergence of madness, absurdity and h ope in the J'lack body . Subsequently what are known as trcurse" or "obscene" words are sprinkled throughout much of the "secular II lore. cusses the 11 Brown dist realismtr in t h e folk rhymes along with an attempt r, ., 11 to · tlassify at least some of them { fiddle- ~ hgs," "corn-songs, 11 "jig-tunes, 11 11 upstart crows 11 ) : 4l.!S!2!!S Ballads: Negro Heroes, John Henry (fol kified in song ), Work Songs, The Blues, Irony and Protest. Irony and protest, of course, run through j 1ack folk and literary poetry from the earliest days (Whitfield, Harper, anti-slavery songs) to the most recent times (Josh White, 52 • �. eon Thomas , Don L. Lee, John Ectels, \Johnie. Scott). Some observers have pointed to the silliness of nany researchers who, white as ever, appeared in person to as i jlack folk~song writers arrl singers if they endorsed "protest,n then went away satisfied with a "no" answer. Given the nature and history of race relation~ one can understand the reluctance on the partf of Blacks to tell whites the truth about " let alone about such a sensitive area as "protest." 11 anything 11 Yet in the dog-eat-dog world of survival, the folk person knows that e "If he dies, I'll eat bis co'n; An' if he lives, I'll ride 'im on." In summary we can say that unlike other ethnic i mmigrant ,, groups ( ~the Afro-American was not a willing immigrant!), the f lack American did not simply transplant bis stories ~ keeping them in their exact same form. He found American or European language counterparts for his themes and vocabularies. But his phonology, style and spirit were informed by the African tradition. The stude.n t of_)3lack folk poetry ·will want to compare and contrast the..)'feculars to other ethnic stories and songs. Boasting or "lying," for example, is one ingredient of the "tall" tale. 1 , Jl ·'(-1 How does the J lack song or story ( b o , , "Shine,i' "Signifying Monkey," "Dol~ iite, etc.) fit this motif? 11 "Frankie and Johnnie," How does it conceal deeper meanings on the issues of slavery, inhuman work conditions, or contr~ dictions in Christianity? What are the similarities between the _,z'e culars and the / pirituals? 53 Between the/ eculars and �the literary poetry? These and oth er questions (o ~ lack heroes, cultural motifs, blues themes, language and endurance) will lead one through exciting corridors of_/lack folk creativi ty and thought. ~ - (i) PottA~it,o (i2 SPIRITUALS G ,1 $e·!Til~ (>lkYl ple) GO DOWN, MOSES Go d~, Moses, Way down in Egyptlandj Tell old Pharaoh To let my people go . _i z._ When Israel was in EgyptlandJ Let my people go0 Oppressed so hard they could not stand/ Let my people go. ,J. 2 Go down, Moses, . Way down in Egyptlandj Tell old Pharaoh, nLet my people go." ,-I z-. "Thus saith t he Lord," bold Hoses said, qtJ "Let my people. If not I'll smite your first-born dea~ Let my people go." 54 �I p-,,.,J 11 No more shall they in bondage toil, £J Let my people go; Let t hem come out with Egypt's spoil, □ Let /p-,,v- }svv> my people go." The Lord told Moses what to do; D Let my people go; To lead the children of Israel through , .cJ Let my people go. Go down, Hoses , CJ Way down in Egyptland; Tell old Pharaoh, 0 "Let my people gol 11 (i) SLAVERY CHAIN ,_y Slavery chain done broke at last, broke at last, I .0 bro ke at last, /~ I ,Y""" -, Slavery chain done broke at last, Going to praise God till I die. Way down i n-a dat valley, Praying on my knees; Told God ab out my troubles, And to help me et-a He please. I did tell h im how I suffer, In de dungeon and de chain, And de days I went with h ead bowed down, And my broken fles h and pain. 55 �~ ___., PIRI.TUA~-ont+d-: Slavery chain done broke at last, broke at last, LJ broke at last, Slavery chain done broke at last, Going to praise God till I die. I did know my Jesus heard me, 'Cause de spirit spoke to me, And said, "Ri ~ ' y child, your chillun And you tJ / be free. nr done 'p' int one mighty captain For to marshalt all my h osts, - And to bring my bleeding ones to me, And not one shall be lost." Slavery chain done broke at last, broke at last, CJ broke at last, Slavery chain done broke at last, Going to praise God till I die. @ NO MORE AUCTION BLOCK No more auction block for me, J o more, no more, No more auction block for me, 1-1.a ny thousand gone. n o more peck of' corn for me, No more, no more, 56 �/ ~ .,;;:;::;:.:. SPIRITUALS (cont'd) ~ No more peck of corn for me, Many thousand gone. No more pint of salt for me, No more, no more, No more pint of salt for me, Many thousand gone. No more driver's lash for me, No more, no more, No more driver's lash for me, Many t housand gone. (v SHOUT ALONG, ,, CHILLEN Shout along, chillen! Shout along, chillen! _ Hear the dying Lamb: Oh! take your nets and follow me For I died for you upon tbe tree! L Shout along, chillen! Shout along, chillen! ~ Hear the dying Lamb! vJ, SW.!:iliT / low, lV Swing Coming for sweet ch ario , to carry me home , Swing low, sweet chariot, Coming for to carry me home. 57 HARIOT �SPIRITUALS (cont'd) I looked over Jordan and what did I see Coming for to carry me home, A band of angels, coming after me, Coming for to carry me home. If y ou get there before I do, Coming for to carry me home, Tell all my friends I' m coming too, Coming for to carry me home. Swing low, sweet chariot, Coming for to carry me home, Swing low, sweet chariot, Coming for to carry me home. @ (f) STEAL AWAY Steal away, steal away, steal away to Jesus, Steal away, steal away home, I ain't got long to stay here. My Lord, He calls me, He calls me by the thunder, The trumpet sounds within-a my soul, I ain't got long to stay here. Steal away, steal away, steal away to Jesus, Steal away, steal away home, I ain't got long to stay h ere. 58 �/ ' \ / SPIRITUALS (cont•d) Green trees a-bending, Po' sinner stands a-trembling The trumpet sounds. within-a my soul, I ain't got long to stay here. J (CJ DEEP RIVER Deep river, my home is over Jordan, Deep river, Lord; I want to cross over into camp ground. 0 children, O, don't you want to go to that gospel feast, That promised land, tbat land, where all is peace? Deep river, my hone is over Jordan, Deep river, Lord; I want to cross over into camp ground. I GOT A H,9HE IN DAT ROCK ~ got a home in dat J76ck, D~ 1 t you see? 1 / . I go..,_t a home in ~at rock, Don't rou see?/ ' Between 'ae eJth an' sky, Thought I \ ~rd my Sa vi our cry, You got a/2:~~ in· dat rock, I • Don't y/u see? \ / \\ \, Poor . an Laz•rus, P\or as I, Do . •t you see? Boo~ man Laz'rus, poor ai I, 59 , �• \ got \ \ \ don't you \ \ One of mornings, \ I Dis ole rock, \ '\ ___Q_ . Pharaoh •s I wants to stay he~fuh, Dis ole world 't been no friend to huh , I Pharaoh's arm I Oh Mary, Oh Hary, you don't ~rou moan, Oh Nary, you you moan, army got you weep. G VI ..__.,,, F OLK SECULARS Q a HE I.S MY HORSE One day as I wus a-ridin' by, Said dey: "Ole man, yo' boss will die." CJL:J "Ir he dies, he is my loss; And if' he lives, h e is my boss." I �FOLK SECULARS (cont'd) Nex' day w'en I come a'ridi n ' by , Dey said: "Ole man, yo' boss may die. 11 OLJ 11If' he dies, I'll tan 'is skin; An' if' he lives, I'll ride 'im ag 'in ." Den ag ' in w'en I come a-rid i n ' by, Said dey: ,CJ 11 0le man, yo' b oss mougbt die. L.J ' nrf' he dies, I'll eat h is co' n ; I. 1An' if' he lives, I'll ride 'im on . -- {! -DID~ II II O, FEED i1Y Cffi-J'? ''Did yer fe ed my cow?" "Will yer tell me h ow?" ''Yes, Mam!" "Yes, Mam!" "Oh , w'at did yer give 'er? 11 "Cawn an h ay . II "Oh , w'at did yer gi ve 'er?" "Cawn an hay . II "Did y er milk 'er good?" ''Yes, Ma m!" "Did yer do lak yer sh ould?" "Oh , h ow did yer r.iilk ' er ?" ''Yes, Ham!" "Swish ! Swish ! [J L.J Swish !" Did dat cow git sick ? '' 11 "Yes, }fam ! II rtwus sh e kivered wid tic k ? " '~es, Ha m!" "Oh , how wus she sick ?" "All bloated up. II "Oh , how wus she sick? 11 "All bloated up. II �FOLK SEC1JI:..A.~S (cont ' d) SONG (From Frederick ;;:_ D...:.o...:.u~ ..a.-........-. riy Bondaee and H:r Freedom, 1353) We rai se de wheat , Dey gib us de corn: We bake de bread , Dey gib us de crust; We sif de meal, Dey g i b us d hu~ ; We peel de :neat , Dey gi b us de skin; And dat ' s de wa: Dey take us in; We skim de pot, Dey gib us de liquor, V And say dat ' s go od enou8!1 for nis ger. som (Fro:n :Martin R. Delanv The r.1erica, 11 bret'hr e n, :-Jhile t 'b. e L. "Blake; or, in The An . - o-African 11a n' azine, June 1 : 5 , ) take a rest, a nd clear; Old And : as gone Old :~1as ter ' s d l:ri ng in b is gra·rn; And our to flow; He will ne ck of the slave , For he ' s O' go! �------- toLK SECULARS ( c.Ql1 t f d ) ~ on the utha sbo. r CJ MA.NY A THOUSAND DIE No n ore driver call for me, CJ No more driver call; No more driver call for me , CJ I1any a thousand di ef} ! No more peck of corn for me, 0 No more peck of corn; . No more peck of corn for me, 0 }!any a t h ousand die! No more .. undred lash f'or me, CJ no more hundred lash ; No more hundred lash f'or me, 0 Many a thousand die! @ FREEDOM Abe Lincoln freed t~e nigger, Wid da gun and wid da trigger, An I a1nft 1\?-na git whipped no mo. Ah got mah ticket Ou of' dis heah t h icket, 1 Afh I'm headin for da golden sho. 0 f'reedo m, 0 freedo m, " -- - .,. �FOLK SECULARS con f ) 0 freedom after a while, And before I'd be a slave, I'd be buried in my grave, And go home to my Lord and be free. There'll be no more moaning, no more moaning, No more moaning after a wh ile, And before I'd be a slave, I'd be buried in my grave, And go home to my Lord and be free. No more weeping, no more crying, No more weeping after a while, And before I'd be a slave, I'd be buried in my grave , And go home to my Lord and be free. There'll be no more kneeling, no more bowing, No more kneeling after a while, And b efore I'd be a slave, I'd be buried in my grave, And go h ome to my Lord and be free. There'll be shouting, there'll be shouting , There'll be shouting after a while, And b efore I'd be a slave, I 1 d be buried in my grave, And go home to my Lord and be free. �FOLK -SEOOLAE {j) (cont f-d-t-RAI11BOW ROUN I-IAH SHOULDER Evahwhuh I, ~huh I look dis mawnin, Looks lak rain, looks lak rain . I gotta rainbow, tied all rou n mah s h oulder, Ain go nna rain, ai n gonna rai n. I don walk till, walk till mah feets gone to rollin, Jes lak a wheel, jes lak a sheel. Evah mailday, I gets a letter, "My son come home, my son come h ome." Dat ol letter r ead ab out dyin , .Mah tears run down, mah tears run down. I'm gonna break ri gh t, break ri gh t pas dat sh ooter, I' m goin b orne, Lawd, I' m goin h ome. RAILROAD SECTI 0" LEADER t S Stan on da gon. Ah Ef i n Jenni ee Square, easy , l~ketch you �Lawdy, nobody For Nobody For {I> -JOHN HENRY HAMMER S ON'G Dis is de hammer Killt John Henry, Twon•t kill me, baby, Twon't kill me. Take dis hammer, Carry it to de captain Tell him I'm gone, baby, Tell h im I'm gone. E:f h e axe you, Was I running Tell him bow fast, baby, Tell h i m how fast. E:f h e axe you Any mo' questions, Tell him you don't know, baby, You don't know. Every mail day, Gits a letter, �ECULARS (contd"Son, come h ome, baby , Son come home. 11 Been all ni ght long Backing up timber, Want to go home, baby, Want to go home. Jes' wait till I make Dese few days I started I'm going home, baby, . r'rn going home. Everywhere I Look dis morning Look lak rain, baby, Look lak rain. I got a rainbow Tied 'round my shoulder, Ain't gonna rain, baby , Ain't gonna rain. Dis o le hammer Ring lak silver, Shine lak gold. Take dis hammer 61 �,..---F-G±sK-SECULAR ~ ( e G nt..!.d-) Throw it in de river, It'll ring ri gb t on, baby, Ring rigbt on. Captain, did you bear All yo' men gonna leave you, Next pay day , baby, Next pay day? SHINE AND THE TITANIC 1912 when the awful e great Titanic was "Please, Shine my knees." The water i black self on back down there' Captain said, keep t h e boiler room clear." I got a hundred- Shine sh ovelling coal, Si nging, "Lord, h my soul!" mped across the boiler room deck. Shine yelled to the Captaf, "The water's round my neck!" Captain said, 'Go back! Neit, er fear nor doubt! I got more pumps to out." ''Your words But this is ne time, Cap, y our wo s won't do . �FOLK SECULA.i.~S ( cont'd) He,..,,,sa1d fjpst 1t1 Cue r.iiddle , ~ fro m BACIIDOOR BLUES my baby standin i n the back door cryin' left my baby standin in the back door cryin' She said, baby , you gotta h ome jus as long as I cot mine . ( c,, A BIG FAT HA.r-IA I' m a b i g fat mama , got t he :neat sb akin on mah b ones, I'm a big fat ma ma , got t h e meat shaki n on mab bones, And every time I shakes, some skinny girl loses hu~ 1ome. ( HOU LONG BLUES How long, how lon 6 , has that e ven ing train Jin gone? How lo n3 , 'how long, b ay, h ow long ? Had a s al lived up on t h e hill If she' c t here, sh e loves r.e still Baby, ':1ow long , how lo ng , bow loni:; ? Standin at the station, watch my baby go Feel dis s usted, blue, mean an low How lone , !.') OW lone::; , ';:;a:Ty , ~. mr ~ long? � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Eugene B. Redmond Digital Collection Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context EBRWritings_09_05 Title A name given to the resource Editors proof, Drumvoices: The Mission of Afro-American Poetry: A Critical History, Chapter II. The Black and Unknown Bards, typed with handwritten edits, p. 27-69 Relation A related resource Eugene B. Redmond Digital Collection Language A language of the resource English Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource For digital rights and permissions, see <a href="https://www.siue.edu/lovejoy-library/about/policies.shtml">https://www.siue.edu/lovejoy-library/about/policies.shtml</a> or contact <a href="mailto:library@siue.edu">library@siue.edu</a> for direct inquiries. In copyright. <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Redmond, Eugene B. https://digitallis.isg.siue.edu/files/original/3041b4a07dbf0e274e6633e36adec2f5.pdf f02691cb7777307a60e956b67e222b83 PDF Text Text Gi) (cy CHAPTER III_ _ _---1 AFRICAN VOICE I N ECLIPSE~ JMITATION@ AGITATION 1746 ' 1865 I Slaves, though we be enroll'd / Minds are never to be ~sold - from David Ruggles' Appeals, 1835 M I u:i Overview C-- As we embark on a survey of the chronological development of /lack written poetry, it is important to remember that any study of such literature concerns that which is "written" and "available." The fact that one writer has made more works accessible to the public than another writer does not make him/ her the "greater. 11 In every era, quiet and important writers have been passed over in favor of litera ture that is more "timely," 'tlamboy~~t " a : "::~.~~ant(!: ::: : : :: Ct..t 9 9ii I :Ii I jEsj Oift1Bclllillli 3 a '!!"C! 1 ■ 2'"" '-.:' ■,. .... !!!! • ' ... ■ ..., ~ks 1(21£ ::ii/se••JJ• J •AIP, this 1¥ certainly is not an t o re . o e ,.1 anthology, /\ are ~ 11 [ will allow ~ ., 'r ua psal&g. 5o, while t-ep"esen"li,~e sa.m p L,ngs o ~ Pot$y ti VSed mments on styles, themes, subjects, language s, fecL ,a.re po.~~uLu,l'J ilYlpo~a.ttTfb o.n vnde"fflmt(h9 0J:'°-rh other aspec s • .n t r A The poems included, it is "' "',,..,.,._ _ ,.;V and t .L.. tCPI ccess to comparisons, ----- thf -,.+1~ ,,. 11J e,u,Ly po€t;y. eader and teacher immediate - entati ve analyses. · There \ also is no ove~iding effort to explain t he works in a "-"" 1~ �poem-by-poem breakdown . However , eo.c..t-i· c.ho..~Y' wi.LL 6u,Y oh al historical "running 11 a na lysis of' several poems with emptasis ~~s fa. ;,id.yt.a..r,. on how the poems can be read silently and aloud. · • one o F l1t t Le"'-$1" u ~~T"od dc--u. duJy fll' II 1/J, Literary and Social Landscape C - Blacks have been in t he Western Hemis phere almost as long as whites. Af'ter 1501 , most of the Spanish expeditions to t he New World included/ 1 ✓, So,., lack explorers.~ the time the @) slaves - to-be were brought on a Dut ch vessel to Jamestown in 1619, t h e presence of Blacks had been felt f'or at least@ year s (s ee Bennett, Franklin). Crucial to an understanding of early_J{lack poetry are the circumstances surrounding slavery and t ~ religious moods of both England and/ America. political and olonial~ evolutionary Briti sh America d id not follow t he Greco-Roman tra.:p dition of' t h e well:: ;. inf'ormed s lave. It was quite unlikely, ., then, that a "revoluti onary".)fiack poet would emerge from a social and literary landscape so charged with self'-righteou~ness ' and;(eoclassicis m {or from thej{omanticism of t he 180C::S ). Fight 11 (written in 1746 and published in Lucy Terry's "Ba 1895 ) could hardly be called 11 protest"; neither could the wor k of Phillis Wheatley, co nsidered the finest ..flack talent of th e 1olonial era, caught between contrivances of the enment and the approachi ng grip of the romantics. '1I [ Enlight The neoclassical �tradition that reached its height in the poetry of England's Alexander Popet had already begun to die out with the death of Pop) !ln■:," in 1744. All over/olonial America, however, white poets were imitating the stiff-collared conventionality of that period. The moral issues considered by most • ill - poets j ilack and white) ~universal brotherhood of man, quest for reason and order, the Jeffersonian ideals of freedom, liberty and representative government ~ were removed from the everyday brutality of slavery. Some of the most liberal men of the day (Jefferson, Washington, Hume) implicitly justified slavery by suggesting that Blacks were in some ways inferior. Despite Jefferson's pontifications on humanitarianism, he was unable to reconcile the disparity between his public stands and bis failure to manumit his own slaves. Although Jefferson carried on a written correspondence with)3lack astronomer and mathematician{ Benjamin Banneker, be considered Phillis Wheatley' s po-e.-. rry "beneath critic ism. 11 On the general American scene, the Revolution behind, a national literature had begun to emerge. Fascinated with American employment of new technology (Franklin's lightning experiments, printing presses, etc.) and the prospects of unexplored regions of the New World, writers started recording travels and observing the mixture of races and religi~ns. Although religious fervor was s t i l ~ i @ J I I sni ds 1SE b s j II t& 5 J:Irzlr ; I s es 1 political problems dominated. 4 Between 1790 and 1832 the new American government was being ~ CW,:; . consol id ated_, and the writings ofAmen -¼--i:ire William Bradford, �John Winthrop, Cotton Mather , Thor.m s Shephard, Roger Williams, Edward Taylor and Jonathan Edwards were succeeded by t he mbryonic nationalistic works of Franklin, Jefferson, :William Cullen Bryant, Charles Brockden Brown, Washingto n rving, William Gilmore Simms an:l James Fenimore Cooper. r rving, Cooper and Bryant were to become the early writers taught to American school children.1forten called the "New England Renaissance," the early decades of t he 9th /e ntury saw increasing tension between New England puritanism and~ outhern aristocracy over the question of slavery. over slavery Debates continued up to t he beg inning of t he Civil War. '\._, The early part of the century also saw the birth of many of rl;e developrnenToP white America's great est writers_, along withAromanticism and rugged individual is w. Mys tif'ied by the noble savage (Indians and sometimes Blacks) and challe nged by the "new frontier," Americans began to romanticize their situation and especially that of explorers, who became the first original _,ff lk her oes. White writers who dominated the period from 1826 1865 included Edgar Allan Poe (poet and short:: story writer, credited with creating the fir st detective in American fiction), Nat haniel Hawthorne (co ns.idered the first great American novelistk The Scarlet Letter), John Greenleaf' Hhittier, Henry Wadsworth J Longf'ellow, James Russe \ LoHell, Oliver 1vendell Holmes, Harriet Beecher Stowe (one of the first white American novelists to feature a ,/lack protagonist in fiction-1-Uncle /° /\,\ Tom's Cabin), Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, 73 �Her man :ful ville (considered to have written one of the h andful of ngreat Tl American nove lsk f·lob:r Dick), Walt Wr.i t r:a D ( terrr.ed the "gr eatest" American poet~ Leaves of Grass) . r i marily po 11 t ica 1 activists Otb er writers, ~:-;;ti: ti onis t :i).,, inc 1 uded John C 1- . Calhoun, 1.-Jilliam Lloyd Garrison, and Abraha.r.1 Lincol n. their m-m and Using lack material , a nm;1ber of wbi te composers i mmortalized the era in songs ~ r;1an:- of t "h er,1 nationalistic. It Ha .c~ during t"hi~ period t bat Francis Scott Key wrote !'T~"' e St ar S:;-,z-. r:.. 6 l ed Banner ." 1i1ep:1en :1oster ~ as since ':een ac cused to music the s o~s s that were sung by slaves . of for Blacks to learn to read~ but many slave~ owners indulged their cbatte in i:1r i ti n 6 exercises as personal pasifimes and h obbies . \,J many of ~he early ack poet: ~ S~ grew up in relati ·1e security. To be totally free , David Walker observed in _ is Aopeal (1829) ) .. 1as to ~e economically insecure, socially ostracized a.nd psychot, logically oppressed . - Consequently, t h ose slaves pr i vi lel ged to read and write invariably took European literary models . Poets, of course, were not the only ones writing . In addition ~a.o/ to a olitionists-essayists, ttke Walker and Frederick Douglass, this period of lack literary activity was high li gh ted by exciting slave n a ~ iji]t:ek1 so sri fa r2 n: & snrts of @§C@P@d :.ialtfi i slrna 4 The most popular of these, and one of the first recorded, was Th9 Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equia.no, or Gustavus Vassa, the African (1789 ). Arna Bontemps includes it in his Great Slave Narratives (1969). �' L • .. ,... (\_\t •.{it\ '/ ~ \\'\nl !. • 1 - VaSSa, wh o al s o included ~ some notable verse~ co~structed a story pattern that was to becor:e fa miliar to readers •~arly America: - that of t he escaped, freed or run ~away slave wh o '--' reported his or her hardsh i ps and struggles . Vassa describ es ,.., his life in Africa up until t h e time of h is kidnap Jing . With .._,/ vivid memory and detail, he establish es the orig inal bases for what we have come to call t h e "African f ontinuum" in America. It is not just mere coincide nce t hat t h is statement fro ~ 1789 1'H' ,t - - fi ts"parts of j iack America of today. We are almost a nation of da ncers, musicians, and @ poets. Thus every great e vent ••• is celebrated in public dances which are accompanied with songs and music suited to t h e occasions . Vassa 's debut into this li terar:r genre was followed by hundreds of other narratives, many of t h em fakes . Early Negro Writing: ....__., Dorothy Porter, in 1760ql 837 (1971), has discussed the problem of determining auth enticity of t he narratives . ,ew,e►iT-,,1 Mrs. Porter is librarianJ\of the Hoorland Foundation at Howard Universityi wh ich houses an outstanding collection on t h e @oak sb,r lncluded ~ ~ heA~ lack pas ~ -,:n µ2._) nstitutions and laws of beneficial societies; speeches before mutual aid and educational societies; the re port of the earliest annual convention for the improvement of free people of color; arguments for and against coloni zation; printed letters, sermons , petitions , orations, lectures, essays, religious and 75 1161 5 �moral treatises , and such creative mani festations as poems , prose narratives, and sh ort essays. Mrs. Porter thus sums up the intellectual and literary output • • t.\l'iT· of the 1t'\ (f I &,.mef\,c. • AfricanpA The word "Africanf " was used generously by most writers and speakers of the era. not empl~~<:i; it was Y.e.~Lctced. "Black, II" When "African" was ~Y sy~o11ym.s-:=S<Jc.'1 (li ''C loured, 11 "an Ethiopian Princess_" . ., .. _at&& - Placed against the sometimes sophomoric and heretical accusations of some of today's / lack critics, these early displays of pride in the African heritage make! one want to sen,i1!_'mf,,ny uninfo1'me.!('~~,e~'f1• back to school! In addition to the plethora of pamphlets, broadsides, b ooks and news orga1that emerged fromjlack individuals and insti tutions during the period up to the end of the Civil War, there was also much political-social consciousness , raising through oration. In the early year ~ great religious and political leaders such as Richard Allen, Peter Williams, Absalom Jones, Prince Hall (founder of / lack Masonry), Paul Cuffee and Daniel Coker, took up projects of "mutual aid" for Africans. Their work set the stage for missionary, abolitionist and self-help ~ tv.Y programs undertaken later by people ttire Jarena Lee, Frederick t\ Douglas s , R. Hartin Delaney, Sojourner Truth\..., and Alexander Crummell,•L•r•---908HWWg•-,,........li■l■l•se• The intellectual , religious and moral work of Blacks in the North was paralleled by the development of folk materials 7(p �(the songs and stories) of Blacks on/ outhern plantations . In genera~ few states , Nortb or South , allowed educational or vocational opportunities for Blacks. Thus the energies of early J lack writers and intellectual5..>= Mrs D 1 k i L; ~ re B211tn &ttci 'ifillic11n __fa, r,,,, m itteJ fo .---_ various "African" societies and free sch ools, a nd the promotion of literacy and self-betterment among newly freed slaves. n7iil ( J Jill bl LBS IICF C t .iuib j bhc Yr J g; g;yz1 Rella a J The Rev Allen , popular religious crusader and founder of tre Beth el African Feth odist Epis copab Church , seems to have been referring to the sa.'i!e ;(lack "sensib ilit~r" describ ed by Vassa when he said (in 1793 ) t hat b e was conf i dent that there was no religious sect or denomination that wo1ld suit the capacity of the colored pe ople as well as the 11eth odis • Sure I am that reading • •• sermons will never prove so beneficial to t he colored people as spiritual or extempore ('"I preaching___ •••• Huch evidence exists, t h en , of Blacks banding together fo r "mutual" co ncerns in t h e early days of America. Tbe h orrors of slavery, t he psychological: pressures of / orthern "freedom," white reprisals in wake of slave revolts (such as t h ose led by I Gabriel Prosser in 1800, Denmark Vesey in 1822 and Nat Turner in 1831), made for a most unsettling atmosphere (see Walker's 77 �Appeal). Reporting on white America's "need" to ven t its fears and hatreds on Blacks, Winthrop Jordan (Wbi te / ver Black, J ✓ 1968 ) noted that whites initially feared t bree t h ings: .J. oss of identity , lack of self-control and sexual license. In an effort to escape the "animal within h i mself the white r.ian dej:_, based t h e Negro, surely, but at t he same time b e debased himself." And a young Frenchman., Alexis de Tocqueville, visiting America in 1831, said racial prejudice was "stronger in t h e states that b ave abolished slavery than in those where it still exists." Needless to say., creative literature of the "artyn sort (though much of it was being done at the ti me) was not t he number one pri ority for Black ,J f: a l 7 3 2 iil a tuts f <;!evertbeles~ a literary tradition did develop and flouris h in ~,,,,.,_,.__ / lack America. The example of t he narratives (including t h ose • ? by Ha.rrant., Douglass and Truth ) led to publications by the ,J,,ct first f lack novelist and playwright, William Wells Brown. Brown's novel was Clotel: x or,,zj-ie President 's Daughter (1 8531 and h is play was called Escape: ._¢r ~ ,K Leap to Freedom ( 1857). The second novel by aJlack American was The Garies and their Friends (1857) by Frank J. Webb . Delaney published t he t h ird novel , Black, or the Huts of America, in 1859. Webb were b oth published in England. The works by Brown and Brown also worked~ in t he cause of abolition and other social=reform programs. His Anti-Slavery Harp (1848) contained songs and poems whose themes are implied in the book's title. The pattern of the jlack educator, intellectual or artisan carrying on the dual rol creator and activistt, characterizes the h istory of.f-ack \ f �creativity in America. YetJ r. any critics / lack and white, unaware of the stresses and demands on}'flack artists1 do not approach their sub jects with ....., o..n understanding o~ thl's. f.n.c-"t, j ,,,.. Political journalism (see Dann's The Black Press, 1327;; _ 90), als~} was a strong vein in the development of_)3lack American '- writing. Beginning with John Russwurm (the second..$lack colle ge graduate and first p ib ack newspaper editor ~ Freedom's Journal, 1827; 29), and evolving through Ruggles' Hirror for Liberty (£1rstpack magazine , 1838 ), Douglass• Monthlyl(l 844J ~ ) o'::'t h Star (1847), to Hamilton's Anglo-African Magazine (1 859), t he tradition ofj lack journalis m and research on the African ex perience was firmly established. Huch of the journalistic writing (like t he poetry) took pros or cons on tbe questio n of i~gration, colonization or tbe elevation of t he J lack ,aa.n' s plight in America. During the early and middle years of the ~ entury, white travelers through the Soutb collected and compiled slave I song~eculars and}½irituals. the weU.sf''''"j f-or- These songs !ilJllil later pt-ovtded much of the ;(lack and white writing the mes. On the eve of the Civ il Har, t h e Dred Scott decision (a hlow to to slaves and abolitionists) h el~step up the demands for the abolishment of slavery. Brown's The Black Man ( 1863) was a capsule of one era closed on the blasts of cannon and ze another that opened on t h e sound of jubilant shouts. �III - Co) THE VOICES ON THE TOTEN "Mean mean mean to b e free" 3 I c..... ~ - 1-Robert Jfa·:,rde n M -- - Against the foregoing bac kground , t h e poets of/ olonial ~ volutionar:rf lavery America appear curious, tearful , exciting , paradoxical, frightening and puzzling. Bib lical i : -,1 a s ery, classical allusions and t h emes, b atred of slavery a r.d a r.1b i guous prai se for s lave1masters, recollecttons of Africa, ap peals and co nder,matior:s ,h all become enmeshed in the i n tricate linguistic M and psyc'!:': ological webbing of t h is early poetry . I n 1770 , at 1 years of a g e, t h e pri7ileg ed slav e g irl Ph illi s 1· .. eatley be came the first/ in Eng lish and Americijn poetry. A 1erican ::- 00tr::r lack "exception to the rule" And for d ecad e ~ stud ents of Mi" \ ~a.a g ose ab out t he ir recitations and researcl} a n t houg!1 n ot'ting or no o ne of i mportance 1-: appe r..ed ✓ befweeV\ he~-lliYt e It was not until 1893 t h at L~cy Terr7 ' s "Bar's Fis:1t 11 - Lt1-:o acc ount of a l 7L~6 I nd. ian r:~assa cr e i~ .Deerfiel d, M ::ass ac::n :se tts ~ c ar,ie to pU 1)l ic li c:: t. a,--,_ot~e @ A :~c. r eaders l1 ad ::-et :-,)a.rs t o Hait before Oscar 'Te,:eli::1 i ~ '2.. '7 1-} d i s covered J up i ter .!a:.-.: :·.1on ' s "An Eveni n.; T ~"} OU 6 ~t , Salvation ½:- C1:"} rist, j-itl1 Penitential Cries" (1761) i n t h e New.:York Historical Society, t bus establ ishing Hammon as t~e first published African poet in America . �:It h<4s bee.-, ,;, ctn c_ho.p"f:i~ " ~ r:1e ntio~1cdAearlier ~ t~ a t . :a:::-- 2. nt;:; olocies o:-~i t Fi5.1t. 11 11 :'3n.r ' s Tb i s i s undcrstanda '.~ :1..eJ s i ~:.c e ::iss Terr:· ( 1730 '18jl) never uro te., or at lea ::i t pre sent ., d , a n:r ore iiterar:' worl:s . America' s 11 first i-Tegi-•o poet, '1 t ~ en , is L·1p or ta nt prLlaril:~ for b eing just t h at 'M"fir st . !.,ike L.ut.y7i,.y New England slaves., ~ Fh;Uis - 1:n:. eatlcy , Vassa and ot1: er dd,1a t ed as a c!1 ild a ~1d ,_,r ou ,:;i__,: t _, to New England (Rh ode Isla nd) . S~ e witnessed t !1e I nd ia n raid -:•ra.s ~ wh\'-t.._ Sh.ow! • reported in h0 r ~ -line doGgerel) ••• w,,l\..a flair for stor:rtell i :-:z . Hence,) d e spite the poe::1 ' s 11 0., v iously weak literary ::neri t, 11 t l-1i s ,)(lack writer perforr1:.ed one of t:-:e earliest services of t t e 1 1 poet-tbat of' a singer of' l': istor-. ~ ~ MM- in recordincD actual na,:1e s and places in h er narrati v e . S i nce s h e was ~ f ~ ears-/old a nd a servant g irl, writing ·1as surel:r :-iot ~er primar'!fy res po ~ s i bili ty . Yet 11 Bar ' s Fig::"; t 11 ac':-}ie ves some succ ess when seen aga i nst t h e oral traditio n i n poetry: Listen my children and you shall h ear Of' the midni gh t rid e of Paul '1e v ere . or How , ch ildren ., I ' :·1 g oi ng t o tell you tbe s tory a b out raw-h ead a nd b loody- b ones ! a nd ~ere was an old woman wh o lived in a s h oe She had so many c h ildren s h e d i dn ' t know what to do . Compa r e th e f'or ego ing l ines to August 'twa s , the t wenty - fifth , Seventeen h und red 81 �The Indians did in ambush lay, S ome very t men to slay, The names of whom I'll not leave out: Samuel Allen like a hero fout, and t he elemental connectio ns will readily be seen.. One b as only to read this poem aloud to get b oth t he effects a nd ~ / Terry's apparent intentions. $ worked for an Ebenezer Wells of Deerfield, r-I assachl\t, Ill L setts; C!Jt t married a free/ children. I Wh en s h e wrote "Bar's Lvcy Fi gh "'l' s ke freedom ten years later ~ she 1 lack man , Abijah Prince, by whom she h ad six given ~ Prince later became the owner of co nsiderable land and was one of tbe founders of Sunderland, Ver mont. tvc..y Robinson (Early Black American Poets) lists t h ! L ~S and ri ghtly so. , . . . and the Princes 1-Jilliam Terr~r w:t t h Other details about 4i!!?J \..~,. an b e obtained from George Sheldon's A History of Deerfield, Massachusetts , 1 89.5. ~"''•¥e· See o..Lso £il~eK SocSTiet--n~ "tb,.e~'R.f a~ -sTave p~and nteFectual, Jupiter Hammon (1720 ?Nl 800 ?) provides yet another look into the capab ilities, mind f sets and limitations of Africans in_){o lonial America. Hammo n is ge nerally not regarded as an "important"_;it1- ack writer~ but is distingui sh ed for b eing the first African in America to publish bis verses. This be did in 1761 ( "A n Evening Th ought ," composed in December of 1760); 1778 ("An Address to Miss Ph illis Wheatley"); 1782 ("A Poem for Children"); a id in the mid 1780'"'s ("An Evening's '- Improvement tr). In his "Address to the Ne groes of t h e State of Hew York" (written in 1786 and published in 1 806)J Hammon ·)ou,er; . i 51 t • tJ ~~ ~ a tradition t h at included pamph leteers - like /\ �~-! alker., Ruggles and ot'1ers of t h e period . !Iammon 1 s "Address" sough t freedo m for younger Blacks, claim~ng t hat 11 for my own part I do not wish to b e free." Tb is statement appears., on the surface., to be t h e ulti mate in self-debasement and self-denial; but one b as to view it in t b e context of statements by de Tocqueville., Walker, and others , along with ~ the circums t ances of t he aging and religious Hammon . That Hammon himself was deeply relie ious is reflected i n his poetry-Las with ma ny j lack poets, e . g. Hayden today-I- "" ) I and he obviously lab ored under t he influence of Methodism and the Wesleyan l(evi val ( see Early .Jegro Hri ting ) . phiLL,s t e;- / . In t h e poem Wh eatley , h e notes t h at it was t hrough that "God's ,., tender mercy" t h at sh e was kidna, ped from Africa and bro.ugh t to America as a slave. And Hammon seemed, generally , to -t'he r eflec t .-..iAprevaili ng wh ite attitude toward the "dark" co ni tinent: one engulfed in i snorance, ½ar~aris m and evil . I)~\ LL\i Obviously not as well read as MIIIIIIII~1dh ea tley ., Hammon was unable t o/\f • levels. --- &:IJ~~\ln • I M t ----- universal and intellectualll 11 ••dll 8or n a slav ,,~~zt belonged to t he influential f amily of Lloyd 1 s !Teck on Long Island and was e ncouraged his masters to write a nd pu ::ilish poetry . by There is not a great deal of informat i on a va i lab le on t h e life of Ha mmon; but i t is difficult to unders t a nd why an intelligent / lack man., wh o lived such a long life, mirrored almost complete ignorance of the horrors of slavery Ldespite the !? 1't·daily local newspaper and verbal accounts and dis cussions of the �11 peculiar i nstitution . " ~ fammo n I s 11 terar:• mod, '1-o.S. : the co nventional material of hymns of t h e period. :Stiss t::w Thougbt , 11 sa :s bttats ht r as tts @1116£ b!F :I i:Jp •:9••·J•f••••• nA n Eveni ng wh ich ~~YPorter tells u s was probabl y 11 cb a nt ed du1. . i ng t 1-::G delivery of a sermo n ," begins: Salvation comes by Ch rist alo ne; The only Son of God; Redemption now to every one, 0. That love h is only word. Dear .Jesus we would fly to thee, And leave off e v ery Sin, Thy tender Mercy well a gree; Salvation fro m our kin~ . .. Like U,c.y Terry , Hammon was not primarily a. poet . And h ence, unlike approaching Phillis Wheatley , one s h ould not spend too i;mch time or b e t oo h arsh in criticizi ng ( or complai ni ng a b out) h im. The b asic structure of the English hymn _/ wh ich merged with the / piri tua14.t as Hammon i nterprets it is a. n alternat ion of iambi c tetrameter and iamb ic trime ter comb i ned with a rath er clums:r a. a b ---- rhyme scheme . Compared to other 1-;yrms, it is no worse a nd is better t h~ n n_:an¥ y .. £ ~espite !t the times, pressures ;t /,1/ { · and c ensures , however ,l(Pte la L assurance to the slave , • Cr llJ l!1 to ace • In Christian :faith t hou h ast a s hare , 0 Worth all t h e g old of Spain. �work~ •••••:•J•n-?•~•m critically introduced in Robi nson 's anthology, in Stanley Ransom 1 8 America's First Negro Poet, t he Complete Works of Ju piter Harmnon of Long Island ( 1970) ..._,,s.nd in Barksdale~ and Kinnamon's Black Writers of Americ (1972); . a.L~ a.p_p£(Lt'S critical-biographical attention •~in Vernon Loggins• The Negro Author ( 1931) ..- J. Saunders Redding ' s To .fake Black ( 19 3 9 )-! ~ /Be-;;i-m In B"1wtey~ "the Ne~ iirtc::::' :tl •-• r:3&00.i Gu1tj1 n 1). 3 B1 : i;llilbd I 2 Ji ( :W,~Jillll •if!t h>'l!!& 0 Q t'.Wilaff Ther8 h a~ :li,e en sub stantial critical-biographical Jt l:::;~~t4?~)-t 1 treatment of Niss 4§h t iW 1-1) K Poet ! lid f&ll CbdS.!:dGI &biblh 1Uo1<p'o uiU ti •~-:w1 &Q 1 s I By far t he most gifted and com ~ plex poet until Dunbar , Phillis Whe atley was also privilef ged ~ as a young child and allowed access to the Boston library of """'\ John Wbeat1t:1J. to whom she was sold after being brought fro m Senegal when she was six or seven years old& ,r],ger • 11asi1 1lv • ~J,e 1am1 1 sa d ~1Jti>eJ By the t;Je •Ab er teens she had learned to speak and write Englisht and/\ acquired a :New England education) which put great emphasis on the { ible and the classics. Her poetry,~L~ o ~ ' ,,, {, ,.Y ·• · ll · I reflects deep interest in and knowledge of religion; but it is also steeped in classical allusions and conventions of the neoclassical writing school. attention to Miss Theatley (who ~- pt, .,_..,,;$,l __./,, { ~ ~ Critical like Dunbar , lived a sh ort life) has,\hoor1 botbr;;:.;ir~ rMi unkind . Benjamin Brawley (The Negro Genius) reports tha t Jefferson viewed her as beneath t he dignity of criticism. Yet , other great personalities of t he day generously praised and received her work . George �Wash ington, so moved by her poetic tribu te ( 11 To His Excellency General Washington 11 ) , invited t he young poet to visit hi m at h is camp at Cambridge, Massachusetts -an invi tation which she ~ k ~ later acceptedj &Qi was treatedµ royalty. Phtlwl J ■ i:fueatley 's earliest verses were penned during - . f her adolescence . "On the Death of the Rev. George of Whitefield: '""177ot " re.fleets the elegaic theme l\.1~ioh much of her poetry. fi1ezi1pi'iil Manumitted and sent with other members of the Wheatley family to London in 1772, because of frailness and poor health , - ;J,~as received like a visiting dignitary in London's literary circles and hailed as the "Sable :i:viuse. 11 The next year (1773), while in London, she became (at ~year~old) the first African, arrl t he second woman from America, to publish a book of poems : Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Horal , b y Phillis 1·. 1 , :regr o S va nt to Mr . 'W heatley only one sh e ever publi b ed, b~ on. ey , The volume, the an i mmediate success i n both England and America and won her an everlasti ng place in both C\H1 n~1tl t he h istory of English poetry in Alli 1~ Upon her return to America, zr:Gn 17 !/~isfortunes seemed to come i n such ligh tning succession that one wonders h ow she withstood adversity as long as she did. First, t h ere was the death of :Mrs. 'Wbea tle~ and then, during the 17701",s , t he deaths of t he remaining \vheatleys, The poet t hen married a Jorr{Peters, who "proved to be both ambitious and irresponsible," for whom she bore three children-/4 all of whom died in infancy. �Additi onally , t b e Peters fa ·,iil:r li v ed in s qualor a nd po•rn r ty , . lJnd~a,.~ese..c.,~Cvfnrrll,ll,t.S,~;u,s ;J.fa.lfliJ whl(,h h~J beeti toonJ'hVflltS1Ji.,Ltd htt-~aMU.y , ... \..,,11.\' like so many Hew Eni::; land Blac ks ·A Coi:lli,lentinc on t h e cir cun . s t anc es surroundi n;:;.: b er de atl-:, , Bar --:sdale a nd K, nna,·io r:: (r-n nc k - Writers of Araeric a ) ~- • , , J _, _ - s to~ac~- curdli ~s accuracy : ~ _ab . Her e a rly de a t h provi des a coRme ntar~ on t h e de sperate rnargi ~alit~ of life arilor..g :9os ton ' s fr ee Blac ks at t ::e.t t i r:e . 6 S:c P't illis ':-Tb eatl ey , s~ i p, freedom's uncertainities a nd insecur ities were overwhe l mi ng . Certainly, b ad she been initially free in Boston, she would probably never have had t he time, the oppor tunity , or the peace of mind to write poetry. For the state of freedom for t he Black man in the 1780 's -even in godly, liberty-loving M Boston- ~was indeed precarious. A-\ The preceding explanation, coupled again with the observations of Walker, de Tocqueville and others, make Hammon's statement ~ about preferring not "to be f'ree" somewhat mor ;. not plaus t.ble. / -lie-no-ted that Phillis Wheatley has been praised as well as condemned. Some critics denounce her for not being inventive and original enough, claiming that she simply followed the cont ventions and themes associated with neoclassicism: _truth , ~ / alvation, _J(ercy and )1'.oodness. Some resent her so-called "pious ~ iO t 1 �sentimentality" and a cuse her of calling on Christ when she should be calling for the abolishment of slavery. Still r,~,..,., others, during the current period, have accused her of not being "1'lack enough." /. times, however, -illiiii wi~,.; Considered ,he 1\1 tl1'e landscape of the A _ ■ •~em~U · as a genius ~ with hardly an equal amongflck or white contemporaries. James Weldon Johnson, during a comparison of Miss Wheatley's "Imagination" to Anne Bradstreet's "Contemplation, 11 saidJ ''We do not think the black woman suffers by comparison with the wbi ten etry). Duri ng her life~tim~---==~eatley published some @ poems, almost half of them elegies, five or six political . and patriot~pieces ("General Washington" and "Liberty and Peace " ), and the remainder consumed by religious and moral , J~ i ri c I subjects-~as she states in her title. M Though she qever deals ~ "" . ith the question of slavery~ and makes only,xf;Mwl reference to her own predicament-~her work sustains a high level of emotional, JV\ linguistic, religious and general poetic force. Since her greatest models were Pope, Dryden, Milton and the earlier classi cal writers, one must examine these sources to uncover some keys to her techniques arrl allusions. But one Jonl~ ha~ to read (aloud) the following passage from "Rev. George Whitefield" to feel impact: "Take him, ye wretched, for your only good, "Take him, ye starving sinners, for your food. ''Ye thrifty, come to this life-giving stream, �'~e preachers , take h i m for your joyful t heme; "Take h i m, my dear Americans , he said, "Be y our complaints on h is kind b osom laid; "Take him, ye Africans, h e longs for you , '~mpartial Savior is his title due; '~ashed in the fountain of redeeming blood, '~ou shall be sons and kings , and priests to God." 1 11 ' Ltmvenii'on • ~ (er-"ti(nlyihes0 aeS onlo.ln i~~mtnie1,.L ?o~e-'l"'lt~o.it"~~i, M1e sh~uld state t hat some of t 'he previousl:· h arsh critic ism o f ' ~ P~i Llis Wheatley has been te mpered in light of' increasing i'eminism and, especially , efforts by/ lack women wr iters, sch olars and intellectuals to re~ valuate h er wCH''K; JW.0$$0F '¼ done in e ;w,atug • , Ult heroic couple{ whic~ tJJJJcit is minated the period.« These penta1;1eter couplets (which would be · popularized in the ~ ntury as "unrhymed iambic pentameter" by Robert Frost) call for end-line rhymes to appear in twos, with ® syllables per line. Roger Whitlow (Black American e>h~LL <.s Literature) complains t hat -....~-Jheatley ".falls short in what Pope called the 'correctness' o.f diction and meter, that near-per.feet choice of word and measurement and weigh ing of syllable." One could agree , if QI were simply to imitate. 2 q;;;;;;~~~ole aim But t he re is a great evidence that mt,.h'f she-(. like~lack poets sizraws z M o.n o.vcl:\,Lv • trying to achieve "readable poem without losing the essence of the couplet. After all, as Stephen Henderson (Understanding the New Black Poetry) bas suggested, many~ lack poets have their ears and thought-rhythms attuned to the spiritual and phonological �demands of the audience that loves "extempore" delivery, even when the written lines are strict and tight. Also, in placing "Their colour is a diabolic dye" in quotations ( "On Being Brought from Africa to America "l, , ,r,•,Lll~ Wheatley suggests that others deem her color negative but 'i that she may not. This remains a possibility despite her closing couplet: Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain, /) May be refined, and join the angelic train. Yet there is firm evidence that 7 ~ 1 / \ \ s not insen own sitive, at least to her •~redicament as a slav~without a fundamental and gene t ogical identity. In "To fn e Right Honourable William, Earl or Dartmouth," ..... she says: Should you, rrry lord, while you peruse my song, Wonder from whence my love or Freedom sprung , Whence flow these wishes for the common good, By feeling hearts alone best understood, I, young in life, by seeming cruel rate Was snatch'd from Afric's fancy'd happy seat: What pangs excruciating must molest, What sorrows labour in rrry P~ V breast? Steel'd was that soul and by~ no ~ sery mov'd That from a rather seiz'd his babe belovtd: Such, such my case. And can I then but pray Others may never feel tyrannic sway? / The capital "F" in "Freedom," the phrase "cruel fate," the sorrow felt for her parents and the reinforcement or the agony �via repetition ("such, such"; see Ma rgaret Walker's lines "How Long!"), place her alongside othe'llack voices that searched for answers to the pall of racial insanity that enshrouded the. Phillis wb.eatley also experiments w:i,th the hymn forui~ In "A Farewell / o America" and "An Hymn/ o Humani t~" one bounces along with her alternating lines and rhythms. Perhaps the capstone of the critical "shift" in viewing Phillis Wheatley 1 s work was the Phillis Wheatley Poetry Festival, held in November 1973 to commemorate the at Jackson State ~ 20_?~ anniversary e Colle ge, Mississippi, of the publication of Poems. At that festi va~ writer Luci Horton noted that recently yhere has been more respect for the 0 slave gi rl who, under unspeakable cir cumstances, was able to write poetry or any literature at all." Ebony magazine (March 1974) featured a five-page picture essay on the festival, organized and hosted by Margaret Walker, poetno elist and )~'irector of Jackson State's Institute for the Study ~ 1Jj of story, Life and Culture of Black Peoplec, According to EbonyJ "eighteen Black women poets converged" on the j iack college campus to salute Phillis Wheatley, read their own poems and discuss poetry and life. Other poets participating in the festival included: Naomi Long Madgett, Margaret c. Burroughs , Marion Alexander, Margaret Esse Danner, Linda Brown Bragg, Mari Evans, Carole Gregory Clemmons, Lucille Clifton, Sarah Webster Fabio, Nikki Giovanni, Audre Lorde, June Jordan, Gloria c. Oden, Paula Giddings, Sonia Sanchez, Alice Walker, Malaika Ayo Wangara (Joyce Whitsitt Lawrence) and Carolyn M. Rodgers. • ••• ,.............. _ ___ _ , .... ..., .. , -· J ·~ ..... ~ . _ .................._ _ , _ ~·-~· ~ ,.- �The festival was also the subject of a six-page picture essay by Carole Parks in Black World lii••·-,--blll!lh!lll!t...lf'l l !fo"S~b!,llll!J--•lW.f••o-•s••-•rlil11112~::"&l!ll!B,. <{/,,Yet , a most reveali ng c o:nrnen t a ::peared sh ort ly a f t e r 'th~ flestblLlr( We bruar:y 1974 ). i n M. A. Richmond• s Bi d /h e V2.ssal :::>o ar : I nterp reti ve .c.s says on t he Li fe and Poetr of Ph illis \'V h ea tl e-v and 6 eor e '(o s es Horto tl 974 ) Reacting . P-~ILU~ t,A,eC1.,ey -........ 1 to the adverse criticism of 5 j g) Ri chmo nd s t a tes : 1t!!!!!!!, These poems a re vic ario u s i n theme and i mit a tive in s t y le~ In the circumstances it hardl y could have been differen . ~h e was permitted t o cu ltivate her i nt elli gence , to develo p her feeling for language an d h er f a ci l ity i n its use, but one thing she was not p ermitted t o dev elo p : the s ens e of her own disti n c t identity a s a bl a ck noe"tc:i An d wi thout t h is t here coul d be no perl sonal di s tinc t ion in s t yle o r t h e choic e of t h emes t h ~t make for great poetry© The bar ter of h e r sou l, a s it we re, was no con~ scious contrac t 8n clos e d by a cloying embrace of sla very - at a t en der a ge , a l t ernati ves did not first intrude, and l ater, ~men she mi gh t h ave chosen one , she was dr a ined of the wi ll and pe rcep tion t o do s o . -••2-111,.tt,JPI-IILlll!IIII.JIIIIL!IIL111;•-- - • · - ,--a!llllllllls1!!111£1si!ll!!l!&..lllt111s1111a11f1 e,f,.,t1 _ ~R,tl\m.<m.o has ft"ovided wh at a ppears to be a balanced answer to the prote s tations of Reddi ng , Brown, Brawley ("no racial �value 11 ) ..., and others. It re mains to e s een ~ ,1 h ether c urr e nt and future generations of)3lac k a nd wh ite 1s tudent s ~ eh,lll~ vi ll ke e p --~eatley a "statuie in t he park " or bring :-J er ...;.,, (<Lyde.t 4.y lo ..-) () to t he t a le and "examine h er hlood and be art II ACritic al t reatoent of this firs~l ack woman of le tter s :l:::!!.:.:::J has be e n ext ens i ve : '-.Julian Mason' s Th e Poems of Ph illis Wh eatl e~r (1966 ) ; ar ks dale ~ and Kinnamon' s critic al i ntrodu ction; Ro'bert C . Y.:uncio's "Some Un pu1::J lis~ed Po e::n:: of Ph i l li s T·10 eat l ey 11 ( ~ ll..~ .nlj/1}.D;.Q. QQaf t@FJ v, XLIII, J une , 1 <? T"' , 2 °7~ i..,,f"'':'): !.:o ~'__: i :1 :: ' Th e ~~.;;::!';re .lu t'!:1or (1931); Brawley' s Th e Negro Ge nius; Redd i ng 's To Ha ke ;( Poe t Black; Shirley Graha m's The Story of Philli s (1949 ); and .Jerry Ward~ a nd Charl es ~ owe ll's art icle Freed omway s Sv nih'i8"-11tf7'1-). ~,es lno:ra eh10 e dp mar:'lf ta* Gustavus V ssa (1745 1801), one '-------~- ______, . of the mos t interesting of the early writer& _. In atw h½u!ll a er s ~vi ,ltr,c t.'1 · ~ ' jorn the seventh and youngest s on of ch i eft ~ {i n A Essake , now Eastern Nigeria) Vassa (African name: Olaudah " Equia no ) 1as first sold to a Virginia plantation owner. His j our ney s l ater took him on several Atlantic voyages and then to the Ned i terranear, where he served in the Seven Yeari Wa r . Vas s a h eld technical jobs on ships as a result of his adep4 ness at the English language and bis mastery of basic math e matics. He became a tireless worker for the abolition of slavery and worked , briefly, in behalf of efforts to colonize A, poor ~lacks or England in S1errA Leone. Vassa is chierly known ror his Narrative (1789 t which was a best-seller among abo �litionists in England and America . Slave narratives, we have -hto., observed, were a part of a branch ofJ31ack writing wl!l8i!,1gave rise to the more sophisticated autobiographies (that stretch from Douglass through Baldwin and Cleaveri which in turn laid some of the foundation for American fiction. Vassa was not the first writer of a slave narrative, as is popularly thought. Briton Hammon (no relation to Jupiter) published in London A Narrative of the Uncommon Sufferings and Surprising Deliverance of Briton Hammon, pl Negro Man ( 1760 )J and John Ma.rrant published (also in London) A Narrative of the Lord's Wonderful Dealings with J. Ma.rrant, £Black (1785) . ::3\· > Vassa, whom e turn to briefly for his efforts in poetry, included "Miscellaneous Verses" in his Narrative. His verse is interesting because it helps to establish the portrait of a complex and many-sided man; it also provides further insight into the workings of the African mind making contact with white culture and especially Christianity. While in his prose and speech-making Vassa was firm in his attacks on slavery, he proves in the end to be a believer in some ultimate force of "deliverance." In the last line of the last stanza of his "Verses" he reminds usJ iffi&t. 1£,, "Salvation is by Christ aloneJ" J'hich is, of course, reminiscent of Hammon's opening line: ® Salvation come by Christ alon ,,, Nevertheless Vassa's language is less saturated in/iblical terms than Hammon's. of And the former, as verse writer, has a better control •~he language. In the "Verses" he applies a �driving iambic tetrameter <!'.!.!3 with an a ab b rhyme scheme: Those who beheld my downcast mien Could not guess at my woes unseen: They by appearance could not know The troubles I have waded through. Lust, anger, blasphemy, and pride, With legions of such ills beside, Troubled my thoughts while doubts and fears Clouded and darken'd most my years. In the first stanz4 t!!.31 Vassa presages the duality and mental pressures that more skilled writers would describe,. It rs I 41 as.m 11 Implying that the job of the oppressed Black is to keep his head L-t\lel and up, Vassa says even those who see him in his sorriest state cannot envision the sufferings he has eni Moflt11io,, t1-.c.etaT~~ Du,eha,-. dured. /\ say, the same thing in a different way in ''We Wear the Ma.sifrtJ _ __________ And Countee Cullen would state it more than 130 years later in yet a different way. This apparent ability of Blacks to "keep cool" and adapt (see Johnson's The Autobiography of fn Ex-Coloured ~.ian) under the most trying circumstances has been promoted, nurtured and praised by leaders of the race. an early writer Vassa, then, is important as not only because of his skill, but for the insight and understanding he brings to the social and religious pressures, demands and choices around him. There is a releasing therapy in Vassa's work which acts as only one of numerous �~4' conduits for j lack angu i sh and outrase w' 1en t he ,-_o ptions were slavery or death . Vassa's Narrative is mos t accessible in Bontemps s( Great Slave Narrative s (19 6c; ). I n 1967 Paul Edwards published an edition of the Narrative i nclucling a comprehen sive introduction . Edwards also did a two-volume facsimile reprint of the first edition (1969). See als o Africa Remembered: rarratives by West Africans from the I ra of t ~e Slave Trade, edi t ed by Phillip D. Curtin (1967). Loggins assesses the arrative and Robinson provides a ha ndy biographical-criti cal introduction. Hore on Vassa can be found in Marion L. Starkey 's Striving to Hake It My Home~ _ The ~t.ory of A111erican~fro,n Africa and in '!/Jh itlow's Black American Literature. The early and middle years of the i1 tsb:- century witnessed the maturation of f lack autobiography, political journalism and abolitionist activities. George Moses Horton was @ years old when William Lloyd Garrison founded The Liberator (1831), the most influential and famous of the ab olitionist newspapers. And ~~~ ),,830 ther~ were more than @ J lack antislavery societies Jt;'.~( ~ ,. ~ I ~ in Awtii6£ lea.- lacks i'.1- t'!n .. r1 tad- r ~o!!I had been stL.~•d by ,n~-ttVM'tt,~~ ~,.,vi_ 1// slave rebellions bot h --•~and in places ~ Haiti.,... tae .. +o c.,t; tee ~ A~• Ac..r, 'fl' s rs Carribea~ and Trinidad . Especially inspiring during this i/4/:::;x " period was the 1839 revolt of slaves aboard the Spanish schooner HJAmistad. -- Led by Joseph Cinque, a Mendi-speaking �c . -· ., •~ I prince, the fi.fty slavesc'!y·killed the captain, set the crew .;.:.., adrift and demanded t ha ~ sbi p~owners steer the ship to Africa. Apprehended, the Africans were escorted by a United States brig to New Havel!, wher e t h ~ & other charges. a raced murder and Ex-Preside nt Joh n Quincy Adams defended the Africans' right to re t urn to their homeland) and in 1842 they sailed to Sierr; Leone. Ironically, neither the international ,d:i, press nor most Blacks knew o.f the connection between ~Cinque of the Symbionese Liberation g ott;:r~pparently headquartered in northern California duri ng 1973 "'i4, and the Cinque of the Amistad revolt. In light of t h e growi ng consciousness among Blacks, it was to be expected t hat« George Hoses Horton (1797.!.1883) I'" N would appear to inveigh a gai nst tyranny and slavery. Born a slave near Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Horton is considered to be the first Black to emp loy protest themes in a volume of verse. His Hope of Liberty (1829) ranged over the whole area of general and personal pr otest. The poet was first owned by a planter named Horton_, who l at er rented him in t he service of a janitor to the University of North Carolina. Horton exploited the academic environment by reading the English classics and composing poems. Often called t he first professionaljlack writer, Horton hired h is poetic skill out to student~ who paid him rather handsomely for composing "personal" poems. His second book of poems, Poetical Works of George M. Horton, the Colored Bard of North Carolina, was published in 1845. �Horton's hopes that he would gain enough money from the sale of his books to secure his freedom were never realized; and he was not freed until Union soldiers arrived in 1865, wben his last volume, I Naked Genius, was published. Horton's themes are not devoted exclusively to protea~ and he has been criti cized, along with Phillis Wheatley, Hammon and Vassa, for writing such lines as those that appear in "On Hearing of the Intenti on of a Gentleman to Purchase the Poet's Freedom": When on life's ocean first I spread my sail, I then implored a mild auspicious gale; And from the slippery strand I took my flight, And sought the peaceful heaven of delight. ••• • ••••••••••• • • • • •• • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Hard was the race to reach the distant goal, The needle oft was shaken from the pole; In such distress who could forbear to weep? Toss'd by the headlong billows of the deep! Horton goes on to say that "Eternal Providence" saved him when he was on the "dusky verge of deep despair" and when "the last beam of hope was almost gone." Yet Horton writes bitterly of slavery as well as lightly of love and humorously of life in general. Influences on his poetry are Byron, Wesleyanfiymnal . ~ stanzas, and other sources~ books tha-t' be bad read. In the '----"" poem from which the stanzas above were taken he pursues a ~ i}M-vf\ A JY rather monotonous iambic tetrameter••*•, But in ...._.. i poeITU ~ ........__.,. "Sls.very" {published in The Liberator, March 29, 1834), he var Q&ll the hymn pattern in the way that Phillis Wheatley does in �her hyon-ins pired works . ~Ihen firs t ef;.'ect is almost ballad-li ke: ~G bos o ,: glowed Hi th h ope, my O I gazed a s froc a ~ountain top On some d lightful pla i n; But oh l how transient was t he scene-'''\ It fled as though it had not been .0 And all r.i:r !10. es 1-1ere vain. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Is it ecause r,j:y nki:1 is black, That tbou should'st ½e so dull and slack, £J And scorn to sot n:e free ? Then l e t .:e has t en t:J t:10 grave, Also eff ective and s~stai c in~ in pouer is "The Slave's Complaint lt ) 3 stanzas with a f ina~ i ndentedJ onewhith .features word refrain) ..,, 11?orever/ ··r::i ic _" mark., colon or exclar:atio ~ his love poems1 and in '' -- -~G is followed by either question o..r .: . :Uorton 1:andles well sor:e of Lo~rnr 1 s :Farewell '' is a le to touch base with that broad and painful nderstand i ng of what it means to say goo Ibyf_,, : I leave n:y parents And all ,r y ere behind ., friends ~ to love resigned~ 'Tis grief to go, ut death to stay: FarewellM I' m g one with love away! In this and oth er pieces Horton makes €6Ud'use of dashes /Y\ l -which ...__., allow him to develop s usp ense and render h is statements more 'l'I �dran:.atic. Because of its various uses, the dash b as arrived as an important ingredient of modern and contemporary )3lack poetry. Contrary to many of bis learned contemporaries and predecessors , .Horton apparently consciously thought of, and worked toward, his freedom. This fact is reflected [both ~ n} his life's work and his poetry. His own position, coupled with .his sanguine delivery of folk wit and e phasis, can be seen in the following stanza froA 'The Slave 11 : Because the brood-aw ~ le~: ; side pig: ) e black, O Whofsable tincture was by nature struck, Were you by justice bound to pull them back □ Arn leave the sandy-colored pi gs to suck? For appraisals and selections of Horton's works see Robinson's anthology, Collier Cobb's An American Man of Letters :t;George t Moses Horton {1886), comments by Barksdale and Kinnamon, Wh itlow's study, Brawley 1 s Negro Genius, Loggins' work, Redding's study, Richard Walser 1 s The Black Poet {1967), Brown's assessmen't_JJean Wagner's Black Poets of the United States {1973) ~(c.hmooci~ ~ )\e.,.\la.!«o.L. ~oc1,.<iq f-.,\ _a,:;;:g: 3-c?At'\ ~ kel\Mo.¥1 'S .:rn V ,s,~1.e am,•Af ro-~e.-, I CW\.S Q €th f rimrieen!h Horton, of course, trails a nd precedes a long line of eeniv~y~7~ orators and poets, many of whom we know very little about today. In fact, comparatively speaking, there is a wide disparity between the readily availabl k s1!gnificant information on l_:::::/ white writers of the period and the lack of vital data on Blacks. We do know t hat the early decades of the century witnessed a developing Christian and political consciousness among Blacks too ff) �and that most northernpac k wr i ters., intellectuals and educators turned their attention t o the educational., physical erncrtrona.L and« J II a.a needs of free and enslaved Blacks. l)o►,tH.v Of these and other matters., ~~ f orter pr ovides ample proof and dis1-, cussion in Early Negro H'ri t i ng .1/-occasional verse was also somewhat of a tradition among ~a ny learned Black~ as was the practice of writing hymns , psal ms and other spiritual songs. One such recorded item is 11 ~p i r i tual Song" by Re ~chard Allen, probably "chant ed or s ung during the delivery of a sermon." Rev internal r hyme by repeating similar sounds in the middle a nd at the end of lines. Varying his meter and using an i rregular end-line rhyme scheme, he expresses the religious fervor t hat consumed many Blacks of the period: Our time is a-flying ., our moments O a-dyi ng, Ue are led to i mprove th em and quic kly iappear, For t he hour when Jesus in I 'power., In glory s a ll come i s now drawing - 1 near., ks there wi ll be shouting., and jI'm not doub ti ng, But crying and screaming for mercy ; in vain: I I �Therefore my dear Brother, let's □ now pray together, That your precious soul may ½e 0 fill 1d with flame. Another s uch example is a "New Year's Anthemn written by :Michae l Fortune and "sung in the African Episcopal Church of . - St. Th omas" on January 1, 1808. Fortune's a nthem is tra ditional in its use of materials from Neth odist hymns. tells t he congregation to d r :P / 11 He Lift up your souls to God on high/ Who, with a tender father's eye Looked down on Afric's helpless raceJ !7 Robert"Y. Sidney composed two anthems ''For the National Jubilee of t he Ab olition of the Slave Trade, January 1st, 1809." "A nth em I" begins: DRY your tears, ye sons of Afric, God has shown his gracious power; He has stopt the horrid traffic, That your country's bosom tore. See through clouds he smiles benignant, See your nation's glory rise; Though your foes may ~ ndignant, All their wrath you may despise. This sta nza is followed by a "Chorus," "S l_!/ and "Recitative." In ."A!1.them II" an abbreviat orm is employed and Sidney drops the solo and ~eeitative/4keeping only 1the chorus: Chorus. Rejoice that you were born to see, �This glorious day, your jubilee. :a-s. Porter includes Sidney also wrote a hymn , hymns by religi ous leaders Pet er 1-Tilliams" Jr . , a nd Willi Hamilton. Both men , usi ng t he English forms, celebrate freedc~1, call for mutual aid ar.:ong Blac ks and preach the virtues of the 1f ff Christian God. Willians praises the "eloquence/Of Wi l berforce" ,\ /I after whom a predominantly_Jlack niversity fwas namedl i n Ohi~. For detailed information on sources for these and similar writings see 1-rrs . Porter's Early 3egro 1'lriting: __.1760~1873. The collection includes two very touching examples of' writings "On Slavery" and "On Freedom" by Qj -year-old boys from the New York African Free School established in 1786. In reading ini,,e, the life a nd works of Daniel A. Payne ...._; ,... (18llh~ 93), one is i nmediately struck by his dedication to the task of upgrading Blac~~ . ~ducator, university president, missionary and poet, Payne Has born in Charleston, South Carolinaj of f ree parents. He was orphaned at 10 years We! - ,. / 11~ apprenticed to a carpenter and then to a tailor. Later trai ned in classical education at t h e lo cal ,Unor' s Moralist Society's s chool, he taught free )5'lac k students for a fee and slaves free of charge at night . Payne ' s travels t ook him to various places (New Orleans , Balt i more, Canada a nd twice to England ~ where he helped expand t he programs of the African Methodist Church. Trained in the Luthera n Seminary in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania , he was ordained in 1839: after preaching for several years, he was r:1ade an A. :r.•I.E. µ shop in 1852. In the political and educational spheres., he helped urge Lincoln 103 �(on April 14, 1862) to sign the bill to emancipate slaves in the District of Columbia, and spearheaded the purchase of Wilb erfor ce Universityf serving as its president for @) years. Payne devoted most or his life to the cause of free and enslaved Blacks and to writing poetry and religious history. His Pleasures and Other Miscellaneous Poems was published in Baltimore in 1850. He also wrote books on the history and mission of the A.M.E. Church. ~~pecially valued for its social and intellectual insight into 9 h~century Blacks is Payne's Recollections of Seventy Years)published in 3ashville in 1888. As a poet Payne is erudite and i mitative. Rob i nson 4a•s--z•bl~g,- observes that a major problem with the poetry is "the repe / tition of end ~~topped lines, and his diction, a hybrid of '-- classical and 8 bl1cal vocabularies, can prove distracting to many readers ." # Mu.c or this we can forgi ve , however, when we (OY\-t.,;; ..0.'°¥ pot;t understand ~enry Dumas '.s remark that "a j 1ack poet is a preacher. Certai nl:r a preacherM in :fact or as poet -knows very well the mean't n ~ and need for repetition. convi::ce us of his seriousness. I Yet Payne never fails to -rh-e So hurt was e in~wake of the 1334 South Carolina law that, e.ffective i n 1835, made .,l!'lack literacy :..11egal, Payne ·wrote '' L p (1\; capt or ' s Farewell . h We find h is enbossed co ncer n for students in t hese lines: Ye lads, whom I have taught with sacred zeal, For your hard fate I pangs of sorrow feel; Oh, who shall now your rising tale nts guide, fuere virtues reig~ a nd sacred truths preside ? 11 �revolv i ng moo ns s h o.ll ~ :t.::_/ ' t : ' :e ::::1.:o lau 11 s !I af ter t he dread s1rnt t ue do ors" .:,,: ...,J.tca t~ ..:: f •' :'"' S out:.1 Caro li:ia Blac k::: . EnguJ.i' ed in t bo r oli ,=;i c•t::: a~: . . :.c: r al .LOl~vor of i:::a ny / lack mi nist ers of t 1.1 e p ~ri ocl, t~:o -:=: oc t D. i:d or ator reflects a ge - old conc erns about dece i t a:-:r' r:i:::trust i ~1 suc'h pieces as " r:11"' ~ :,:en ta lk of I.eve ! Bnt f m do ever feel The speec-::-:. :.es ;:; :" apt ' re s uhic'!J its joys rev eal. tl,-. , istalr r., 1- o~re l·.iren J.' '"~ 0 v , i. 1.1. ti -- a,•r ·:, ·-.~ .1.. "' ~ .,. ~ .. J.V . ... v-vt..J , t_,at v i le , that ~-Jbos e bes o:;. ne ' r e Yer f e: t the sacred 0 flame . For insight into Pa:"" ::~ ! .:; lif ..::l a ~d "·10:rk~ one could go to any one of bis "c ons i d rnble n'..1:-.::. er II of ":·Jr tings . Among others, they inc lude The S0i ~i- ,: ..::n-:.;:; :-:ar :r a nd the n etrospecti on of t he Ai'rican He t __ od ist istory of ~ i =:;c or_J a l Ch ur c'h (Baltimor e, 1866) and The th e A. :-r. :s . c~, re:; (::asl'lvi l le , 1866). Josephus R. Coan:. ' s 1 ,35 (P . i'J.M elpb ia) b iographyl S ee also Daniel Alexander Payne , Christian ~d cator , ~ob i nson's comments a nd Brawley's Negro Genius . Unfortunatel~ to o li~tle is kn own of romantic poet .John $ . B ~ ~~J.u.ytan:.ibth:;,...lfa. ~ '~-, . ~ , Boyd., ,.,_especially since 'b.is wor k refle cts genuine g ifts and talents. Boyd's poetic i ~a ges are br illiant, sustained., searing and generally accurate even if they are not always �connected in a way that makes them readily a~ssible. only record of Boyd is made available by C•r • Nesbitt , The Esq., ~eputy/ ecretary and_jegistrar of the Government of the Bahamas. Nesbitt must have recognized the talent and the promis~ a nd he aided Boyd's poetry through publication in London in 1834. Boyd, it seems, was self-taught on New Pro~idence Islan~ where he remained all his life. ft,r !'"' -t ,-.r f Lif n was published in the February issue of the Boston-based Liberator. His poem 16, 1833, His 1834 volume is entitled The Vision/~and other/+Poems, /'i n Blank Verse i by John Boyd/~a man of Colour/. Practically unedited, the manuscript is what Robinson calls a "publishing scramble." Like most of the poets of the perio0yBoyd 1 s work owes debt to :Hilton, the !ible ard classical influences. 11 The Vision/ oe-:-: 1.n _ ank- Vers e 11 is immediately reminiscent of Mil ton's Paradise Lost . Boyd skirts a rhyme scheme but employs a - fairly regular iambic pentameter. ~•• ••• All things considered, his work partially cancels the criticism by Sterling Brown that .Jlack poets lag in their stylistic awareness . s brilliantly with: ought the Moon, pale regent of 0 the sky, Cres ted, an:l filled with lucid Iradiance, Flung her bright gleams across my !lowly couch; "Vision" �And all of h eaven 's fair starry O fir mament (j Deli ghtful shone in ::ues of I glittering light , Reflec t i ng, like to fleecy g old, I the dewy air . In his "•t/i t:101:). 11 Boyd encounters ch a racters of both t h e h eavens 1fJ. and the hells . Hhen the narrator , " 11 dr eame:r~/' joined the trai t1_J Fervent hosannas struck the as 0 tonish' d car, As wh e n i n the 1-:1.idb our of calmest :ni ght, C St ill ness pervadeth tha awa kened Roused by the secret p o ,1 er that lmoves th e deep, It heaves i t s l oud s urge on t h e sounding shore; The "vision " is als o peopled y "grim death and ghastly Sint who ·"lay coiled , l i ke s a ke s i n one huge scaly fold, consider their "inexpiab le doo•. - '- • " M 11 a nd Boyd 's tones are sacred and surreal a nd he asser,bles b arn lessly complex sub ordinate clauses that help build a n exciting l i nguistic 1 criend ~ as i n "Ocea n " . ~ G) lfue n t he fiat of t he most iligl:f ) Thy fountains b rst, afc op ious _y 107 �Thy secret springs, with ample store, Pour'd forth their waves from sh ore to shore 1-lide as the waters roll, oh, wave. ~SIi~ •■ Boyd ' s Hork has yet to be appraised in terms corm_R its i mpor t ance. with Robinson makes brief but significant comments on h is poe t r y •. -- Ann Plato, another romantic poet, is also one for whom there exist t ":!::~-:t:e .& 3 L important factua l dat a. Th is second_)3l ack American female to publish a book almost skirts t h e racial t heme completely. Her Essays:/ I ncluding/ Biograph i es a nd ~-:iscellaneous Pieces, /in/ Prose and Poetry was published i n Hartford in 1841. What little is known of h er comes by WfJ'( of a n i t roduc tion to her book __________..--- by Rev. J .r,1·IC, Pe nni ngton , pastor of the Colored Congregational Church i n Hartf ord, of which she was a member. First of Except .for her "To the ugust, 11 written in celebration of t he 1833 abolition of s l avery in the British West Indies, there are only allusions t o s l avery . Her book also contains essays on reli gion, modi eration, conduct and other conventional t hemes. t hemes are pretty much parallel ed by the 2 ~ poem~ .__. -s ame in her book, wh ich deal with home life, deaths of acquaintances and moral i ssues . "Reflections, Written on Visiting t he Grave of a Ve ner ated Friend" begins: Deep in this grave her bones remain, She's sleeping on, b ereft of pai t@ .,A lOS �The langua ge a nd t b0 ::mbjoc:. ,::a.tter are s toc k.., but "Forget :-re Not," e ach stanza of i:hic. c nc.. s ~-i tl1 t b e t itle, is well h a ndl ed and has fla she s of the ;;rca ci-, r.:cnt of s e lf -contro l t hat Vassa alluded to i n h is versos: ~.1 hen b i rd does Ha it t':1y ab sence lo ng, Nor tend unt o {;, ts r1or~i ng song ; 1/hile th ou ac•t sea r ching stoic pa g e, Or l i steni ng to an a ncie nt sage, ·Those s pi rit cur [!j] a CTournful rage, 3 7orge t ::e ~Tot . Her int eres t i n ora l l iterat ·re and the s torytelli ng tradition -~ is apparent i n "The !Ta ti-:es of A ,: eric~" f1he.ie she as ks: C "Tell me a stor~, f a ther, please," And t h e n I s o.t ·1~c!'l l-: is !r!'lees. Again, as i n her c onter.:pcraries, -:1e fi nd the ini'l.uences of English writers of a pre c edi~;; senera tion or so, the debt to ,J'ib lical l earni ng a nd r.n.: ch i::::i to.t ion . 1 ? or brief critical notes on Hiss Pl?,t o see . . obi r:son's :Sarl7 Black American Poets. Ske it; a l ~rJ b...,·E~Ly nu.Ted IYI .$he t-i~1P."'' :ttl\ri,,b, f.£!.Y}' , (Na.A Anoth er aboliti o:1ist- ni..ister and orator-poetA.El ymas Payson or r Rogers (1814?,v _ 61), i.f c , ""ter tc ac!1 i ng pub lic sch ools i n Rochest er, Ne1•1 York, took Dl ne of Rogers ' students 1 pa stori ng in Newark, New Jersey. '!!~=!!~~• ~ wa s ~ aj W. Logue ~ later become a n i npor t a nt social-religious leader and a _)31shop of t he A. Ii. E . J hurc 1 . .Fugitiv e slave Loguen•s bio grapby (see 'Ne gro Caravan ) a pp eared in 1859, in Syracuse, under the title The Revere nd J . 1 q -r. Lo Slave and as �a Freerr.a n. Known, as were many of the orator-poets, for rec iting his poems orally, Rogers' themes are unashamed l y abolition , Jlack betterment arxl political hypocrisy. Working politically on behalf of Blacks, Rogers appar ently designed The Fugitive Slave Law (Newark, 1855) and Repeal of Missouri Compromise Considered (Newark, 1856) to be read aloud from platform~ LikeJ ~runes w. Whitfield, who cane later, Rogers gave up hope in America's ever giving Blacks a fair deal and • - - - - - - tr-.Gm sai led for A.fr ic where he died ~f ever a - f ew days after hiA· arriva • ~lt n a, His incisi ve no-holJ s - barred J a pproach to the political climate and conditions of the time is seen in "On the Fugitive Slave Law": Lawif What is Law? The wise and sage, Of every clime and every age, In this most cordially unite, That 'tis a rule for doing ri ght. And the ringing cry of the elocutionist can be he ard later in the poem) ·t-1hen, ~ discussing the fugitive bill, he as ks and a nswers: That Bill a law? (I:' the South says so, But Northern fr e~ answer, NoJ Anticipating the fiery and torrential Whitfield (and "ang?;. vo ices " )J Rogers conti nues : Th.at bill is law, doughfaces say; But black men everywhere We'll never yield to its While life shall animate one soul, -== ce ntury �r' At times bi ti ng a nd o·.-orf earL~0 1:· l1ars!1 as a poet, Rogers ---· resounds i n t1Tbe 21.e pea:.. of t:10 ::issouri Compromise Co nsidered t1 with t h ese words: Iv nI wa nt t::e land , '! ·;!ls ? eedom 's cry; And Slaver:· a ns ?Jered, "; o rf_,9 IJ By a ll t h a t ' s sacred , I de clare 5· .zt I' 11 h a v e ,, --; o. nd lawful s h are. The lJor th er ·1 cncc :~ s~::ould g l ow with s h a me To t h ink to ro"'.J .:.c With built-in drar.:a a rx: ca:"ef,~ :.. cut s , ::Zog ers assessed t h e state or t h e nati on duri ng ~ i .s tL.ie . Jr" ,1t\r-tfi:d.v A/.Y Inf\1pz l ins-:~ ttLawZ Whatl\Law?" he purp os ely b egs t~o ~J8S~ io~ i~ order t o wring t h e emoti onal and rhet orical poHer fror-: t _ e ~,ords a nd t o evok e res p onses from a ud i enc es. 2efe~e ~cos to ~o 6 crs can also b e fou nd i n Robinso n I s Ea rly Bla c :r \. . e ic tk ~oe t s ~ $'1 e"' rYlf. r\ S £ n\l!.~1bLe t'11 eTu_. ::Iat hemati cian, ::;oc~ , c 1.1c a tor a nd ..)flack c ommunity worker, ,r Ch arles L. Rea son ( - n -, 0 1 :_ ___N ~ ,....,... , ~ore in J ew York City of ~~cw York African Free S chool.> Haitian parents . where he l a t er r etur~c~ u::: .... ·c: :1--cr of th e all_i5'lac k faculty . See ki ng th e r,:i nL::-1::: r ~: , - -- r,... - '- . i: :.:J.s, ::er r acial reaso ns, forb i dde n f u ll-:. time a tt cnda ~1c e a t t '~~ 7 · ::;ologi c a l Semi na ry of t h e Pr ote ~ tant Ep i s copal C_1 rc~ . ~ve~~ua:: ~, , ~1ev er, be e came eli gi b le ~--0. ~o.: ::.cs a.r:,d .,(e lle ~Z e t tr es (1849 ) a t ,.. th e Mew York C0nt r a l .: ~::c.._, ~ .· ·: : :~r;.r a--: 1ville, Cof rtland. County. for a profes scrsh i :) 5. -~ V' William G. Al le r! a:-id C-cor:;0 n, . there . n ,- s ;o:, rere also on t h e faculty 1 He held \'ari o,,::: od1-'c2.t i or..n : jo1:,s i nclud i ng a pr i nci palship of t:1c I nstitt.1t0 : ..,r' C..;, :..c:i.''"' '--- "t(outh i n Ph iladelph ia Hf �and grammar shcool/ o• 20 in Tew York City poe-r i.·L ile~ -f.. Cordel · a Reas on was an i nte lle ctual a nd ;. Ray was a teacher there. scholar but was not blintl to t be practical needs of Afro-=A. oricans . 1-Ie opposed plans to colonize Blacks, clai:.li ~.; r,. instead t hat they nee~ed to ~ursue v ocational careers _ere in America. Again, not pr i r.1arily a poet , Reason is co ;1petent ve~(,ie"" as a (\~ in "The Spirit Voice)' which opens with: ComeJ rouse ye brothers , rousel a peal now brea ks Prom lo1-1est island to our gallant jlakes: ' Tis sununoning you, ·who in bonds Ih ave lain, To s tand up nanf'ul on the battle I plain, and urges Blacks to fight for freedom and opportunity. The poem (whose comp lete title is "The Spirit Voice or, Liberty Call to the Disfranchised") is indebt ed to the rhyming couple ~ so famous during t h e era and which had been used with great skill by Phillis ":· eatley . It appears in William Si mmons' 1en of 1.!B.rk (Cleveland, 1887) . Reason's work is designe and move ~ Like that of other orator-poets, ;o be read aloud in order to stir le to action . Therefore be exhorts, reinf'orces, demands , warns , admonishes and issues veiled threats . His "spirit voice " (see the idea of African Spirit Fore ) longs for t he time [if when freedom ' s mellow light I �Shall break, and usher in the endless .CJ day, That from Orleans to Pass 1maquoddy I I jBay, Despots no more may earthly homage 1 claim, No slaves exist, to soil Columbia's name. The poem was written in 1841 and shows Reason's poetic abilities etched out under the strain of racism and the countless chores demanded of an educated Black of tbe period. Elsewhere ( ''Freedom") he gave this familiar cry : 0 Freedoml FreedomJ Oh, how oft Thy loving children call on TheeJ In wailings loud and breathings sl,oft, - Beseeching God, thfy face to see. How reminiscent of and "not unlike" the/ pirituals this burst isJ Certainly the stud~nt of this petf)od o0 'lack poetry will ~l$0 want to keep his rhythmic lyres attuned to the )ifiblical and innovative cadences of those ~ lack and unknown bards." sJ,ermo.t> assessments of Reason see Robinson, Brawle~~and Kerlin. For More of Reason's work appears in A Eulogy on the Life and Character of Thomas Clarkson (1847) and in Autographs for Freedom (1854). Anticipating the Afro-American poignancy and humor in this line by Langston Hughes; ( America never was America to me �and this one by Lance Jeffers: ( r) to make me mo~ American than America) James M. Whitfield (1823j~78) voiced some of the most powert ful and angry protest yet heard in.Jlack American poetry when he published Amerio~ ,aod Other.. E0ems, in Suffalo in 18.53. Barber, worker for. flack colonization, poet and pioneer journ,i alist, Whitfield had earlier authored various types of writings: Poems in 1846; "How Long?" (published in Julia Griffith•s . . . Autographs for Freedom in Rochester, 18.53); "Self-Reliance, Delusive Hope, and Ode for the Fourth of July" (in The Liberator, November 18, 18.53); "Linesi Addressed to Mr • .and Mrs. J •f• Holly, on the Death of Their Two Infant Daughters" cj.n Frederick Douglass• Paper, February 29, 18.56); and Emancipation Oration (San Francisco, 1867). Whitfield is known chiefly for America) which was received so favorably that he was . able to leave his barber:,shop and devote full time to making speeches for the abolitionist cause, working for colonization programs and general/ lack developi ment. He had personal contact with both Dou31ass and novelist Martin Delane~ who called the 18.54 National Emigration Convention of Colored Me°.! which Whitfield attended. respected and admired Whitfield. Douglass apparently But the two men differed on the question of colonization and participated in a lively dei bate. Pursuing bis ow~ osition with vigor, Whitfield established the African-American 1fiejp sitory, in 18.58, as a pro colonization propaganda organ. Tho , born in Exeter, New Hampshire; vfuitfield �spent most of bis life in Buffal~ where he barbered and cont ducted@:~ his colonization efforts . He apparently died on his way to look into the possibilities of colonizing f lack Americans in Central America. Delaney had changed his mindJ and the emigration scheme was never realized. Like most of the orator-poets , Whitfield is writing to be heard , listened to and read aloud . Consequently much of bis poetry (though not lacking in religious fervor) reinforces bis ideology and negative views of America. America, the Sweet land of liberty becomes for \fu itfieldl, "Americaj' ( I Tbou b oasted land of liberty, #\ and To thee I sing becomes It is to thee I raise my song, Thou land of blood, and crime, and wrong. Like Rogers, Wbi tfield did not believe America was capable of redemption; and, again like bis predecessor, he died onv,~} 9 /1 journell to find something better. The i dea of "giving•· up on'' T ~JL -- ~/ / America would appear thematically in the poetry of/\ later w iters #J ~ . l)o11l- Fenton Jobns on,.Lee, Baraka and some of the Mus lim poets. ,, wn4<"'- e It would also be implicit in the/\expltriat~ --.« writers and artists such as Paul Robeson, Wright, Baldwin, Chester Himes and Katherine Dunham. In a driving iambic pentameter (in couplets), which has all the openings for spontaneous interjections and expletives, ·whitfieldJ in "America, n accuses �the United States of killing the? her and of general hypocrisy. ack sons who fo ught for Here one can see Whitfield a. anticipating~current slogan, which Hayden makes use of i n ""Words in the Mourning Time": /;, Killing people to save, to free them? Though more general, Whitfield continues a similar assault ?" {stating life is hel~} in "The iisanthropisi,'' but tones down I\ I 1n . to a reverent saluteR'To Cinque": - . All hailJ thou@IJ. truly noble chief, D Who scorned to live a cowering slave; Thy name shall stand on history's leaf, £J Amid the mighty ani the brave@,•• Wh.i tfield praises the revolutionary Cinqu~ who "in .freedom's might" t Shall beard the robber in his den; and ••• fire anew each .freeman's heart. Since Whit.field's primary goal is to get a political "message" over, his poetry, as art, leaves some things to be desired. Robinson points out that Hhit.field "is genuinely angry" (despite the influence of Byron} and that the bitterness and .force in his work f fnot to be mistaken for romantic or linguistic cosl , metics. Lastly, we must note that 1-Thitfield expressed concern for global oppression; quite modern in this, he served, more or less, as a chronicler of world turbulence and a harbinger of the direct and emphatic assaults that today's_/lack poets heap upon tyranny. He viewed the "Russian Bear" (reflecting �on European despotism of the mid 180cr's) in bis poem "How Long?": 'I see tbe "Rugged Russian Bear" Lead forth bis slavish hordes, to war Upon tbe right of every State Its own ai'fairs to regulate; To help each despot behind the chain Upon the people's rights again, And crush beneath his ponderous paw All constitutions, rights ar.rl law. Selections of Whitfield's poetry can be found in the Robinson ------ ~ anthology, in Negro Caravan (1941), and in the Barksdale and Kinnamon text. Whitlow discusses ii!SI [ 31 7 7 'lt\.poetry and im l pactJ as dofe Loggins, Brown, Brawley, Wagnerr ..___,,, -&M Rutb '-' Miller ...__, . (Black American Literature, 19?l)f ~ ~ ~ . ~ The most popular)31.ack 19 was Frances E.f·T. , century poet before 1Dunbar Harper (1825 1911), the first .,.$lack American to publish a short story ( "The Two Offers, 11 1859). Born free in Baltimore as Fra nces Ellen Watkins, she was educated in Pennsylvania and Ohio, and spent most of her adult life in the cause of antislavery and other types of social reform. She worked in turn for the abolition mo; ement, the Underground Rail~ road, the A. M.E. Church and the Womfn's Christian Temperance ~~ 0 fl.PO ;agas+ According to Dunn (The Black Press )J she"-.c ontributed to news and propaganda publications. Her reform work was slackened by her marriage to Fenton Harper in Cincinnati in 1860. But after his early deat~ in 18641 she resumed her efforts, lecturing in all but two southern states and promoting / lack �self'-help programs. Her fame rested primarily on her Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects ) published in 1854 in Philadelphia. (A. ve~opular volume, it went through twenty editions by l:_874 ~illiam Still's Underground Rail~oad, 1872) • . Her literary activity was stepped up after the Civil War and included Moses, .,K Story of the Nile which went through three editions 7 by ') 1870; a volume entitled Poems came out in l87~ followed by a second edition in 1900; and attempts at prose fictio ~ in~ eluding Southern Sketches (1872, enlarged in 1896) and a novel, Iola LeRoy, published in 1892. ha.s not been located. Her first work, Forest Leave~, Critics generally agree that Mrs. Harper's poetry is not original or brilliant. But she is exciting and comes through with powerful flashes of imagery and statement. Her models are J.'rrs . Hemans, Whittier and Longfellow, and so we find an overwhelming influence from the ballad. In reading her poetry in public, Hrs. Harper was ·able to appeal to what .IC\ Johnson (Q9<.!,!,s~on~) cal-ed a "highly developed sense .Jof sound" in A.fro-Americans (see, again, statements by Rev Allen and Vassa). She apparently knew her limitations, for Robinson tells us that her popularity ••• was not due to the conventional notion of poetic excellence, Mrs. Harper was fully aware 0 of her limitations in that kind of poetry, it was due more to the sentimental, emotion: frei ghted popularity w;; she had gi ven the lines with her disarmingly dramatic voice and gestures and sighs and tears. �~ ntil the Ci vil \far, l!rs. Harper's favorite themes Here . slave ry, its harshness , and tl1e hypocris~es of America. She is careful to place graphic details ·where they will 6 et t h e greatest res 'J.lt, especia.11:" when the poen s are read aloud. An exar.1p le of this is found in 11 T'!.1e Slave I·Iotber rr: Ee is not hers, fo r cruel r.a~ds G) The only '!·rre at~~ of ho seb. old l ove O That bi nds b er breaki ng heart • .~ A. sir:1ilar play on the emotio ns is seen in poer,1s I\ in a Fr ee Land., n "Songs for the People., rr r'Double ta ndard TT (with its stil.,rings of feminis m. ) and "The Slave Auction. n A wonan is not solely in esponsible for her nfall, n she suggests Dou~le Standar~" a ddir..g~ ,-.. TT. And what is wrong in a woman's life 0 In man's canno t be right. Hi gh ly readable and less acade mic i n her use of p oe tic te ch ~ niqt1es a nd v ocabularies, ?-j:,s. Harper is nev-ertheless quite indebted t o t h e pble for ~uch of her i magery a ~d moral message. ~ And she is able to merge and modify the folk and reli gious ~ ~ , ·µ forms in a noem .;J.ke nTruth" wh"ere she opens wi tb a debt to / the/ 4 irituals: " A rock, for ages, stern a nd high, toad frowning ' gainst the earth and sky, I/ And never owed his haughty crest When a ngry sterns around him prest. Horn, springing from the arms of night, _ _ _ ___ ..__ - - - - - - r �Had often bathed h is bro1v with light , G And kissed t:.ie shadows from h is face Ui th tender love a nd gentl-~ grace. Several religious songs are suggested here; but she also loves to return to the theme of wome ~ as she does in "A Double Sta ndard " and "The Slave 1.fother." I n the b allad "Vashti n s he tells of the heroine who dared to disobey her dictator-husba nd . The strength and determination of woma nh ood is expressed i n the last t wo stanzas: She beard again the King's car.wand , 0 And lef't her high estate; Strong in her earnest womanhood, G 0 She calmly met her fate, And left the palace of the King I Proud of her spotless namei- A woman who could b e nd to grief I 1 But would not bow to shame . Certai nly a comprehensive biographical-critical study of Hrs . I' Harper is long over_ due. Selections of her work can be found ~ Negro Caravan, ~ Robinson's in, Kerli n 's critical a nthology book, • ◄ IP I n Mr :H i ller's anthology, • • • Barksdale a nd Kinnamon and in numerous other recent anthologies. Qittipo1 1 e works are critically examined by Loggins, Wagner, Whitlow, Brawley, Brown and Sherman. lJ c.,r l a %wen .t s a rf s Q ' { Like other l"1ri ters, ii ljl) l s;v;H• . g educators and activists of his day, ,,, �,-, George B. Vashon (1822h _, 78) contributed to the influential Anglo-African Hagazine which was published intermittently between 1859 ~ th; end of the Civil Har. Vashon had a goo~ solid educationi in classics and history~ at Oberlin College_, where he received his A.B. in 1844 and M.A. in 1849. ·11;,s~a'T..~~ )mowtlJchiefl'lJ for his "Vincent Og~," which Sterling Brown tells us 11 is the first narrative poem of any length by a Negro poet . ~ I ll Jd !l!ltJ'.!!113 t let Ll!L& ill •• '• 11 ~ 1:i)iiC:S 40 Jwtu1ar · u? r ~ taught school in Pittsburg; i•• 1 '•• 1-Ie~acticed law in Syracuse, served on the faculties of C llege Faustin in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, New York Central College (where he was a colleague of Reason and Allen) and Howard w~shit'\l]o n1 University in ,.p.o.1 where he was a 1 aw professor. Huch of Vashon's poetry reflects debts to his strong education and the influence of Scott and Bvron. in "Vincent 0~ All are seen " ins11ired by the courageo~s (but foolish) efforts of Vincent ', a Haitian mulatto who was 11 entrusted with the message of enfranchisement to the people of mixed blood on the isla nd." The order had corae down from t h e Con vention in France, of :..;hich Hai ti was a colony . disruption in France (due to th0 I nternal evolution, 178~ had echoed to its colonies in t ,. e Caribbea~ ·where O · ' led a short- lived armed upris,ing that cost him his li.fe when be was refused asylum in Spanish Santo Domingo and remanded to the French authorit1.es in Haiti. others, the French had O ' As punishment and a warning to tortured on the whee1=, and severed we..\"e his body into four parts cnv:b 1!11€ which .... bung up in the four ) --- I\. �leading cities of the island. i'ollowers were -either put 0 to death or i mprisoned and t.eir properties coni'iscated. f Vashon was as 1-:i.oved by O •s example as was Whitfield by Cinque•s. talizes In the lengthy poem "Vincent 0~ 11 Vashon immorf o{i in an admixture of classical and piblical language, / {J.,M pl... '1, i'!!}_ .., '4U\ using a pleasant iambic tetrameter w ___.,"2 and 15 e s sf dissonance in his rhyme schem~ which features an alternating a b a b/ a a bb . The style is somewhat reminiscent of Whitfield) who breaks his rhyme scheme (see nAmerica 11 ) ai'ter each group of etght or nine lines "Vincent O " and "A Life-Day" were both printed in Autographs i'or Freedom for 1853. For Vashon, the struggle is ve y much alive; f ? And Oge stands mid this array ,,,,,,- 0 Of matchless beauty, but his brow ( 1) Js brightened not by pleasure's play; 0 He stands unr.ioved-lnay, saddened not, M As doth the lorn and mateless birdj ( and O , dedicated to struggle, presses on. Vashon carefully weaves the graphic details or his protagonist 's execution into the narrative and anticipates the more fire-tipped pens of later?ack °(lynch.:.theme) poetsJ such as .Johnson, !-IcKay, Hughes, Brown and Dodson: Frowning they stand, and in their cold, Silent solemnity, unfold The strong one's triumph o'er the weakl M The awf'ul groan-~the anguished shriek-~ ,v\ "" The unconscious mutterings of despair/\-'\ �The strained eyeball's idiot stare 7~ The hopeless clench~ the quivering frame •. \ \ The martyr's death I IV'\ the despot's shame . The rack-~the tyrant-Lvictim,-Lall M f'<\ I Are gathered in that Judgment Hall . Draw we a veil, for 'tis a sight But fiends can gaze on with delight . Freighted with emotion and terror like much of the work of f\Qne, e') --r1 Harper, and setting the stage for such awesome poe~ as Wrigh t's "Between the w·orld and Me," McKay's "The Lynching," Dunbar's "The. Haunted Oak" and Dodson's "Lament, " Vashon ts relentless , . . narrative signals a new and sustaining power in tbe work of ~ ack poets . Compare, for example, tbe last two lines of the stanza above to McKay's couplet in his sonnet "The Lynching 11 : And little lads , lynchers that were to be, Danced round the dr~ul thing in fiendish glee. ~mKay, however, Vashon cheers up at the end: 7J Thy coming fame, OgeJ is sure; ~ Thy name with that of L:__•ov rture, And all t he noble souls that stood With both of you, i n times of blood, Will live to be the tyrant's fear Compare this ending, if you will, to the ending salute to "General Washington" by ~'Jlll~j 'Wheatley. "A Life-Day" is a a shorter poem, in three parts, and, like "Vincent ~g, is founded �........ on a factual eventl \·the love affair and eventual marriage of a young white man and a light-skinned Black. For selections of Vashon•s works see Autographs for Freedom and Robinson's anthology. For critical discussions see the works of Brown) .a Brawley~~~~«~ . As we prepare to move to the next phase in the develop ment of/ lack poetry, it is important that we tarry long enough to pay brief attention to some of the Creole poets. We select ,.. Pierre Dalcour, Armand Lanusse (1812 _. 67), Victor Sejour {1817~ 7/f74), Nelson Debrosses and Nicol R1quet. Somewhat of an anomaly in Afro-American literature and poetry, these Creole poets are nevertheless i mportant if the complete portrait of this many-sided and complex tradition is to be understood. There is nothing typically American in their poetryAf not even in terms of American imitators of English forms i and they rarely display any racial consciousness or concern for slavery and general i njustice. :Iost were i'luent in speaking and ·writing French1 and from that influence their work derives a ii'\ spicy me lody a nd an ui11bited treatment of romantic love and ·,1Jti~~ • 'I Euch of the work is also in its J !It• d sophisticated se of conve ntions and materials gained from French educati ons. The Creole poets ' works appeared as "tbe first publish ed anthology of }Te~o v9rs0 in America" i n a volume ~ ly!.r_ 13e.m~ -called Les Cenelles wrew Orleans., 1845). I~ addition to French, the Creole poets also ·wrote 1n Spanish, Latin and Greek and were generally fron the wealth~ landt owner class �and 011ned slaves. """'rry o~ wl-ion-1 h~<t 1; t,....!~-~-£!!.§.i.h~ fric.L."!J~.J/YVdr ~ e~e r,o f~, @ G.f"'Y~~t;:hvt;~ . J,,.t. J, -ff_ "1ttf; #l'th.A!"r1.'"~LbvML:,Tttr~•.-S!• A _ u.s~" tl-l,A''er• --~ ;; • About Dalcour little is kn own except that '!:le was b orn t-.;-t't1tpe, of wealthy parents who sent him. to France in the earl:r 1300 s Returni ng to 1Tew Orleans af ter to re c eiv0 a good education . his schooling , he uas unable to ac c ept t :~e racial ten!pe1"' and agai n took up residenc·J i n France. however , he ·1.-1rote a number :-lhile in lTew Orleans, 1 f' poen:s, one of' w:1ich was "Verse e :-Tri tten in t be Albu;.;1 of' :-1B.df 1;10"1.selle." The poen touch i nsl? reli ves t h e "vaulted skies" and "gentle flashes 11 ·t-1hicb, to the poet , are "less love l :,. n 1-:be!'l see n a.;ai nst the lady's eyes i> Beneath their brown lashes. Lanusse, LeJCTenelles editor, contributed to llew Orleans CTreole newspapers L'Union and La Tribune, served ns o. con~ s cripted C8;.;.federate soldier i~ the Civil .Ta~~ n t sor.~e time as pri:-icipa.l of t:1e Catholic School for I nd i gent Orpha!1s o.f Color. He also e~couraged literary a nd ot~er artistic express i on a r.:o nG fell01· artists a nd solic i ted work for Les Cenelles. He eulogized h is brother., _Tu::;1a, i n the poem ''Un Fr! re/Au To :ibeau de Son ?rere, death ~as cut you do-:,1!1. . 11 11 reca.llir!3 t h at "un.fee.ling :2:sew:1ere Lanusse ref'ers to deat'!:-1 ' a s " sor:ie other b and shutti ng :_rour e:reli ds. a :id r.1ore poignan~ i n ':Spigram, 11 11 Sor.1e1-1:-:at naught ier I.anusse s i ves the account o.f / ' a "woman of evil II u::io · wants to · "renounce t he devil• but-\., asks,~ Bef'ore pure grace takes me in h a nd , Sh ouldn't I show my daugh ter how to O get a m n? t ) ( / �e'jonr lived . . ost of his life in France ar:d @ to r ew Orleans~ visits- to his , other. returned Son of a wealthy family, ~e wrote several plays , 21 of which were staged in France and three in new Orleans in the 1850~. se'jour 's literary abilities were praised by _Tapoleon IIIJ and he rubbed shoulders with major French literary personalities of his day . His scope is wide1~ than some of the other Creole poets. ..._ "Le Retour de Nap~onn ( "The Return of Napoleon") is an elegy il!rl,½ ~ulogizing Napoleon, S~jour and a celebration all in one . praises both his and France's triumphs and glories. poem of flowing., graphic exaltation. It is a Opening on the scene of a nsea n that "groans under the burning sun.," he narrates the growt. and collapse of France as a world power: And on and on she swept., an unleashed tempest wild., and France moved on 0 ahead. To more. ••• Yet., hail, 0 All is over. captainZ Hail my 0 consul of proud bearing. Admonishing France to '~·Jeep, France., weep., 11 sfjour reminds the country that "death bas lightning struck the people's giant." Little is known about the personal life of Debrosse ~ which., according to Robinson., "seems in keeping with his Haitian-:: gained experience in Voodoo., aspects of which he practised in New Orleans. 11 In Debrosses' "Le Retour .au Village aux Perlas" ( "Return to the Village of Pearls")., he seems to anticipate what Waring Cuney sees through the "dishwater" in his poem �The Creole poet returns to tbe village to find tbat "Images." / Her spirit dances here a nd there in these enchanting places and to locate I --that flower-bosomed grove again, tbe witness of our secret passion., and too, the cherish ed brook to which my soul would on this day confide its happy memory . A cigarf maker by trade, Riquet lived all of h is life in New Orleans., where he pursued a vi light verses. 0 ous avocation of writing His "Rondeau Redouble/ Aux Fr n* Rondeau/To Candid Friends 11 ) leaves no doubt t ha himself as at least serious i n h is avocation. a French-originated lyrical poem - ot@ , m~s 11 ( "Doub le Riquet saw A r ondeau is or sometimes @, lines. -0 I There are two r hymes throughout the poe~] and the opening phrase is repeated ~~ic& as a refrain. II JI (l The form is remotely reminis ce nt of the blues an:1/ piritual forms of Afro-American poetry . Riquet '.; says that since his "candid friends are calling for a rondeauJ" he and his "T-:L: se • • • must work a wonder." ~ u K - ~ ~ 7§'66), (18? iJ _ ":J,69//tmpiled Other Creole poets included Hichel Saint-Pierre (18? mille ' ry (l8J.4;J,j75l, 7 . i Ques i \L\ JMAJIAlr f an Almanac~ of Laughter) and T·r · Desdunes, wh om,l ahn says , "is ~ - r ·e miniscent of the Senegalese poet Bira o Dio T -""' the poet is to "rhyme in an uncommon way" or he will the name of poetaster-Lfrom our candid friends." M. \ ! �The Creole poets are examined and represented b y selections in E . ?Iaceo Coleman's Creole Voices ('>Iashington, D. C., 1945) 0 and in Robinson's anthology . See also Charles Rouse e's The Jegro and Louisiana (Xavier University Press , 1937), and the l ~ 5h~<Y\• critical selectio~ r y Jahn" in Hughes Lanusse and Lecour also appear and Bontemps !5~The Poetry of the Hegro (1949, 1970) . There wer~iher poets writing and publish ing during this ~ .br-tu,Q h-t ov't' same period . Many pairlP511n~~heir works in single Jlill.,.. editions, and copies of sorae are no longer extant. Brawley refers to a poet known as "Caesar" who allegedly t-trote but whose poetry is not available . are Ea.ria and Harriet Falconar Other poe~ and their collections Poems on Slavery (London, l 788 ); a,,,- James :~ontgomer:r, James Graham, I) E. Benger, Poems on t 1e Abolition oi' the Slave Trade (Londo n, 1809); Anonymous, The Hest I ndies and Other Poer.is (1811); John Bu ll, The Slave and Other Poems (London, 1824); Rev . Hoah /4.1- ,f ; '(l.,..,/ " Y~ :-9 c. Cannon, The Rock of ~-Tisdom ••• To Hh ich Are Added Several Interesting Hymns ( :Hew Yor~-:_,~ ); Anonymous, "The Coni..J.""ilemorative Ureath: ~ n Celebration oi' t h e ::Xtinction of .-legro Slavery in the British Dominions~r London, 1835); Anonymous , Anti-S lavery i-1elodies (Hi nghar.1, :-I assach usetts, 1334); Ge or ge ~-f ui tfield Clark , compiler ., The Liberty Hinstrel ( Ne·w Yor:{, 1844); Ui lliam He lls Brown, Anti-Slavery Harp (Bes te .. , 1349); "A West I ndian, rr Charleston, S outh Carolina: a satiric V noem showin~ that slavery still exists in the country wh ich boasts, above all others, of' being the seat cf' li½ertyl Darkness Brought to ligh t (Londo n, (Derry ., -~ l~ -- - - - ~ ) �New Hampshire.,? 185;,); George H. Clark, Tbe Harp of Freedom (NeH York., 1856); and Abel Cbarles Th omas, Tbe Gospel of Slavery (New York., 1864). In 1860 Blacks represented ~ l4. ·:) o:f the United States population and were 4.,441., 830 strong. The sour tastes left ;:j- ~•L (~\vilW~) by the worst internal socia C?o until t he l960ls Jq "'!'\ andA70fs., the problems o:r caring for rotecting t he soon-to-be-released slaves., the need to develop and stai'f ... educational facilities for Blacks k all engul:fed Afro-Americans in a deluge of h orror and hope. Although it is clear t hat the works of many poets leap the arbitrarily i mposed chronological .(}., boundaries., the tempe~ents., themes, di ctional preferences and limitations discussec, generally hold for most of t~e poetry Despite the surprising successes., and t he of the period. flashe s of brilliance intertwined with mediocrity a nd comedy., therack poet would labor. long to remove nthe image of a :facen that., in the words of Corrothers, "Lietb, like shadow on the wild sweet .flowers. 11 'Ii.a I rn?? w 11 • a 2 s Sil@ 3ra~sUtilrd I pJ iilliliiill?li ain tis tlir fcwug1f11s ii11u11s!1• 1autJ lli' tgf111ilii.01Jt siS "Pfrfsen Ji1•usz111ti2Mi!M@S@Jii a iaa6tath:e � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Eugene B. Redmond Digital Collection Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context EBRWritings_09_06_07 Title A name given to the resource Editors proof, Drumvoices: The Mission of Afro-American Poetry: A Critical History, Chapter III. African Voice in Eclipse: Imitation & Agitation, typed with handwritten edits, p. 70-129 Relation A related resource Eugene B. Redmond Digital Collection Language A language of the resource English Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource For digital rights and permissions, see <a href="https://www.siue.edu/lovejoy-library/about/policies.shtml">https://www.siue.edu/lovejoy-library/about/policies.shtml</a> or contact <a href="mailto:library@siue.edu">library@siue.edu</a> for direct inquiries. In copyright. <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Redmond, Eugene B. https://digitallis.isg.siue.edu/files/original/2c7da83db333ec9d8c84f99b6ac53a1c.pdf 69e6c85281b8fa3ca7a3d7b001db5654 PDF Text Text CHAPTER IV JUBILEES, JUJUS AND JUSTICES \ (1865 ~ 1910) l,;1 ,~ 1 We have fashioned laughter ~ Out of tears and pain., I But the moment after-~ \... Pain and tears again. - Lcharles Bertram Johnson Iv\ I {i;' Overview C:::-- This "trans 1 tional" period is normally viewed by critics as the gestation of pref,revolutionaryflack writing. We have seen, however, that some of the most politically~ onscious activists., thinkers and poets ·wrote before the Civil rlar. ~ Frantz Fanon (1924J1 61)., the Hartinique-born psychiatrist, '" ..,.,/ for W · established three phases ~ &,\J-iterature of oppressed peoples: (1) ._. assimilationist, (2) '-"pre revolutionary and (3) V revolutionary • Critics generally agree with Fanon. So, following his reasoning., the period of 1865 11910 (and the previous era) would fall under number one. Number two coincides roughly with the Harlem Renais ,,. sance (1920 1 'f!!30). And the 1960:S ~ lack / rts era) comes under number three. One should exercise caution., however, in placing categories and labels on any artists and complex as ;(lack poets. especially ones so diverse For while it is true that there are general trends in the evolution of the poetry., little said �by the so-called "armageddon" ·w riters of the 1960"' and 197o"s : ~ can b~ ant ore "re;olutionary" than Walker , 1-lh itfield or Albe~y ·w hi tman1 who favored the murder of/lack traitors ( 1 'Uncle Toms" a nd "Topsiesn) to the cause of freedom. On the other hand, as in the past, some con~ ~ l ,Jflack WI'1ters avoid politics like the plague (se e ~ e~ie&). Als~ the alternatives and opt ions facing Blacks nowadays- resignation, M emigration, assimilation, despair, segregation, desecration ~- 0 0\ and so on¾ have always been there . centuries, p anq l 8t ack poets and activists vigorously pursued these choices, sometimes partici pating (Whitfield-Douglass) in fiery debates. lz ••dn fl tfi• frecedi ng chapters s ~ack poetry thati dation become popular and accessible. e \1ibU~h•A:foun only recentl~ has Therefore, critical c omments and background materials will be less extensive from this point on. Certainly, as Robinson suggests, more careful study of the poets of the Harlem Renaissance is needed . His obs ervat ion that !!Afro-Amer ican ' Soul ' Jas never rece ived the elaborate philosophical ~~ J_,U.....L ~ poetic , ,,,_,.has" .. . - and even political explication that J .. i s a lso well taken ss (although there is some attempt to a,t~ess "soul" i n The Hilitant i ' Black Writer in Africa and the United States, r cook a nd Henderso n a:E Understandable, too/ is -a- comment by Ster . . ing Stuckey (IdeoloGica. l Origi ns of Black Mationalis m): e , "Had a nationalist of a nte= bellum America realized tr.e enormous i mportance of Slack I . �/ culture ••• that awareness, articulated into theory, would have been as r evolutio nary a. development as calling for a massive slave-uprising. " Of' course we know, looking back at the f ast htmdred years, that Stuckey 's assessment does not take in all the facts . Earlyrack Americans iden~tfvedi-"tith their cul tural roots more blatantly than do even/\...~ Blacks of today . But the undermining influences of lynchings a nd the practice of st eotyping corroded much initial race pride and self-interest . Again we note that chronological boundaries are arbitrary f:".-.11 " , e s and that we could just as well have s tudied ,....._~arper in the 1865~1910 period (since her Sketches of Southern Life was pub lished in 1873 and her Poems ran through several editions until 1874) just as we could have placed Benjamit} Clark ( "What is .; I t ~ Slave?") and James Madison Bell in t h e ~ chapter. -:.:. It is not always easy to determi ne where a poet who ·w rites early or late in life fits in the chronology ; but if pursuit of the poetry becomes a labor of love, boundari es and categories cease to exist . II -_,. ,---7"/ ( Forgive thine erring people , Lord , fuo lynch at home and love abroad ......~. ~ ~ ....,.,. -, . ··--~ -.. ·· ..;,L.,_Qharles R. Dinkins IV\, ~ (fl \ Literary and Social Landscape ,....) ,. ...... . . .~· C - Between 1865 and 19611 America played out a dram'\. of cont tradictions, swelling and receding expectations, continued progress and experimentation in science and the arts, and �important beginnings. It was a period of painful adjustment that has continued to echo. 'tj)i it • On the white literary scene 11Jhi tman ( t he "American poet") , Hark Twain, William Dean Howells, James Russell Lowell, Henry James , Stephen Crane , Jack London, Emily Dickinson, Joel Cha~dler Harris and Irwi~ Russe{were the writers of importanc~. Harris gained popularity for himself and} lack folklore wh e n he published the Uncle Remus tales in 1879 . Eut whiLe roma n} t i cism and l ocal color dominated the last two decades of the century, both began to fade with the approach of the new centuryl -whose early years saw experimentation, especially i n . M verse , and the beginnings of naturalistic writings . On the political and economic front 5.> the efforts at solidi t fying gains, and retrieving losses , were stepped up among Blacks. 1(e. The NJLACP was founded in 1909; but~major vehicles for protest and change were those used during t h e earlier years: jhe church , self- help societies, free schools, scholarly research a nd writing on.., Blacks, and debates over courses and choices. --.__/ Important new name s i n literature, art, science and politics came to the forefront. However, many of t h e writers, activists a nd educators from t h e previous period continued their various programs . Of t he new ~ .O•t'C.e'J ., several sh ould b e no ted: Booker T. Washington (Up,from Slavery, 1900) , W.f B. D+ ois (The Suppression of the African Slave Trade, 1896; The Phila del phia Negro , 1899; The Souls of Black Folk, 1903) , Charles Chestnutt Cwri ter of fictio n ), Dunbar, James Weldo n .Johnson, - - - - - -- - - - -- - - - - - - - -- - - �~Lo.\r1 loct: e > . Fent on Johnson, Jar.ies D. Corrothers,A_William Grant Still (The Underground Railroad, 1872), Alex~ er Crummell (founder of . ";) . American Negro Academy ), · Alberfy H'hitman, Benjamin Brawley lf , v . (The Negro in Literature and Art in the United States, 1910 ), Kelley Hiller (Race Adjustment, 1909·), William Stanley Braithwaite a nd Alice Dunbar- ~elson (Violets and other Tales, 1895). Black ~ Am.erica wi t ne.ssed a major step in the development of· its stage productions (ma ny designed to destroy "stereotypes 11 fostered y white min~trels and dialect writers) with Bob Cole's A Trip to Coonto~ t he first- musical. produced a nd ~anaged by Blacks . ~ . ~ . Will liarion Cook and Dunbar followed with Clorindy/~in 1898; a nd Cole ~eturned J th is ~ime Hi th James Weldon Johns on, to vri te and play i~ed Mo~~1'1ie maturation of essays, journalism and autobiography also' conti nued . Elizabeth Kackley, friend to presidents and statesmen, wrote Behind the Scenes i n 1868; r Douglass founded the fow National Era (1869,v ___ 72) and published h is Life and Times i n 1881 . Southern Workmen was established at Hampton Institute in 1872. Rumor in 1879 and edited the T. Thomas Fortune founded The --- - _ ..... -.........-_ -_-- _-_ i nto being. in 1887. - In t he same Others included Penn's The Afro-American Press (1891) , John H. Murphy ' s Balti more Afro-American (1892), IIonroe Trotter's ~===:::::::::::,"-- - - - (1900) and oston Guardian (1901). t!mnsrtsnt BJ aslr 7t t rsmr names £2> tJ t r aa ; r, t Ii es Snow th s ; Islonnor, IPnnlt iii pu rM • umas&• 1 $ a abl!st SJ XRX&ii&GI HSI 8££115£ SJ �'51 ,~ Corrothers and Braithwaite this period . Dunbar, Whitman, Fenton Johnson, are the poets of interestl _,, during James Weldon Johnson wrote "Lift Every Voice and Sing" in 1900 but is usually identified with the Harlem Renais l sance writers. (Jb,.it1 • >,; And~Locke, intellectual and scholar, was one of t he important chroniclers and interpreters of th.r}era. D'13ois, sociologist and editor, is chiefly known1 as a poe; for his "Song of the Smoke" and "Litany at Atlanta," written after the 1906 . ~•,4.eS race riot .l\Chestnutt was the first important i'iction. w lack writer of .,., i),,1 4.,, Both he a nd Dunbar were endorsed by \Howells , who presided as ~ ~ •••9••;<- czar over A~~rican literary criticism 1 during the last quarter of the century . Howells also helped laund\ the careers of Henry Jamesyi i!IGSiiifob &&IP I Arner1 aa'1 s ( lSYB JGJG_i&S,.andWalt ·w hitman. Generally, with the exception of Braithwaite, Fenton Johnson, MN ■ ag Whitman and a few others, j lack poets followed the dialect tradition of the day. Robinson (Early Black American Poets) notes: i;nat ~u~wThe vogue was established among white southern ,;..11'1 ters (who i'ailed to appreciate their own (?) amusing dialects) with Irwin Russell (1853J 79) whose popular pieces were collected and published posthumously as Poems by Irwin Russell (1888) with a loving preface by Joel av �Chandler Harris , also popular for b is Uncle Remus and Brer Rabbit prose tales in Negro dialect. "'e~ The major _)3lack dialect poets - , .Dunbar , Danie Hebster Davis , James Edwin Campbell, Elliot B. Henderson a nd J. Hord Allen; · bv,t·· ~ ~ 1'hC. pa & QL James Weldon Johnson ''A·wrote I t td& J in .-...t.. idiom . ~ --- - -,. &!! SliG &1&1666 I I a Dunbar surpassed al l l\.writers 1- lac k and white ...Lincluding Russel~ after whom he patterned his efforts . or ptt..ft'cl~,71,el'YJ, ~B/.N.b l His ability to empatb iz ei\rather ~ban simply "report'A'i . /.71r,-;~1ith . I his "perfect" ear f o r - ~ speech, ma ke him more i1anJ~ ~l~Fc, .. wh~t. wo... auth entic. Dunbar also 't-TrOt wo be re~emberecl_ I ru 8-! 7 Ait was his dialect poetry ("a jingle in a broken tongue") that gained h i m notoriety. The biggest contradiction of the era wa s that struction" occurred in name o ly. ~ • and intimidation groups ( , 0 11 :!1.eco nl, _ growth of white h at e t. Blacks were lynched between 1 /1\,, 1885 a nd 1900) , the development of a neo slavery, the parai doxical plight of the "freedman" (see Washington 's Up ; f rom Slavery), the general disappointments in social "paper" programs and the disil-usionment on the parts of Blacks wh o U fought in the Civil War-'- all influenced and helped direct the M co ntemporary;81ac k mo od . Coupled with thts was the ½eginning# of the jfi'eat..fi gration of southern Blacks to northern urban cent ers. fuile dialect poetry emerged as t he most popular form in poetry and prose, James 1:Teldon Johnson later observed (Ame1"ican. Negro Poetr ~ j that it would not encase the manifold 13'1 'I Iii• �natur e of the / lack? perience; wh ite wr iters bad initiated it a nd Blac s c ould ot;ly "caricature th e caricatures . " Caught up for a '!vbile ln the potent ials of the ~mancipat5.on Procl~ ma tior. and "::Ze co:::ist:i., ·ctio ntr,\ 1;:a.ny_/1 ack :_)oets also couch ed their l ines in patriotism and sentimentality (s ee Johnson's Years 11 ) • 11 Fifty IICll'-!L@C,±~S-.•11111ikiilitllllit•s-21111211piitliiiiilJIIS•■11illll••·112111-,t•21111s••O-INt11211cllllt•ffllillf•... ; During this period , the first of a series of/ lack ma nual~ arts colleges was establi shed . Hampton Institute, Fisk Unit, vers ity , Houard Uni vers ity, :i'.•Iorehouse Coll ege and Johnson C. mi t Co-lege were among the early ones. • In 1871, the year of James; eldon Jobnson 's birth , the Fis k Jubilee Singers made the i r first cone rt tou:r:, wit hjrpirituals. 1 The tour was epoch-= making) for it marked the f i rst time a~ lack i nd igenous American art f orm had been gi ven such world1 ide exposur e . The per iod was crucial, too, for all~ lack folk art because the burgeoning 1 ne·w;131ack ,Zntell i gents£i~, anxious to remove the bitter taste ,,,,--- ~ vest of slavery, -et:Hther:de11;1e~to d\11 J•~ ther.ise lves of all relics of their ante-bellum past . The/P irituals, the r ich cadences of folk speech and the freedom in dance, among other aspects, a__ were giv en~back seat i n an attempt to Westernize or "civilize" newly emancipated Blacks. ~ The Civil War , ~Emancipation Proclamation a nd the stationing of occupation troops in the E outh had also left a bitter taste on the tongues ofJsourtie;n\_ , ; evenge-be~ whites. ~.u.......... . . The att empt to "colonize n the ;;3 outh, as some saw it, was dramatized by the �arrival of "carpetbaggers "-1-whi te northerners preaching .)31ack rv\ ~ freedom or exploiting southern industry. The results were the elaborate and ruthless rise of white secret societies and the ridicule of Blacks in newspapers and magazines . Hany • r ack poets unwittingly participated in this ridtcule through their own diale.ct and sentimental verse. Others went to the extreme to prove their "goodness" and "Godliness~ as : g l!J PS! & sltsat. In the shadows of all thes: ~rad oxes, )3"1.ack minstrels and musicians gained prominence. ~ ;(agtime" heralded an era ultimately to be called the Jazz Age. Meanwh ile more serious debate over the fate of Blacks was taking place among men such as Douglass, Washington and nt ois. In 1895, at the International Atlanta Exposition, Washington delivered his famous "Compromise" speech1 which encouraged Blacks and whites to work as close as the fingers of the band in matters needing mutual concern; but advised that, in all social respects, the fingers of the hand should be separate.~ This was seen as a conciliatory and unprogressive posture by many integration-minded leaders. Washington, who founded Tuskegee Institute in 1881, played down civil concerns and integration, and urged Blacks to seek practical skills. Dtf3 ois encouraged Blacks to seek knowledge of the arts and sciences and predicted that a "Talented Tenth" would emerge to lead them. In The Souls of Black Folk! , D+ ois criticjue:l Washington's position. The controversy between the two men is now famou~ as is Dudley Randall's poem ''Booker T. and W.E.B." in which the ideologies of both men are placed against �the mood of the time • In an incremental development of both dia logue and rhyme-refrain, Randall frames his important statements in iambic tetrameter~ The use of an imaginary conversation between '°\WO "opponents" also allowed the poet to comment on two significant "poles" in the continuing~ ck push for freedom and self- detenni nation. ➔· _The ois-Washington controversy created reverberations that are still being heard around the/ lack worl d@ i ois was, ultimate ly, to rise as the towering and defiant figure of the perio es peci.ally among Afro-American intelligentsia ~ while Washington was reduced to a negative and sometimes obscene symbo wn,......, - ... A recent book deal~ some-what indirectl~ with the'se matters is Booker T 1 s Chi14 (1974), by poet Roy L. Hill see Hill •s lbibliography)0 See , also Up / rom Slavery~Washington, 1901), From Slave to College President Godfrey Pike, 1902), The Life and Times of Booker T. Washington 1 Benjamin Riley, 1916J and Booker T. Washington and His Oritics (Hugh Hawkins, ed., 1962) . For a recent . informative biography of ~ ois see His Day ~ s Marchin (Shirley Graham nul3°is, 1971) , I / I i - - - - - - - - - - - -- - - -- - --- �v,aS!ilagbo~! mu1 , 1d12osd :ts a eH:ga1bJ'.l!css are sornat:!mas abs1stw• SJ d.s cl Ne r (£61 flibi 6 0.1 b!tl:s J a so 9N J ~J> ft:; L1 ff!:l:l). l_iPlilBO 1'1 ,.~ iil!!!Jis ftiJ'.118. 81} lat! bbe pus bi 3' ( tee!m:T:callJ ana t:M!u1w id ii I'll I l:i I SHF--=tltd ti:sall;) J !%sh01 u • ~a&f'-1+,e the wi.gewan1 debates an<l tl.ia a ca ial oom1 ng..-af.aga 17 L t_ ,,,- aPeX Udtii cue second dcsais llf III uJJ Ll~:ti ~ ~Cunja..'1 man, de cunjah man, , GO The Vo\c.es OYl 0 chillen, run, de Cunjah manJ '·~--,.____,_~.. . ne ~ - .Tames Edwin Campbell ' "... IV\ Totem } -8!'-""'"""~"0.."'---v-':,,r.lP.-,:'.'~.,. C.- Although poets of the previous period placed their verses and polemics in various po litical and news organs, it was d ring the 1856 1910 era that such a practice reached new levels of importance. Poets had acc ess to numerous regional and nat ional publicat i ons, contests, political platforms and educational programs through vhich they could either read or publish their poems. Robert Thomas Kerlin, for example (Negro Poets and Their Poems, 1923) , c ollected literally dozens of poems from nemst, papers, church hullctins, privately printed pamphlets and magazines l - many of them no longer available. I"'\ of the political nature o:f Some indication both the people and the poetry of the post-Civil Har era is seen in this stanza from "The Song of the Black Republicans" (whi ch appeared in The Black Republican of New Orleans, April 29, 1856): �I Now rally, Black Republicans, 'Wherever you may be, ...-:-,. Brave soldier~ on the battlefield, IAnd sailors on the sea . Tow rally, Black Republicans{\ Aye, rallyl we are free1 We've waited long long To sing the songi I1The song of liber_ :cy. Continuing for six stanzas, th~• poem is obviously aimed at a public listening and reading audience . It praises "colorn ) which comes "from the Lord II and reminds _iBlack vote s that J Abraham Lincoln ("beneath the Flag of all") "flun£ s Preedom through its stars. " Somewhat of a different vein is the work of Benjamin Cutler Clark ( 1805? !. ?) of whom we know very little. I A fugitive slave, he attended t h e 1835 Annual Convention of Free People of Color (held in P iladelpbia) from his adopted h ome t own of York, Pennsylvania, where he had moved after leavi ng the slave state in which he was born. rfostly self-taught, Clark married i n York a nd raised a large family l writing poetry and prose in bis spare moments. He was politically active and opposed colonization of Blacks, believing that it was "indi4,, viduals" who emigrated and "not nations." llt ~ The Past, ,pie J Present and the Future (Toronto, 1867) includes prose reflections on the state or race relation~ and 5 poems . He is primarily @ �concerned, in poetry and prose, with the issues of slavery and racial injustice, although much of his work deals with domestic life . Infsentiment,) language,J style and influence, Clark bears Cl resembli nce to the poets . of the period just covered. 9 And although his work was not published until 1867, he wrote earlie 7 oems -, as indicated, for example, in his 'fuat Is a Slav ') and "Requiescat in Pace , " an elegy on the 1857 death of a woman associate. Clark is quite effective as a poet and, sometimes, even gripping in his ability to make the poem assume the dL en~ sions of the event it relates. in detailing ~ tails C}!! slavery . Like hrs . Harper, he is graphic And, like Frederick Douglass ~ ----) -in slavery, that is) may "miss me." (see Narrative) he is tragif comic in suggesting that t h ose !tat home u Me? ( "Do They Miss A Parody" opens each of its four-lined stanzas with Do they miss me at home-} do they miss. me? and alternates ~ iamb ic pentameter and (with an ab c b rhyme scheme ). ~ tetrameter ti Clark describes an unusual kind of ''home n: nDo they miss me at home ~ do they miss me? 0 By light, as the horn echoes loud, And the slaves are marched off to the corn field, 0 I'm missed from the half-naked crowd. Using a break (or caesura) reminiscent of the blues, at the third foot (the b]ues breaks at the second), Clark dramatizes slavery and pokes fun at those men who run the "peculiar a �institution. 11 a Slave I /.l M\v:. He makes similar use of the dash in "tvhat Is wh:ePe 1e achieves incremental power through repetition and syntactical variance: A slave is-~what? 0 A '"" thing that's got Noth ing, and that alone J His timeJ -his wife- 1, \ /I'\ And e ' en his life , He dare not call his own. Emp loying expletives, spontaneity and suspense, Clark shows h i ms elf' to be a skilled craftsman (all things considered) for h is time and training . His rh:n1e scheme is a ab cc b with an off t rhyr:1.e i n the first couplet of each six-line stanza. Under t:1e persistent questi on ''r·Jhat Is a Slave?" ·we feel not only the i ndic tment against slavev wners and racist policies.} ut sor-:ie key to the early realizations of t lack thinkers tbat the race was being disrobed phys ically and psychologically. As with Vass a, Reason and others , the hurt is h i dden a nd defies · oth def niti on and visual co~tact : slave is l - what? IV\ . LJ I pray do no t Insi st; I ca nnot ·now, ::c Or , -:vords i ..part , ai nt er ' s art, Ves cr i be a s:ave- Lah , noJ M Though trapp ed i ~ t he forms of European modelt builders, Clark shous !1is own ingenuity and ori gi nality. By ..,aryi ng b is rhyme �scher,1cs o.nd :-.1 et er., a ::id i_s i ng dashes and exple t i7 es ., : e ":-ri ~.:;s emotional .. o~rer i -:1t or l ac od ·wi t~ an iro ~ical l y d et ac _-:cd i ~i telle ctua l assesst:ont of t he slave ' s pliJ;l: t . powerful i n ~ "Th Se~: in cl ,:.,/ He i s 3i r.1ilarl:r ,i,;~ ~il . ~ .:.""'e 7" (cor: t i ~-:ui n.; a longf line of _)l".Lac lc s a lt tcry v ers e J prais e s 6f, 1ft, S ed no:'.e chi ef arrl 'hero of Semi nol e wa r s i ::1 ::7lo i da i n t he ear :~rc ';+- •. centur7. In t is , r..e a l s o anticipat es/\ t a.i t r.:a n ' s ,rork (Rap e of Florida) . For selections of Clark ' s worl::s a.:.-id 'Jrief cr iti cis m s ee n o inson 1 s a ntho lo 6 J . See a ls o Joa n R. her:-:1a n 's Invisible Poets If Clark's strength lay i n h i s assault agai nst ~acial injus tices , Jane s 1·:S.dison Bell ' s (1 826;;1902) la-y i n h is ". l east! and "hope . n "Fortunate " eno gh to wit ness t!:e Gi7il ">!a.1 1 ., ;efrnancipati~n and .Re construction;' Bell railed agai nst i njustices but prir.:arily ex pres sed hope i n b is ~ Jri.ack struggle. years of o servi ng tbe Bell spe nt r:iost of _is adult life delivering eloquent and ue i gh ty poetic liberty. He was orn in Gallipolis, Oh io, w'h ich he left at age @ to pursue t h e trade of plasterer and t h e avocation of orat or-poet . A wanderer, Bel l played his part i? t he over~ throw of slaveryM soliciting funds and recruiting Blacks for John Brown's ~ 1859 raid at Harper$ Ferry. Before t h e raid, Bell had moved to Canad2jwhere h e continued h is frient ship wi t h Brown and fat h ered a large family. He later traveled to California, back to Canada, to various cities i n Ohio a nd Michigan, and, . finally, spent time i n Toledo. - - - - - - - - -- - - -- - - - - - ---- Dur ing t h is �odyssey Bell appeared at concert halls, churches and various public gatherings to read his poetry s commemorative event 1 Hi - a-eme political a.,) .Qil- He also took advantage of books and gained considerable understanding of history and literature. His major themes are devotion, inspiration, love, unity, collective strength and political change. of Byronic power in the roll of his verse Achieving "something 11 (Kerlin) Bell's 0 poems are often too long, too ted~s ar.d lacking in interest. Robinson notes : 'l"!""'T ~ ,_.;.✓ Not to mitigate his obvious technical flaws, it is helpful to remember that Bell is best ~ appreciated as something of an actor, his poer.1.s re garded as scripts . jl:I 1c.._ Unashar:iedly chronicl ng his journeys, Bell included t he followi ng as a full title of :'riumph of Liberty 1870) : _ Poem,17 Entitled th eo/ Triumph of Lib erty .~ Delivered i ! ~, 1870,/ Detroit ~ f Opera House,/ n t he Occasion of/ e Grand Celebration of the Einal ~ of the Fifteenth Amendme t to the Con~/ ' Ratification/ stitution of the United poem erupt th ugh th tat es. ~s 0onsisting of 90 i , th e f all t he "flourish es and vocal modulations at his experienced command. 11 According to Redding ✓ (To Hake ,;( Poet Black), Bell "unblushingly" claimed the titles ' of "Bard of Maumee " and "Poet of Hope." Typical or Bell's style is bis tribute to b is f'riend John Brown (rrou.1.-J::,JI:_ ,_.___ of _ Li er~ : Alth ough like Samson h e was ta'en, 1 �And by the base Philistines slain, I Yet be in death accomplished more Than e I er he had in life before. His noble heart, which ne'er had failed., Proved firm, a nd e'e n in death prevailed; And many a teardrop dimmed the eye Of e'en his foes who saw him diei ( ., ~ And none who witnessed that foul act ~..,. fill e'er in life forget the fact . \-- ~ ) something of the stature of Vashon's "Vi ncent O v and 1fuitfield's "Cinque.," Bell's tribute has all the ring of indebtedness to Scott, Byron, Pope , Tennyson and ot~er Englis popular masters with whom he was /familiar. However i:-:iitative and derivative, though, Bell seemed never to be at a loss for exalting, e.x:iortatory poetical flourishes . In "Song for the first of August" be sings a song for "proud Freedom's day": '- Of ever-<-J clime, of every hue, 0 Of every tongue, of every race, 1 .:eath (r) heaven's road ethereal blue; Ohl let thy radiant srililes embrace, Till neither slave nor one oppressed □ Re main throughout creation 's span, By thee unpitied and unblest , .cJ Of all the progeny of man. One of Bell's nost amb itious works is h is 'Hy Policy' · I 11 . :fodern :-~os es, or I ·Ian " in which M in sca'Jdi ng satire~ h e assesses the �adr.1ini:tration of preside nt Andrew Jo"tnson. - Joh ns on ( i_3o5J 'Bi?5 ), ·wh o s cceeded the assassinated Lincoln in 1865, '! as orn poor and learned to write and figure from his wife. His ~&'ttt.he,~in presidenc~r~)iisrli aa Ii.in a showdown 'between a progressive Republican Congress and Johnson, a reactionary Democrat. Johnson began reversing his bars Once in offic ~ criticisms of t h e South, giving former rebels a rather free hand at things and vetoing several bills aimed at giving Blacks a better share of things. Upset by the whole thing, Bell 't'!f'Ote a blistering satire Cc,:rhich I VJ~~i,,.ttY\ often collapses as suchM ie,, iduo~., with couplet-fury, be ob serves: that • And crowns t h ere are, and not a few, And royal robes and sceptres, too, That h ave, in every age and land, C (7J / Been at the option and command Of men as much unfit to rule, As apes a nd monkeys are for school. Fol lo ,ri ng poets like Clark and Uhi tfield, and anticipating !!s ignifyi ng!! poets of t ..e 1960~ and '7oi s (such as Baraka, Crouch , Toure, Ec~els: . . . '~· estern Syph illization, pares Johnson to all manner of evils. 11 and others) Bell comt Johnson is also contrasted to "goodn or liberal whites such as Congressme n Charles Sumner and Thaddeus Stevens and abolitionist Wendell Phillips. ically calling Johnson "Modern :noses~ derisive 11 Cy~ Bell also uses the Hose 11 - Lwhich appears to be a way of reducing 'him to - . f'v\ the level of the stereotype whites reserve for Blacks (see, L• for example., such statements as the one by Don"-Lee: 44' "styro~/ �& his momma too") . One must chuckle somewhat at Bell's clain that Johnson cursed in the ~it t ouse: But choose we rather to discant, On one whose swaggish boast and rant, And vulgar jest, and pot-house slang, Has grown the pest of every gang Of debauchees ·wherever found, From Baffin ' s Bay to Puget Sound. Only recently have we beard echoes of Bell from journalists, c ongressmen and old ladies astonished at ~ it1~ouse tapes showing that ex-f resident Richard Nixon cursed in the gval Eoom. - We have observed., then, that Bell, though a ted*s and n ,v;.._ harEfuing poet, is important Q.1i.. a co ntinuing chronicle of the mind and creative development of the Afro-American poet. Bell's works also include The Day andg1ie War (1864), dedicated to the memory of Brown; The Progress of Liberty (1870), a recollection of the war, praise for Lincoln and .}!lack troops, and a jubilant greeting of enfranchisement; and The Poetical Works of James Madison Bell (1901), including a preface by his personal friend \ Bishop B.~·l. Arnett. Even though Bishop Arnett claimed that Bell ' s "logic was irresistible, like a legion of cavalry led by Sheridan," the poet recognized his own limitations when he said (Progress of Liberty): "The poet laments the discord of bis harp, and (f:, its disuse , u ~ answering Freedom fs call he 1 aga in essays its k.rmony. " �~ For otl:er samples and appraisals of Bell's work see Robinson, ~~erMo.n ¼ Brawley, . . erlin, Redding, Brow13.,~nd 1-iays (The 'Negro's God, 1938 Anticipating Helvin B. Tolson of the 20t 1965) wrote a book-length answerl l Harlem · Gallery, \\= Stein's statement : ~ .....__,, century (who '<1/ to Gertrude ,., ,, - "The Negro suffers from notbingness l , Francis A. Boyd (1844L?) penned his only volume in partial response to Rev. Henry Ward Beecher's concern for "the injured and oppressed sons ar.d daughters of Africa." Boyd's volur:1e, published in 1870, is entitled Columbiana ~l,~r ~ Complete in one Volume. e North Star ~ ~ Boyd explains in the preface that he ~ ·t-ras born free to Samuel and Nancy Boyd in Lexington, Kentucky, a nd .net hardships trying to acquire an education. Columb iana~ the author notes in the preface., comes from "I., a scion of that a ncient racen rho takes in dedtcating the following lines"· to the Rev IIade up of five cantos (major breaks i n a long poem), Columbiana is a poetic narrative on the plight of t!1e / lack man in slave-founded America. The cantos contain various structurol.and rhyme schemes ; most of l'I which reflect Boyd's kn0v1-edge of the classic,,_. ., neoclassical a nd ro~a nti c traditions i j poetry , and the history of events l eadi ng up to t':le Civil Har. In the poem, Freedom (personified) t ravels., like some classica l deity, on a win ·ed chariot from =:~,.pt, acr,o ss I p rael, Greece and America. I!'.l America, Freedom meets all sorts of evils, like t ,e protagonist in .Tohn Bo:,-d's 11 vi::1ion.," a1.ong t bem Secessia, t e arch-enemy of Blacks and freedor.1. - -- - - - - - - Secessia, Southerners who sece l ded from the union., ----- -- -- ) 0 �i s a ss es sed f rom all s i des duri ng Boyd ' s ian: ic te trame tr i c ,,..-. . . - &!( a ss a lt . In "def ia nce ni.de to Unio n laws , 11 t b e S outl: r:I gnor e d n t rut.1 and r i ghtn es s To h a r.::;,cr down t he sh udd ' r ing slav e . Bu t the s ons a nd d a u r;l-.:ter s of Af'r i c a , -;.fh o own a part of Se c ess i a, mus t h a ve a sa:r-so i n llmh .L. G i :1at h a pens to '-1 e r . ,,,.., :::'reedom (c ont i nn i nc - S oli~oquj" 11 f'ron .....,"canto I 7 ff ) t e lls ..._., ~S e cessia ' tl~ a t ._, ....,""' __ • • • or.. u . _ _ s oi : t b e :St h i op dwe lls (i) Ir. .:;lorious t r i u~:1r,!1 o ' er t hfy f oul s l a ve -c 11 ... "!.,! a ':'ld '-' ~ n:o.c ks !1a".. e, t ::1 c ir e:re on tbe Horth Star ( als o/\ na me of Doug:.a.s s ' 11 ::: a~ e1" } s 16 s e sts -';~"e na rrat or i n Bef o:;."o '.-18 The 2)rea11: " f r or.1 Ca nto q1.1. e nc:1 t he .1allowed fi re , Or.cc c or e -.;1e stri.{e t e sac red l :,· ra . ':::11::. ~!ort ~ ~r..cir c led · t ar l i ngers i n t . e sl.i:y, :r a sno •T:f dov e . 3un, -:-:oo n a r:d stars c onfounded li e , The _:orth St a r outsh i nes a ll ab ove , o s h i ni ng h ere , a nd s h i ni n 6 t her e , Forever r u l i ng ev er ;r.·1.1ere . ~ e I'! ort h S t ar .. as rem.ained m til t'his very day :L1port a nt i n ,)!lac k l it erat ure . aB" ( 11Ru::1aga t e :'o'":) er t Ha:rd en i s on _y o ne co ntemporar;r poet J. : a ga te n) r.:a1.. i ng use of i t . Confus ing b oth h i s met er a nd !1i s rhy ,.e patt er n wi t 1ou t h ints t h at h e is i ~ t e ntio nal or exper i menti ng , Boyd s ome i mes los e s t h e reader in h i s labyri nt::1 ine de l uge . But , c o r s i der i ng h i s stati on i n 160 �li.fe and the o½stacles he 1-1orked against, '!:1 is work is one r.1ore notab le step i n t!1e development of' Afro-American poetr:r. F or selections from and assessments of Bo:rd , see Robinson. Henrietta Cordelia Ray (1850h l916) was among the handful' 01/1-ack poets of the century (i ncluding Daniel Payne and Ann Plato) ·wh o avoided racial themes. Hiss Ray, however, s eer.is to be one of the first to try a wide variety of forms. In sonnets such as "To IJy Father ," "Robert G. Sh aw," "Hilton" and oth ers, she shows skill at ·w riting this difficult form. ~ ✓ And in works ~ "Antigone and Oedipus," "The Dawn of Love , n /\ n:Noontide II and nThe '-I onths" she proves her linguistic dex ~ Sfi e J t erity and poetic virtuosity . Even though C IID:t&:,i\avoided outright racial t h emes\\in h er poetr; she i mplicitly commits : _erself in ~~ l ~ "Robert G. Shav~11 dedicated to the ;'""\ i;-rhite Colonel Shaw (183711163) of Boston who led the 54th N,_,, Hassachusetts ; olunteers (all ~ lack) in_ the Civil War . I illed lee.ding his troops on an assault on Fort Wagner, South Carolina, Shaw is eulogized: O Fri endl O heroJ thou who yielded breath That oth ers migh t share Freedom's priceless gains, In rev'r e nt love we guard thy memory . Cow.\ e.L, o.. Dunbar, a younger contemporary of ,_ARay's, would also praise Sha~ who, like Lincoln, became one of the important white heroes to pos tp.zar p ack Americans . ttlw!ell~ ~"-.Ray, however, was not u ~ aware o:f the plight of her brothers and sisters o:f color in her everyday li:fe. Born one o:f two daughters to the Rev . 151 �Charles B. Ray (of Falmouth, Massachusetts ~ distinguished minister and "tireless abolitionist," BC ,'4~~as made aware of slavery and racial injustices . very early After a rath er protected upbringing, which included good traditional trai ning , she went on to New York University where she finished in ~ J ~ edago~ and to Sauveuew School of Languages «r:;;;:?1,..,1\mastere\l Greek, Latin, Frenc, erman and the English c lassics . For a while she taught school+ but, finding it boring, preferred to attend her invalid siste~ Florence (wi th whom she maintained a life long friendship ) a,,i Jtravelifi.g ----- throughout /' New England~ giving moral support to the antislavery work of her father. Her poems deal primarily with love, scholarship, intellectual theme3> 'praise of great literary/@~political figures and seasons. , She loved to do settings, descriptions, i mpressions and cycles in her poetry. For example there is a cycle ("I dyl") which goes through "Sunrise," "Noontide," "Sunset," and "Midnight ." Another cycle, "The Month s," consists of l poems, five of them in If . . £ --e-1:g:ht-linef stanzas, five in ~-line!, stanzas and t wo in 7 - -G-OVe.Q·linee stanzas. She ge nerally varies her meter and rhyme schemes; but the ballad form predominates in "The :.fonth~}'' l- while a "two-stanza, ~ 6 - linef form (rhyme scheme: a a b c c 'b) I,;. heralds the four major segments of the day in 11 Idyl. 11 -..(c,"'citlt~ ...........,,,, Ray, as we have noted, is not an original or innovative poet . But her work does mark a new level of sophisticationf despite her imitation of the models followed by most _;5lack poets of her time . Her published poems included Sonnets (New York, 1893) , and Poems (New York., 1887). Sbe also published Commemoration �Ode or Li:Co1 no/ Hri tten for the occasion of theo/ unveili ng of ~ /\ -# the Fr eedman's monument ~ 1£ in ~fomorv of Abraham Lincoln ~ - Ap1.., il l.5.:Z.6.. She cof authored, witl1 her sister, S ketch of the Life of t h e R0v . Charles B. Ray ( Tew York, 188?). c:: ~ For selections of - g I ~vork see Rob i nson's Early Black American Poets and and Kerlin's Negro Poets and Their Poems . tlA- critical cor.unent ~~ Declaring )~~ s lave, -k " Albe 1!)l a\;e.Si □ 144 ,~ Robinson includes IJ~ Shermanla~Invisib le Poets. "I was born in bondage, ii~ I was never a ,r , Allson Whitma n (1851 1902) thus i ntroduced h L s eli' and ~i s po etry to t h e world . A complex and brilliant poet (Hagner r ef ers to him as a "brilliant 11 1.mi tat or), he must b ave been antici pated by bis contemporary Cordelia . ay in the experime nts with various verse forms. Hhitman was b orn a slave i n or r~ear i:unfords ville, Hart Cou~ty, Kentucky (in Gree n River country). ~ ldl 1 I Vtll it ; .&&btd__:&:>ISP lh#l?bl&bl J ES 3 It . $f .Q muLa.lto) slLW&iJ Ila ,\~e was orphaned at an early a ge and recei ved only b its and pieces of formal training- a glaring ih~-1 en uw,, irony agai nst b i s achieven e nt, the most important~until Dunbar. T~ ough it is widely believed that Whitman wrote t h e longest poem ( over ~ lines) by a j 'lack American, we now know t hat at leas t two ot her J 1ack poets wrote longer poems: Ro½ert ~ . Ford's Brown Chapel, a Story in Verse ( n. d., n.p.) O"'t\ Preface dated 1903) contained at least 8,600 lines "Nl 307 pages; •1aurice Corbett's Harp of Ethiopia (Nashville, 1914) 6Y\. contained over 7,500 lines t1ci 273 pages. ~ /tJ broken up into cantos utilizing...:e-e-H-line v ~ Ford 's work is I stanzas while Corbett's ~ ) �epic is divided up into i sigh-t--i ne ♦ sta nzas. Whitman utilized a half dozen or so metrical a nd s t a nzaic forms and numerous other r hyme schemes. His forms i nclude t h e ottava rima, dialect vers e , th e Spe nserian stanza, blank verse, °'iambic., trocbJ c and anap"es lines in t hr ee to fi ve feetf (in..;;:_,,, eluding st~ess nrhyr.ied li nes), and the various stanzaic a nd metrical fusions be develop ed from i mitating such writers as Byron., Pope., ·Jhi t ti er, Longfellow, r1ilton and Scott. The poet developed his technical facilities while he worked, primarily as a pastor of an African ~thodist Episcopal Church in Springfield, Ohio, and financial agent for ~•Tilberforce Uni ~ versity (where h e h ad studied under Daniel Payne), to support himself and promote race progress. A fiery speaker, lecturer one. e and reader of his poetry, Whitman was J ~ notAto bit" h is tongue . In declaring that he "was never a slave" he went on to sayi at ~ years of_.age M "The time has come when all 1Uncle · Toms' and 'Topsies I ough t t o die. n· The title of Whitman's first work, Tot a 7-Tan a nd Yet a ~..an _(1877) is i mportant b oth literally and i mplicitly . one ~ For to go a few niore steps to place it alongside similar1 contemporary titles: '""' Soul on Ice, 3obody Knows 1'1:y' 1 Name., I Know Why t h e Caged Bird Sings, Manchild in t h e PromiseJ ~ ' Invisible Man, and scores of other volumes of essays, novels, poems and autobiographies. The titles are slightly different.J but the cry a pd the passion and aim are the same. Not a Man and Yet a iran, for Whitman, ensconces the dilemma - - - -- - -- - -- -- - - -- -- - �of the p ack man. A mulatto slave, Rodney, saves the life of the daughter of bis master during an Indian raid, and afteri ward$....., falls in love with her. Going against his promise to offer his daughter in marriage to the man who saves her, the master instead sells Rodney to a Deep South planter. / In bis new habitat, Rodney falls in love with a slave girl, Leona) andt after being separated from her for a while, spends a beautiful life with her in Canada. The ove1,simplified theme of the "tragic mulatto II comes through in much of Hbi tman 's wor~ which never features the problems or lives of dark-skinned lacks. ·Jhitman possesses a brilliant gift of descriptive prosaic poet~ as in these lines from Not a ?,ran: The tall forests swim in a crimson sea, Out of whose bright depths rising silently, Cf Great golden spires shoot into the skies, Among the isles of cloudland high, that rise, Float, scatter, burst, drift off, and slowly 0 fade, Deep i n t h e t wilight, shade succeedi ng L shade. omewhat rer:iiniscent of the brilliant an anonymous J'ohn Boyd, ~-. i t r.:a n is competent a nd relentless whe _ placed against any other romantics of his day. .Echoing Poe and Longfellow, g lse Hhere in liot a ::an, :-!hi t rr..a l:J reacts to t h e temporary separation "' _ odney and Leona: A true h eroine of the cypress gloom, ( --~------ - -· - - - �/now there to lie, the Creole sai:-1 her CJ doomt Q ... In The Rape of Florida (St . Lou i s , 1884), revised and repuo lished the foll01-1ing year as Tuasinta t s S~minoles, or . ape of Florida) , ivbi tman engages bis readers i n a nother roli1antic tale. Under truce., Semi nole I td ians , iho h a ve fougr.t 'travel:", are fired on ., captured , and tal:: n o:ff to Texas; where tbe:," are Here, in an other a nt icipat io n, we see presaGes ref located. of "relocation " ( see Etheridge Kn i ght r s Bell:, Song) t 1 at Hi :1 I),, 1)'1 ,. , a.,, ,_ c or:ie in th e wor cs ofl/. oonte, . .)orar~r rr i ters (The :.;an Ubo Cried I Am~ .. , 3ara.!ca, '.Hl'I.ia~.:s Q; Bald,<in (~To'iod;, :C:oows ::;: :'a:::, ) , Greenlee (~e Spook ~-Tl':lo Sat b y t:1e Door ;, Graue:-: 1 Ai. 't A'."1.b ulanc es for ~ c ?Ti.::;z;ti_~s Ton'.i. t2), t 'he Last Po ets , Gi 1 0 0 Sco4f=- Heron (?1~ee ~-! il:l, , r.1.a:. l Talk at l25t .. Street a c:.d !.e!"lo.x) a :::d numerous other~ . ~-l:1itl:ian, at any r at e, lar::ents tl e treat1ent of the Indians,; i: r'!::o extende d a brot erl:r 'hand to slaves. In a note to tbe nark , T·!r.i t mar. ~'1 entions t : at 1"'e 1et relati v es of one e rai nole chief . Atlassa , "an emi nent ~ape c ontains eminole chief@ ," ems "h ero- , or n ": Free a s t:~e ai \ ~ ·.ritbin . i s ,al:-ry sliacle, The nobler traits that do t~1e r:1an adorn, I n bim. 1-:ere nat:t·,e: (P 257 Spenser ia n sta nzas . !fot t~e r.-ius ic r;1ad e In f a i1pa 's :forests or the everglade :Jas fitter than i n t h is you ng 1 e u.i nole :-las the pr oud spirit which did life pervade, And glow and tre ;-nble i n h is ardent soul- 1 ~ �1-Jb ic, , lit h is i nmost-self, and spurned ( °:' i .0 all mean control. t 1an' s last volume was An Idyl of the South, An Ep ic Poem in Ttvo Parts (Ne1-1 York, 1901 ). 11 Again ( 11The Octoroon " a nd The Sout, land's Charm and Freedom's Magnitude") explores the problen~ of mulattoes. Wh itma n Here, in chronology and subject matter, he parallels Charles Chestnutt, the) lack fiction 't·Tri ter who also exploited the theme of the mulatto a nd "passing. 11 Drifted Leaves. A new edition of Rape (1890) also included Whitman's World's Fair Po em: ')§he Freedman's ~riumphant Song, along with "The Veteran" (Atlanta, 1893), ,;ere read ½y ::i r.ise lf and Mrs. Whitman respectively at the Chicago World's Fair, atte nded by Dunbar and the venerable :i)ouglass. Like Dun ar, Wh itman became addicted to alcohol, but he managed to maintain his popularity as a hard church t worker, freedomf fi ghter ar:rl poet. in Drifted Leaves. He also published sermons An edition of Whitman's complete works, long overdue, is currently being prepared. For selections of h is writi ngs see Negr o Caravan, Rob inson's anthology, Kerlin' s bo ok and other anth ologies. Sometimes grouped with Phillis Uheatley in the "mocking-bird school of poets," Whitman is assessed by Wagner, Brown, Brawley, Robinson, Kerlin, .Jahn (Neo-African Literature, 1968), Loggins and Sherman. :~king only oblique references to racial pressures, Geor ge Marion McClellan (1860 1 1934) is reminiscent of Francis Boyd, and calls to mind Tolson, in his effort to prove Blacks �- capable of intellectual and literary comp etence. However, McClellan still does not deserv~ the abrupt disr:i.issal give n ( ~oj:oef~ ~. him by Sterling Brown~ HcClellan writes harmlessly of flo·wers, trees, birds and love (things Baraka and others have , of late , claimed a ,,.z(l.ack poet should not waste his time on). But ~e is competent and technically dexterous so as not to bore. Happily, some of the longer pieces are interpolated with sh orter ones and this makes McClellan more readable. After his birth in Belfast, Tennessee, LcClellan lived in an -, economically stable family and later bad a good, solid education at Fisk (B.A., 1885, and M.A., 1890) and the Hart ford (Connecticut) T'a eological Seminary (B.D., 1886). Con stantly on the go, like Bell, and a fund-raiser, like ~·Jb itma n, for Fisk University, he spent much of his time on the eastern seaboard executing his important duties. and taught in several cities: Louisville :McClellan pastored 1Tormal (Alaba.rr..a ), Hemphis, and Los ·Angeles, where he fi nally went i _n hopes of finding a cure for his tubercular son. His last ~ years were devoted to soliciting funds for aR ~~L tubercul~ .......... ::::::::. s ani tori um for Blacks. --- Among HcClellan's published works a.re Poems (Nashville, 1895), Book of Poems and Short Stories (Nashville, 1895), Old Greenbottom Inn (1896) , Songs of a Southerner (Boston, 1896) and Path of Dreams (Louisville, 1916) • . - As a poet, 11cClellan is sharp, crisp and musical in his use of language and images. "The Color Bane" pulls us somewhat forward to Fenton Johns on' s "The Scarlet Woman" since t he ) �nproblem 11 of having a beauti.ful but / 1ack face i of both . r the t'her.1e Even though :rcclellan' s wor.ian possesses ninez pressible grace}' For all her wealth and gifts of grace Could not appease the sham Of justice that discriminates Against the blood of Ham. And there is more than a hint in the title of h is final v olume, Path of Dreams; for , as many observers o1/1ack writing have noted ., the 11 drea r1" is a c entral theme ( see Hughes, Hayden, Nat Turner , Cor~other~ ., Dunbar), a Iii: au 11 . a) Yet1 on the 6' - - - - - - - - - - - - sur.face., r-1cClellan is delicat e and unoffe nsive . He writes ~1?Lted, sonnets, sing-song qua si- ballads , ¥ lA verse remi nisce nt of Byron., Scott and :-!ilton, and formal ballads a nd l~:rnm-i nspir ed praises as i n 11 The :?eet of Judas . 11 Varyi ng meter , sta nza and rh:nne scheme ., ::cClellan nevertheless refused to write i~ dialect ~ the vogue of h is day . time , 11 :-Taking it analagous to "rag;: he cor;1plained t h at i t ·was "co ns i de red qui te tbe proper dressing for 1Tegro disti nctio:1 i n t ".'.1e poetic art." ? or amp l e se lect ions of I:co:clla n 's writi n3s see Kerlin ' s cr i tical anthology., :'.:lob i ns.on' s b ook a nd J ohnson ' s A;nerican !Tegro Poetr:r . Robinson, Kerl i n and Br awn also give critical ..,iews of ~IcClellan' s work . See also Sherman's Invisible Poets . ":Rag- picker , tobacco steaw.er, br i ckyard hand, wh iskey distiller , tear,1ste:::- and prize-i'ighter.," Joseph Sear:1on Cotte tf"I• 7 (1861J 1949) was also one of t'he most gifted a nd prolific �writers of h i s era. Cotter was b orn to a J lac k r,1otber a nd wh i t e father i n He lson County , Kentucky . a._, Tbe k i nds of work ci ted a bove character iz ed 'h is life whe n h e was f orced, at a.n early age, to interrupt h is s chooling. ~e-e nteri ng nigh t school at age @ ., 'he studied to b ecome a teacher and admi nt istrator., ch ores uhiah ....___...., b e eve ntually assumed at the Colored ~-Tard Scho ol in Louisville. Cotter also taught E nglish lit~ erature a nd comp osition and co ntributed poems., stories a nd L,11/~l,LLL article s to local newspaper s i ncluding theACourier-Journal (one of America's outstanding newspapers). In b is life a nd work ., Cott er looks forward to Blacks like D+ ois, James Weldo n J o'tns on, :-Iar y ::cLeod Beth u ne and Langston Hugh es. I n h is "t-Triti ngs ., h e a ntici pates the variety and vi:rtuosit3r of a Du nbar. For, i n t h e words of one critic of the peri od, "he ma kes poems and invents and discovers stories., and ba.r d,t, l i ke., re cites them to whatever audience ma~ caj.l for t ~en-h, ,...., LKe'i,..Lln). in s chools ., i n ch urch es., a t firesides~" I\Brill ia. nt , precocious a nd endur i ng, Cott er pursued the complex side of' life, dari ng to exami ne t he oft en over simplified phenome non of' race re l ati ons i n America. Ker l i n said of his work: "Some are t rag edies a nd some ar c0t~1edies and some a.re tragi-comedies of everyd ay lif e among t 'h.. e ~T.e groe S • IT Cotter (Brown says he h as nboth point and pi th"), it must b e said, was among t h e first pack poets to represent, without shame and minstrelsy., authentic 13lack folk life. vefo"tJ He wrote i n formal-l academic, bookish l 111!l!fllll!IPE ; but he also wrote -~ M / ,, " �explicitly in dialect a nd standard English , of cor..mon life and common probler.,.s . He ach ieves "rush ing rhythms and ingenious r hymes " whe n be is at h is best; and a qui et , reflective per~ sej:verenceJ when he ·wr ites i ntrospectively. A disci ple of Dunb ar, Cotter is able to capture vividly the theme of traveling a nd ·wearines s that pervades so much j lack literature and song (see "The Way-Side 1foll II a nd - ...__/ repetitions ro 3 1 1 that ~ tablish the drudgery a nd the momentum to carry on). esl'f., He can be satirical a nd adinonishing in dialectJ as in "The Don't-Care Negro": Ne er min' your manhood 's risin' r 0 So you b ab e a way to stay it. Tieber u in' folks ' good opinion f' JSo you h a ve .__. a way to slay i t . In "The :Negro Child 11 Cotter tells the y outh to let "less ons of stern yesterdays" • • • b e your food, your dri ~ y ur rest, the sane poen he strikes a pose similar to that of Booker T. 1:Tashington' s 1-v-hen he advises the ch ild to Go train your head a nd hands to do, ~ Your hea d and heart t o dare. Cotter's verses a lso exalt .J'lack and liberal white heroes ( "Frederick Douglass , 11 "Emerson ," "The Rac e We lcomes Dr. W E B. Df ois as I ts Leader ," "Oliver We ndell Holmes") and relish such experiences as reading or listeni ng to Dunbar ("Answer to Dunbar's ' After a Vis i -t; " and "Answer to Dunbar's 'A Choi ce'") and Riley ("On Hearing James Hh itcomb Riley Re ad"). 16-J He vigorously searches �the human h eart 4 and the intangibles of lying, b ati ng , a nd ~ 1,// self-denying-I in poems J:4-k-e "Contradiction" a nd "The Poet . " nMy Poverty and Health II recalls Corrothers r 11 11 CompensationJ1 since the richness and strength of com.mo~ss, charity and honesty triumph over money and a high social station. A prolific writer, Cotter published several v olume ~ including: A Rhyming (1895); Links of Friendship (1898 , with a preface by Courier-Journal editor Thomas 1·Jatkins); Negr o Tales ( 1902); a four-act play in blank verse, Caleb, the Degenerate (1903); and A 1fuite Song and /(Black One (1909). A good b iograp_ical=- ' critical stud~ of Cotter is long overdue. For selections and critical appraisals see ~o i..s on and Kerlin . See also Cou ntee Cullen's Caroling Dusj( (1927) and Sherma n . ~ Judging fro1. mu ch of t b e critical reception of :)aniel t Wes ter Davis (1362f 1913 ~ the prevailing feeling is that le should just disappear. Of all the cri ti cs assessing hira (Wagner, Brown..,r edding, Brawle:r, Sherrr..an, ,J o~nson and ot:-:ers) , only t"l.-10 , Redding and Sher r:ian, seem to feel that Davis 1-:ias any 11 sinceri t:.-" i n _. is eff orts to portray , lacks i n dialect. rtedding's position is iro ni c i ndeed , since~ i n '!10 ~-~ke a Poet Black be does not discuss the folk tradition i :'.'l.fa- acl: 11 ter ~ tnre . Davis (~·i ho O".)erat ed on t ~-:e t _1eor~r t'::1at t1:1e r.iost effective 11 vriter of dial is the one in demand 11 ) is derivati..,-e of tbe wh ite writers t, as ~-ere ,.ost of the / lack dialect ;·rriters, a~d se ~::s only t c., tro.!:.3ccnd then i n tne fact of h is "ce ir:g a ,J-(lack ..1an --------- a nd a ore ac:.". erJ -u~". O could deliirer the verses ;•Ji t':1 the tic bUH!hB - /\"\ ~"""T~ �1. •.'"r" _L_ a • 1 .. c t i-·-,,-, ·- oss ;, _ ..._ ...,,.., .,c. G-..: :~L!J~ , ~ ~ !'\"' .. . _ (': v '. '.. '"" OJ 'Wd: " c, u- •._.,1.• 1-,., _,! e.1-.... .. - a uc , I ,.~. ., . _, 1sse 1-l. a "'d ., 'T) - -b it0 (:;_Q.:_c ct ~ ri t .)r ~. ·, :Ja 7 i s '!%\ :J a l so a s eriou s ll3 c'hola:' of d ia~-oct 11 Hh;) ~1rotc -: c;::;. h is 01-m fi r st~ lrn.~C:. exi ~mor'l.G\ pcr i e r:c ,.,s ....,ti3Ta c ks . I n i nt rodu ctio ns t o !; is 1"1ooks '½ e d r a,:1s ,, c o ,1pari sons and c ont a s t s b tw ee nfile.ck and ·rb i te sout>er n speech . ~eddi ~g p1~ais es :Ja v is for t h e san e r e aso ns t ½at ot he r I and h i s s ugge stion t nat plantation 11 \&~ ~ criti cs <l i s r.1is s hi r:iM f or ':1 i s exasGerated c21t::g of Bl acks dark " esn Here conte nt t o (J, . t liv e ou t t heir l i v s e a t ing '"hog me a t J " ~,Yadermillu~s '' a nd st ea l i ng . Reddi ng - eli e ves that Davis 'f poetry "r c pr e s e:1ts t he t i z;r. e st i n e..;i nativ e p ower of t h e pla nta.tio -:: i. 1:e gro, t he .. r odi ga :!.. r ichne s s of his i rn.ager:r, a nd h i s happy pouer to re s olve all dif fic lt ".cs a d r:ry s t eries with the reasoni ng of a child . " Redd i n.; ' s c or.:r.ie nt , not so b ars~ as it mig'ht seem, is nevertheles s o:-il~.r part i ally -if t h at 1,1u c~-1-trt: e . M f'\ :?or h ow oes one acc ou nt f or t he ingenuity of tr:e work s ongs, t h e ;(;:, i r it 1als , t h e a. itt i e s a.n jingles and t he earl::.r ': lues? Did not t'he s a I e "child" create tr.em a_so ? Bro,:•m , on t!1e other h a nd, refers to !)a v is as t "'.: : e "ITegro ,.,.., '!'h omas _.elson Pag e"- Lquite a nas ty • put-:-down ~, to use co ntem! M porar:r ".)arla nc e . ..., 't- - . nd Davis doe s seem to )e making fun of 1 Blac ks i n giving "is p oems sue . titles as: ''Eog ::eat, " "JHeh Down Souf ," "Bakin a n' Greens ," "Is Dar Waderm1lluns on Hi gh ?" a nd 11 :::)e Bigges t Piece ub Pi e. n But he is be nt on meeting t h e needs of people who want to 1)e "i nstructed and entertained." And it will be ob served that in some parts of the South 4J ',i .•ih ec ti.I£ t l1 is dropped from its e nding position i n favor of f tb3 �and one certainly find',, vidence of Blacks speaking like t h e characters in Hebster 's poetry . But a notb er a nswer migh t be in a comparison between Flip Hilson 1'ne v . LeRoy) and Rev. Daniel Webster Davi~ who achieved gr e at popularity wb en h e t urned his pulpit into a stage f'rom which to unload b is own brand of' "saving souls" and making the "word" c ome ali ve . As the dialect poet wa s not u nlike such ~nen as John Jaspel'_) • ~~~!!~!!!l!~ Black Billy Sunday, Brother East er , and "other Negro preachers II of' his day who ._ ~.,.ere so well known. fl -- Davis,, two collections, primarily in dialect, are Idle I·Ioments (1895) and JWeh Down Souf' (1897) . lished prose . He also lef't much unpub1 ifost of' bis work deals wi tb joviality, gluttony, f'lamboyant sermons, happiness, the "c ontented 11 slave and misi_, chievj'ousness - ~ the stereotypical behavior ~ ~ .,... white mi nstrels~,r· _\;.. ~ f1 has f'ostered on the Blac~#•• 1¥1:,-. Davis is derivative, as we notic ed, to the point of' copying wh ole lines a nd phrase~ ...t-~ I, 'l as in "Hog Hea~ " wb ere _ e takes the words ' ·Then the frost is on the Punkin" f'rom James Wh itcomb Riley and · changes them thusly: When de f'ros ' is on de pun'ki n an ' de 0 sno'-flakes in de a ' r , ••• The poem also closely resemb les Dunbar ' s r~fuen Hot 11 ___ e Co'n Pone's (f lthough Wagner and other criti c s claim that Davis did not borrow .from Dunbar but ·worked "directly from the models provided by the minstrels and the southern poet • " ) < lo J niir firs ~hand experience of the/ C • ~J Davis ~Vll'c:..a lack .folk predicament , �f'irst as a child i n North Carolina and, af'ter the Civil Har, in Richmond, Virginia, where he attended sc~ool. Fi nishing high school with good narks, he began to teach in the schools of Richmond. lack H:!.s popularity was wide among "th e less literate of' his own race," according to James Weldon Johnson, which may be a partial reason f'or Davis' ' continual production ..:.,,' of his particular brand of "poetry. 11 Known for reading h is verses with "comical unctuousness bef'ore convulsed audiences," his work, when placed beside Dunbar's, is unf'i nished. In style and workmanship, however, it should be noted that Davis is not unlike some of the bombastic ft ack poets of taday. For when t h e complete story is told, many "popular" contemporary ·, poets--speaking and writing a "dialect" and titillating "con (V\ vulsed" audiences f r.1a.y very well meet the fate reserved for Davi. (Instead of' becoming a "prelude to a kiss" they may end up a footnote to a joke~) In his f'ew standard=English pieces, Davis als o preaches a conciliatory attitude, as i n T EmancipationJII J. :JI'he claims the Af'rican ''roamed the savage J ., ... ~ wild" 0/ Unta ned h i s pass ions; , alf a r.1an a nd D half a savage child, until God nsa-w fi t " t o t each t he fl ack ma n of ''Him and Jesus Christ. I! It c ou ld e t 'h at t here is more to Davis than has met t'he eye; at any rate, a complete study of h is life and works awai r ome serious s tudent offa ack poetry. For assess ments of and selections from Davis'......, # writings see Brown, Sherman, Wagner, Robinso n, . edding and Johnson. �Our study makes no c laim t h at every poet briefly c onsidered i s any sort of giant. I n fact., exce pt when such a title or lab el i s obviously warra nted ., there is a n e.ffort to steer c lear o.f such qualitative evaluations . Tbis is true in view of our stated goa l: '--to place i nto th e hands o.f students a nd lay per f sons a bandy refere nce to) and~verview of) iac k poetry . So .Jean Hagner's claim that "it would have required a great de al of indulgence to welcome " the poetr y of J'obn Wesley Holloway (1865N1935) i nto "the literary domai n " can.,., ot fi nd crede nce or reinforcement i n thi s ✓ ook . Hagner also includes Cott er, } I a It t • Corrotbers and .~lid& :S S&l!&t, Brai th'wai te in his list of poets non grata. Holloway., like b is c ontemporaries Davis and Corrotbers., "7as a "preacher-poet." His poetry is i n both s tandard=Eng"!.ish form and dial ect., which ., acc ordi ng to .Johnson, is h is "best -1ork ." I n The Negro ' s God, Ben ·ami n !-fays c lasses Hollowa~r wi th the writ ers and thinkers _~1ho take a c onciliatory and c ompe~ s atory approach to the de ityf des pite oppression, slavery or ·w hatever . I n one poem., Holloway i s •~·Tai ti ng o~ the Lord " ; and even ~ Though hosts o.f sin may hedge me round, "WJ ill --- i he will nevertheless wait "patiently" for help from God. Baldwin, and otherp ack Hriters .Tames century ( getti ng a first start from Dunbar ), call such advice "dishonest." Baldwin, saw a contradiction in the preacher's �resignat i on a nd the rat-infested tenement buildi ngs against whose owners the preachers refused to lead a rent stri ke . Yet, a s a preacher, Holloway exhibits a classic devotio n a nd the abi l ity ( see Preface to Johnson's God's Tromb ones ) to aid 1 in the welding of the disparate Ji(Jack masses- - r - f"'\ u•~ never ~ ,_.. an easy t a sk • ......___,,, ~ .., A disciple of Dunbar, Holloway was born in He:triweather _, ✓ County, Georgia. His fath er, one of the first ,,,glack teach ers i n the state , h ad learned to read and write as a slave a nd sent his son to Clark (Atlanta) and Pisk/ niversiti es . For a period, young Holloway was a member of the famous Fisk .Jubilee Eingers. As a poet of dialect , Hollowa;r is both mus ii cal a nd h umorous.., as in "::'11ss :,forlerlee)' wh o h as ? Sof' broN"n cheek, a n ' smilin' face and Perly teef , an' shinin' hair / An ' s i lky arm so plump an' bareJ Reflect i ng a growi ng practice of th e transitional poets, Holloway makes an honest effort to portray deep _,Black emotions and feelings. Hi s descri ptio ns of ;B'J.ack women (especially) a nd men signal a new and v i brant aspect of _flack poetryi the merger of the sexual / sensual levels with the racial flavor of post bellum / lack America. Linguistically, Holloway approaches t h e sounds a nd id i oms of the Gullal~ wh ich will be s een more definitively in James Edwin Campbe ll. Since the Gullah dialect is spoken in the areas off the shores of Georgia and the Carolinas, it is poss i ble that Holloway picked up accents a nd expressions as �a child . (1919) . His books include Bandannas (n . d .) a nd From the Desert Especially humorous is bis "Calling t e Docto 7" which JJ: is an important catalog ng of folk medicinal re med ie~ includi ng Blue- ma ss , laud-num, liver pills, "Sixty-six, fo' fever an' chills ," Ready Rel ief , an' A. B. ✓ p,$ An ' half a bottle of X. Y. z. r Holloway \f-ialect poet~) joined Dunbar, Corrothers, J. Hord Allen a nd Ray Da ndri~get in being publis ed for the first time (during the first two decades of the ~ viously "off-limits" white periodicals. century) in pre For s elections from and criticism of Holloway's work see Johnso n's American Negro Poetry and r1ays !$-[The Negro's God. See a lso, for crit ic ism, Brown 's Negro Poetry a nd Drama. Yet another dialect vrriter, Elliot Baine Henderson, on whom we have l ittle information, was a notber dis ciple of Dunbar. A "prolific wr iter," he pub lished some eight volumes of verse, all i n dialect. In much of h i s l•1ri tings, as wit Holloway and Campbell, he utilizes the phonetics a nd idioms of the Gullah~I akin to the West I ndian bra nd of folk English . Henderson is somet i mes concerned with folk beliefs and the supernat ural and.J'lack religious themes a nd songs ("Git on Board, Ch i llen~'). His dialect is inconsistent, a problem with most dialect writers (inc luding Dunbar) , and while be trtes to achieve a phonetic trans cription of what he bears , be spells {in the same title) "Board " in a standard English way and att empts to place words �l i ke "Git " a nd 11 Ch i llun " i n d ial~ c t . His volumes i nclude Pla ntatio n Echo es (C olumbus , Oh io, 1904), Dar ky Meditat i o .s (S pr i ngf i eld , Ohio , 1910 ) , Uneddykat e d F ol ks ~ utl; or , 1911 ) 1915 ). a nd Da rky Di tties (Columbus , ,.. (1867J _, 95), u n like h is contempora ry J ame s Edwi n Campbe l l Dunbetr, "0 •1 es a L ost n oth i ng to the plant ati on p oets. 11 Campbei- se ms to h a ve l i stened c arefully to a nd a ppli ed the~ l a ck fo l k speech arou nd h i mJ wherea s Dunbar to ok h is i ni t ial cue s fr om t he pla nt a t i on s chool , c i ef sse ll . Po e ro roponent of wh ic ias I r i n Bor n i n Pomeroy , 0 io , Cam b ell grad. at ed f' r om t e Ac adem: and for a while t a ught sch ool ne ar Gall i _ ol is. H g ai ned -a?:lgs ton a d mi n i strative ex_ e riw nc e at t . e ore t each i ng an choo l i n Virg i n i a and t he r-re s t "I i rgi n ia Col or ed I ns t i t t e ( nm-1 ~Jest , r gi n i a State Col lege ,J -:,rhere oppositi on to i s a d m· n i stra t i ve ? Ol ic i e s forc ed i m to leav e for C:J icag o . cagg} ~ '.:1be r :, ., a ,.1.p"bel"' 1- a s a r:i.em e r of t h e sta ff of t he <'.§__1 Hrt " 1- ad £ht )l\A,~ ;::__~ fo r t hw r 3s t of !1 i s l ife -'_:::..'-~ ~ - ::..1 e :~i s c ~:m tv ~lporar i es, ) ot ter a nd D nbar ( and ot:~crs , Ca r.:p½ell t s e ar l y 1 l i s h od i n 7a· 1 • ous • 01-rs ,a t; rs . ., 0 · •- 0 :: ngli s ~a and t wo e s sa~rs . . ub l i shed i n 1~ ✓ 5 a ~d :31S ei·rher e . ( • '"'( 11 > 7 ers e s i:1ere . '9:is f i ::-s t vol~...:e of p o :,:s c o tai i:s ""'O e:·:s i n s ta nd ard Hi s se c ond volu.~e , sol e l :r po etry, ~der t e t itle .........,, f!J!l ~ c~oe s f rom the Ca i n ...,..,_.. , .. [ ■■--illifil[li!il'illiMTli:1■PlllliO■llif111.liPk ■lilif'41111@11!2. .tl!!ll!i~&&•1112 -c-slllt••·•"e"'*"&!IUMll'!JltU _ __ i lit.diifj i S::£:rGijfi& H i t t I I w \ Bll Ca r.1::=,b e ll i s quite c om e t e nt i n 'l:l oth sta nda rd :Zng l isb a nd d i ale c t; and ":1 . ile s ome of . i s se nt i !':lent s a r e well 1ha nd l ed i n t he s ta ndard~Engli s~ pons, i t is in t he d i a l e ct pi e c es tha t �h e sb o rn h is . ewer, complexi t-y a r..d origi r..a 2_i t :r. 1 110 ~1 0 ~i s important t hemes are int..,rracia l love ( or:e of t:: e first/ ~'iack ·wri ters-l s ec 'i:'1i t man a nd otb ersJ-to dea l wi t t is "touc:1 2r" /v\. fV\ subje c t ), the mulatto , sat ir e (see, espec i ally , "Cl ' Doc' Hyar" 'lack pride (though r,mffled ), a nd re a list i c presenl, 1 tat ions of foack "socia l reali t i es,l m i gious formalis r.1, a r:d (! etl\ W'!f'lrls lkkf'lR •tk VO :c4 ~ \ folk values ." I\.I t is i mportant to ment i on b i s brand of dialect, although a more i n- depth study i s still to e done. Unlike Dunbar, who see,, ed to strive f'or a universal anglicized ?ho~ netic, Camp,,ell (traces are alst:._r::Hollo1-1ay a nd Henderson) rec orded · th sp ee ch patterns clos ely r~ed to Gulla}~ [ ;· fl ?I t c Lat Such usage is se e n in er.~ l ploying t he subje ctive a ni obj ective pronouns i n the nomi nat i ve pos ition ( "I·Ie see , " "Him hab, .! as i n "Unc le the ~ 11 etc). Sph 's Banjo Song " : There is use of the broad 11 ( as i n "bawnjcr ") for the .£• '1-Jawnjer " a nd 11 dawnce" and The verbal copula to be e'1 is usually omitted (ass med?) and there is a nor~al le~gt~ ng of an e or i sound in 1-1ords li k~ "Be eg 11 , "j eeg ", "La igs. " The v often ecomes _ , and t somet i mes be c omes k. of course, other great differences. Tbere are, For more on such li n guistic aspe cts see works by Lorenzo Dow Turner, Herman Blake, Robert . D. Twi ggs ar:rl others. Campbell has a more auth entic ring than Dunba~ and or.e gets the i mpres sion that h e is • seriously involved i n feeli ng as well as representing what Hughes called "the pulse of the people." But Campbell and Dunbar are also similar in ma ny ways. 1.70 �In 11 1' egro Serenade" (compare to Dunbar's "A !Tegro Love Song ") Campbell captures a sharp human-social need . In ''De Cunjah ¥1an" he achieves a strong musical ring (with the help of a ft,, .. y ring-a-round-th e-e-iJ?e-i€ sort of chant) and dabbles in t h e supernatural-Lsuggesting, as Chestnutt /"I ~ {rdd, that perhaps the lack i'olk tradition bolds keys to the "ultimate mysteries of the universe . " The recurring rei'rain oi' . De Cunjah man, de Cunjah man, 0 chillen run, de Cunjah manJ will be ramified and made more dexterous by Hughes, Toomer and Hayden, as they experiment with these exciting oral folk forms . Campb e ll attempt ed to capture the cadences and gestural com plexities of a contemporary dance, the "buc Wv,\ in b is poem 11 :.robile Buck." He stated t h at he sought the "shuffling, jerky rhythm of the famous Tegro danc~" which he bad seen performed y 'j,lack longshoremen on t h e Ohio or the !1ississippi. type of word- movement marriage ~ • SJ . ti usual in J(lack poetry. today. I!}J This is not u Tumerous examples oi' such pairings abound Lastly, we sh ould note t hat Campbell's near-Gullah dialect ~~ . would later be revived (in the thirties and forties) y /\writers (:?, ~ Ambrose Gonzales and Julia Peterkin. UcKay, we have said, employed a similar dialect in bis Jamaican poems. Actor-singer H~rkr Bela.fonte, son of Hest Indians, would popularize this same dialect in t b e 195~ an~ 'l60J's ( ''llayligbt come and m e : ~ go home 11 ) . Hore salient contemporary examples of this idiom (and its cadences) can be found in the lyrics of"-.West "'"'f. Indiant .ii t .Ell a& music kno-wn as the " eggaJ~-~ an island version of 17 t W"-"""" �Afro-American "soul" music . One of the firs y .Lack p oets to write i n dialect, Car.;.pb ell deserves much n;ore attent ion than be has thus far received . At this writing, tbe most ex. austive studies of h i m appear i n Wagner's Black Poets and Sberr.-:an ' s Invisib le Poets . Though h e was a c lose friend of Dunbar's, his major works in dialect prec eded Dunbar rs books . In addition to his poetr~ he was also a member of a group that edited the Four O'Clock Tiagazi ne ·wnic1~ e was published for several years in Chicago . } Onf onf occasio n, '-' Campbell is known to have spent time talking to f lack men, pleading with them to spend their time more wisely than i n drinki ng arxi gam ling. For selec t i ons of his work see Jo'hnsoi.: , Robinson and Negro Caravan. For critica l evalua tions see Broun, WllG)Yle~ Johnson, Redding ( "Ca ,1pbe ll ' s ear al one d ictated and C/4 ter G. 1foodson 1 s "J.~. Campbell : is lang A Forgotten iian of Lett ~~ 11 ?-!egro History Bulletin, !-Tovember4 , 1938, p . 11. In l937t terling Brown sai~ 11 Eloquent and militant 11 were th e "words most descriptive" of t'he poetry of 1,. illia, Edward B rghardt D1 ois (1R63Nl ✓ 63) . Brown, w:10 also termed ::J1fo is "the leading intellactual influenc e of his generation," -:•1as only t-:-10 years ahead of a similar a c colade fror.1 J . Saunders Redding: "":'he:,,.' (poem'!} represent t .e greatness of Dr . D1 ois a s an i ns irational force . " I n tbe '!1istor:r of_)tlack poetry , however, D+ ois does !lot deserve a s lar;;e a porti on of the liraelight a s 1s normally accorded b i s ·work as historia n, social critic , journalist, novelist , Afri c anist , organizer of i ~portant �~ ,!'"JI Pan-Af'rican/ oncresses i n t he l 20 s, edi tor of 1..,L.. C isis, 0 ~at. f lnder-s c_ o lar of t hefoac k,J"p erie nee, p ect' • s r o;&tfi.4, tancy and t -: e 1/e~ Hegre ." I n 1923, • ~ Kerlin (Negro Poets) said Df ois was "c elebrated i n the Five Continents o.nd t'!le Seven Seas. 11 is i mp ortant for h is work in As a poet , the prose =poem militance/ :a, formfJ and for asserting a defiance and 1 claiming._ a hatred of racis m ~ \,,/ and oppression that h ad not been heard si nc e James Whitfield. Like molten lava, the disgust and \r)ger spill fro D ois's pen., as i n "Hymn of Hate": I hate ther.i, Oh! I 1ate them well , I ate the=n, c~ ristJ As I h ate he ll! Ironically, t h ough, i n h is h atred n u\3 ois al~ays nanaged to I re-establish h is fait and tr st in some higher order--in God. M. Eost of h is poems ad bee n publ ished in various periodicals (th e I nd ~pendent, Atlantic 1·onth ly an~ I\ isis) before several of t _em 1ere inters persed among the essays in Darkwater (1919) . D+ ois had, by that time, already gained recognition for h is ir-<lividualiz ed so of poetic prose N\which fused fiblical lat guage and imagery with his classical education and the expressions from the - ouls of Black Folk• (1903). But i n nA Lita ny of Atlanta," ~1ritt en after t h e racial h olGcaust that took several/ l ack lives, he assails all f ndar.ientals~ including t !1e existence of God • ..,.._:µ. God does exist, i n face of such violence and savagery, �('r Surely Thou too art not white, 0 Lord, O a pale , bloodless, heartless thing? Df ois also takes the occasion to cite his archt enera~r (Booker T. Hashingto n ): ~\}. They told him: 1 ork and Rise . A seeker ai'ter universal suffrage and brotherhood, n'fois employed ~uch of his poetry in the service of the political ideologies ~ t he e~poused. Thus in "A Hymn to the Peoples" he unites socialis m. and the Christian God under one banner, viewing "the primal meeting of t _e Sons of Han" as Foreshadowing the union of the world ! Other poems in Darkwater include nThe Riddle of the Sphinx'' a nd "The Prayers of God." His 11 S ong of the Smoke " (written in 1899) makes the American Black the ; imoke J{ing. 11 Listing achievements and misuses of Blacks (a favorite habit of f lack poets) , n up ois at one point as ks for acceptance of the? - ack man on equal t er., s with the uh i te: Souls unto me are as mists in t _e night, (I I iv_ . di& iten m~r blac kmen, I ~ ny w1ite, ,•fuat 's the hue of a h ide to a man in his .0 mightJ Bu~ D ois does not silence his · pen with out some appeal to God: Sweet Christ , pity toiling landsJ Hail to Hail to the black J For selections from and comment on D~ ois's poetry see Kerlin, �Brown, Redding ( Freedom -1a7,;rs} tNinter Negro Poetry). 1965), Johnson (America n For ass essments sJ!'Jahn, Barksdale and K~nnamon , Hagner, HaysJ a nd Chapman (Blac k Voices, 1968) .wh o rigbtly calls 1 D~ ois 11 the inte llectual father of modern Negro scholarship, modern Uegro militancy and self-consciousness, a nd modern !T gro cultur a l development . n D+ ois1 elected Poems d~ published (1973) by Ghana Universities Press and is a vaila le in the United Stat es from Panther House, Ltd . Jaries Da vid Corrothers (1869&1919) acknowledged his debts / to Shelley, Ke ats ( "Dream and the Song") a nd Dunbar ( "Paul Laurenc e Dunbar ")J after whom much of h is dialect poetry is ✓ modeled . ut Corrothers, a mi nister , displays ne ither the range (in subje ct r:1at ter) nor the skill of Dunbar . His mother died at h is birth in Cass Count~, T1ichi gan., and h is father a pparent l y ga ve hi:::i little care. In Michigan, h e orked as a youth in the sa't· ,.1ills and lum'!Jer camps , as a sailor on the Grea t . ,_,a!::cs , and later t eked out a living as janitor, coac man a nd 'bootblack in a b arbers'ho? . 3 ncouraged b~r associates to contir:uz b is edu cation , he nt died for t~e rr:i nstry a nd ren!ai ned i n t:: at _.ro.i. es si on L astoring i n r.:ethodist, Baptist a nd Presl, -t rian ch urc es) a ll h is life . His fir st p lis .. i ng opporf._ tunit;r car.ie thr oui:;h Cent, r:,.. r..aGazine; this ~a~~hin a wide "'- readi r,g audience ,_,ecause of the resembl• nce of bis ·wor { to ✓ ~ that o:f D n ar ~ . Corrot~ers ' first voluii1e (Selected Poe~s) ·was publi s::ed :tn 190y a ;:'ld _i s second collec tion (T':'.} e :)rea r.1 a nd t!:e Son9 ) cane o t i :1 1914 . F!e was i n Cl1icago dt:ring the sa.:~e �~ - - - -- - - - -- - - - - - - -- - - -- - -- - - - - - - - - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - p er i od t at Car.1p e ll l i ved t ho1~cJ a nc... ho also 1-rorked f or vari o 1s dai !? n~ s pa ~er s . Dun a r . Ha ~ et an d so c a l iz 1-ri t 11 Ca::1p1""' e: l a ::cl F j: O:i nous pa per arti c l es and n np ".:-lished poe;:s h 3 pt t t oge th er Bla c k Cut Clt b ( 190 7 )J a nd __ s a : -: o'h i o 0 r a ;)' ':r, I ::: ~ pi t,3 of Handi c a ~, ~as puJ l i s~ ~l i ~ / 1916. Corrot·_er s ' nAt -:1::.e C3..os ed Gat e of JP.s t i c e II a p _a rently has been ::i s fr ea b'? a nu:T. er of c:- i tics ( tTo .. r:s on i ::;c _ ~dc C.: ; a s advi s i ng res i g nat i on and c onci. l iat or: . / Carrothers -ms a n i ni ster and i mp l ~cat ons . shoul Bnt i l~no~•:rlcdc:;e t_ a t shed u ore l i e;;:~t o:: his .saccs ~ a9~ one oft: e for s~a n z a s ( ex c e pt f or tbe fourt~ ·_.r. ich endsl\' •::ere ly a ~Te ~ df i :-i a da:r 1Lrn t _i s ! egi ns and ends '!·!i tb 11 ) : ( ( ) To b e a _Tegro i n a d ay l i ke th i s . As a s er ... on on t . ~ e "'t:.rfac e , t 1::.e p oec. a p::: e a r s to tell Blacl~s 1 to 1a v e 11 pa t i enc e n a nd 11 f or 6 i vene s 1," a nd so on . But a c lo·s er readi ng - :-111:!. r e e a l a str o~g ad: ctiv ,., lea c.i ~;; i nt o a _:nost e ver y v i rt 1e . S o t e gr o p i n~s .. oo c l i ke t h i s: "stra ng e l oyalty " and i n t he code of 11 utter d a rkness " i a l l of t :1 e preac~er , i t "s t r a nge" or "utter. n . (l<,,lwrfy, s i milar verba l , • & - "rare pa t i e !;c e , 11 -1h icb s g 6 e s t t :~at , just mi gh t oe too nrare " or :Curi ng t'he d eliver y of a s e r on , or a. Bla c ks a re accn s ton ed t o s e a r c!: i ".JG for meani ngJ - sh i fts a nd l evels a sed on tona l va r i et~,. a n_d ot:::. er M vocal modulati ons . wo s ee y e t one r:1 ore exampl e of a possi"Jle , See d.ttD~-► " enc od i ng " of me s sage s "1111 ~lial!Y Ldfk II ) i n w~at "se ems" t o ½e , at bes t , h arml e s s d e liv eries arrl, at wor st , co nc iliatory . "Pa u l Laurence Du nbar II a ntici pa t es t e Har ler.1 Re naissance �a nd t . o ~ e t 1e -1 _ egr o " in citadels of 'H es ter n c ul tureJ-u~i ng "An• ollo 's Fire II a nd M ' {'~ visit'l\11Helicon" ✓ a v iri..g t . e "Dark melodist II vent re to t h e h o1-:1 e of the .,uses . h owever , is Corroth ers' Eve n m.ore 'blata nt , rilliant sonnet "The Negro S i nger ," in which he carries out a major theme of the Harlem Renais sance ~ reclarr...a.tion of _)tl ack cultural values and the . flack past. The "Singer," tired and frustrated from trying to write (and act) whit e , fina lly de cides: ~ I v B t I shall dig me deeper to t he gold; and Fetch water dr i ppi ng, over desert miles, so that at least some of h is original virtue a nd ancestr~l strengt_ can be ex ploited in the Western world. Such a course is the only way for the ,J!'l ack poet, Corrothers says, the only way for "men" to f ••• kn ow, and remember long, I _. or my dark fa ce dishonor a n~r song. The sar.ie t eme (slightly altered) is picked u h ~ in "T e Road to V t he Bo-v~" -;.Jhape- t h e singer a ;;ain knows tLa'e I hold my head as proudly h i gh □ As any ma n . . µA. Tens i on develops between the / lack and white men" "In the Ymtter of Two Iie ~ " and "An Indignation Dinner" feat ures a dialect presentation of t he popular plantation/minstrelsy theme about Blacks stealing chic keW a nd turkeys. A social lesson . occurs in the poem, however, for "old Pappy S immons ris" and explained �to those facing a .foodf less Christmas that nothing but "wi r..tr:r wind" (hot air) is "a-sighing th'oughif de street . " A f\ He tells the persons at the meeting that he has seen plenty food on a if "certain gernmun's fah m" and tbat I\/\ r "All we need is a committee fob to tote 0 the goodies here . 11 Earlier in tbe poem, Blacks protest t he ir treatme nt at the hands of whites; and in a -part series called "Sweeten JTate.hs , " one annoyed Black complains: ~ "Evahthaing is 'dultera ted f - CJ By de white folks, nowadays Even chime bones, when you buys 'em U f1).1n •t wo•f de c ash you pays . In one poem, Blacks complain of small wages; in another1 t~ey protest high prices t ramiliar stories i n the Afro-American communities. V They dispel ignorant statements (like Wagner ' s) t h at Corrothers is "lacking in personality " and that his works do not belong in "the literary domain . " And they cancel, in ✓ part , Brown ' s allegation that Corrothers follows a "typical V dialect pattern." F or selections of Corrot'hers' works see Johnson, Hughes and Bontemps, and Robinson . For critical appraisals see Brown, Johnson and Brawley . James 1-feldon Johnson (1871~ 1938 ), i mportant in h i s own fo.,. right as a poet and"his immense "service to other Negro poets, " is looked at in passing here. He will be seen a gain in Chapter V in c onne c tion with the Harlem Renaissance I where he is normally placed even though he ·: as in his fifties when the leading lights �4a.t' €Nl of ,._'ii:. · M I 11 ne1 M Cull0n, 1• Hughes , ~-IcKa:r, Toomer a cd others * first started to publisr.. their '\·r orks. Jo. nson, considered here as a writer of dialect poetry, was born in Jacksonville, Flor ida, to middle-class / lack parentst and attended Stanton Central Grammar School (all_)3lack)J where h is mother taught . He entered a preparator~r progra m at Atlanta University, later graduatin3 and returning to assume principalship of Stanto~ uring an eight ~year per io~ithe upgradec'l the scho ol t o sec ondary status . Considered a "::lenaissance I roa:1 (in the European sense\, '$::il I • lo Johnson founded a local newspaper ~ ~ (The Dail American., 1894), studied for the Florida bar ••'••-_, ~ dmi tted in '.!..897) , wrote dialect poems (modeled after Dun arts,, and finally n ade h is Hay to Broadua:r in New Yorls where 'he .~J colla• ora~ed s::i t :1 his 'brother, cor.1p oser J . Bosa:-il a nd Bob 0 Cole .tn 11 the ~ ight operas . Sterling Brown said Johnson recognized tri teness II of his earl:r dialect poems (man;,r pu'blis . ed i n ~ ifty Ye ars and Other Poems , 1 ✓ 17) ., but se-reral of themip •t to CT sic b~ ~i s ½rother and Cole MI became .opular favorites . :rou Hent Awa:r" • r ot~:.e::."s cc~:: pos cd Ar: 11 J.Or pu'l:)li catio;i. :!:.iift 3ver:r Voice and S i n0 " (lyrics y Ja .•es' for the :?ebr"!.ary 12., 1900, anniversary of Lincoln's irth. ~is pocr.i is seneral::r re 6 arded as the lack A•~1eri ca~ .,Jmthen" of ( ,liacnd or "' PPG t~1is 1 7-'a t io nal ¥rrd 1 y ,rn wfp.i An.o;p;L ga;a 1. E!le nob Be .• 6 ;-. Jonson ' s dialect poems ., listed i n his book under "Ji ncles and Croor..s., 11 leave nuc~ to 'he desired i n t he ·area of originality . t71 �P rh a ps 'h is oi:-m exp cr i r.:ents in t at form are i:-ibat led hi1-:1 to sta::e so er.:,11atica:l:_r that d ialect h as but "two stops" ... \ "hu ,1or and pa thos . 11 Johns on 1vas no t totally right, as we sba ll see later (B1,,oun ta .cos up this issue i n The ~Tegro i n Poetry and Drama). However, {erlin <-~•rhotl '.'lagner sa:rs sbows a ~ 11 def iciency in crit ical sense!!) called Jonson's ·,;-ror ~ "sor,:e of t h e best d ialect writi nf; in the 1-1hole r a nge of .Te gro lit erature; cell ence is .ere." h andl i ng dialect~} Technically, Johnson was qu ite capable i n z:::::::· · rings not , ing new to ?? tt "~:y h.e reach es pri nt . II ong." But h is dialect orer_ W ~§ed,o: ti.1 e ti me 0 Lady's Lips Ara Like de Honey n re calls Dunb ar's "A ~Tegr o Love S ong , and otber such p i e c es . ),)~ , ~~ m<1~0.rei·w~Lke":s _ac k noetry (u nlike Sterli ng Brown '~ a nd his t emes h• ave b ee n p re ttv mu ~ . cb. . of Dun ar's Every qt a l i ty of exi-, 11 . Corrothers' "Negro Serenade, 11 's- Johnson~poem carries none of t h e po ~er And hi s sui)title ("Ne gro Love S ong ") sh ows that he is -rorki ng i n t e stoc k trade for the period . The lover finall~ gets to the poi nt where be Felt her kinder s queeze mah b a n ', 1!Tuff to !";1a !,:e ,, e understan '. ,ray II is one of th e real ouc~i ng stat ements in "Jingles a nd Croons II a nd shows Johnson bridgin 0 _ lues a n~ pi ritual styles. the I t ½as a n aut_.entic (though quietly turbulent) ring in its sinp licity,;}moving a nd li nger i ng i n its spell ur ought b-y seeing the loss of a lover as a case for disl order i n t he cosr:1os . Glimpses of h umor come t _rough in a few of the p oem~ but 6 enerally the dialect is used for ridiculef alb eit �um-I i ttingly* and deals with the 11 easy 11 life of the plantation, -- the steali ng of turkeys and r) ••• eatin' uatermelon , an' ~ in de shade. will meet Johnson again, as critic, ~ a different "dialect . 11 J-tJ "PouLlotl,t-en~~ ~ur\b~ ,1 )!~~er of ur12~0") N' '' 2.'he towering figure of ',) lack American literature u ntil the /e naissance of the 1920Js, S lived a complex, tragic , ■J§tlbLCG I !JutL&i iguous and s h ort life. ru;i (l@T! 1!936!>' Born i n Dayton., Ohio., to former slaves., Dun ar corapleted h is forr.ial training at that city's only high school-Lgraduating with g ood He wa~~ ,.J ~ wlteh he w~yeCft-' 0UJ1 1.;!_ij marks .and as the only Black ailli~ sickly at an early a ge but ecame the man of t he ·ho se1,.after ---- his father's death ,. iUhon he s:as !.! school in his class. .§ OU£ a s 7..3s-- Completin 6 hi g'!:1 - but being financially unable to pursue bis interests in law and journalism., Dunbar began work as an elevator boy , maintaining his voraci ous readi ng habits. TenlTtJson, helley (whom h e t ooc as a He was fo nd of odel for h is poems i n standard :St glis!--.i ), James _,u ssell Lowell (.._,'wh ose work , alo ng with Riley, ::u ge ne F ield a nd ::lla Ubeeler 1 ilcox., h e found i n 1 The Century)., and others. I!uch of Dunbar's poetry b ears striking (1.. resembl"nce to the works of poets he admired, especially Sh elley, St:Ji! ;I~ r~ and RileY., whose "devices II Dunbar "industriously" set -..a Svb .. ,IJ'ntw ... (O,,.·,n""w ..~ M(Ol"•u~c p.aTwh•~., .. ~ ""·,ta, \\$"'111iiU q..n ou to d smantie and maste~ oF~it,0.1.Ko mm-Ctn0l"a.tTI,,c fb.'"p bt,.,.in~ ht1 R ptlTu'"'• fn IC'f lf". His volumes of verse include Oak and Ivy (1893), privately Tennyso printed; Hajors and :i:·Iinors ( 1895)., also privately printed, wi tb · �the aid of patrons; Lyrics of Lowly Life (1896, with a preface by ~ Ho·wells), ·which , representing a major break~ through for a / iack author , was published by Dof Company. :-:ead a nd This third volume included the best poerr:.s from tbe t wo previous v olumes and some tha t had not been published before . Dunbar, ~__...,,, a lmost instantly famous , c ontinued to urite a.nd publisb both ver s e and f iction. Hi s l a ter books of poems i ncluded Lyrics of the He artbside (1 899), Lyrics of Love and Laughter (1903) and Lyric s of Sunshine and Shado·w (1905 ), t he year 1:,efore in 1913. is deat -• Complete Poems was publ i .s ed I nterspersed among t he se books of poetry ·were volumes of shor~ stories a nd .four novels ~ "'Ia I P1:i1 'I'r.e Uncall ed (). ( l ,~9 8 ), '2:t.e Lo'Ve of Landry (1900 ), The FAnatics (1901) and The Sport of t~e Gods (l ,02 ) . Eis short stories i ncluded \I V I ~s (1393 ), fron Di ~:::..=-,::;..:----,,...-D_a.-::---". ( :'.. 90 3) a ----------, I/ (1900), -.r-- - -~~===~~::__:==~~~~-• 1 ( n Old :i. 904) • -~· ,roli.fi c a~:-.: ost r i ght up unti:. -tl1e t i ~1e of h is death* 11'!.1ic":1 a ~ .e k::leH r or' ...... i s • ,,.,,... ...1. 5 '!- as a.p;;-roac:--.: i ng . a•t'JQ' ·"ro•--;. .. -. - 1-"' .J. °T' - To~-• • '-" ~" Ee h ad ::::a.rri ed 1 0.r ..) · - a--1,,J,,-, , ~..1. "'l .. - 1() ..... , Q . ,...... '2.ic e ~ut'!_"' ~ , 1 a'"IQ~ 'h'is "'a"'t J...,;;) .... ·- - i:;.arr iage . or "c lassic") :'.::n;;lis'h . :T atter.19:; -:~ere to pres ent sor'le of his po etic co nc~rns, ac __ ieve~ Y" f'> "'t t-J ~ u. ·~"'d ~~'her 1.J. v ... _ ~ .. .... es A, .il.\,;, a. .. • O A"t,,..,,,_a-~ ~\.,..,. 1,._ . .l f S .,.,:.. 'if 1~s "1""' _ e S.'-'l .. l l "Tor ,/ •1,,.\.-"" too f"r Q - reac1 ,'i_ n,. _.b-• �czar pnblis 1ed a favo1 a.hlo :'n1'2.-pa.:;c re·rloH a::' Howells 1 Howells t ini'lue :1c e is indicated 1--:r 'l'.ra!: r,r:. . ck Brooks: lit erature u::o ~a s be0D able to cr e ate re~utations b:.,. a si ::~lc revieH 11 (Broo ks , The Cop.f'ide~1( ';:ea.;~.,. 19.;2). and Kinnamon not"', Ro-:·!el::::i ,. revicn-r 'Ha.8 But, as Ba:r.~sC:o.lo .:,ore of a social cor:ra.e-:::i tary ( l ibero.l, t:,at is) than li tcrar7 cri +icis r.: . singled out the dialect poems for special praise. said ., 11 uas the only nan oi' pure .l;'... !-Im-rolls :Dun½ar, frican 'blood a!1d of American civilizatio~ to f'cel negro life aest:1eticall:r a nd express it lyri cally. " later realizi:10 Eo-:· e lls' praise ~ras a c ' rse i n disguise, strus.;led for t l1e rest of 1.1is life to rer:10 re t1~e dialect stigr.1a. He cor:rp lained to James 1:-Teldo::-i J ol~nso :1 t':!at t . e public only wanted to read l: :ts dialect pieces. the pressure to be an intelligent nsamb o., nbe And feeli nc elsewhere coLi plained of having to play the part of a "blac k wbi te rr.a.n." Dunbar's resentme nt of t 'he "label" of die.lee-: poet when ·1: i e fel t he had reore profound and complex things to say is capsuled in �t is often-quoted stanza. fro:n "The Poet".= He sang of love i-ihen earth was ~rou ng , And love , itself, was i n h is la:,rs. Y But a'!:1, the ~10rld, it turned to praise A jin6 le in a roken tongue. Earli er i n the poer,:, Dun ar refers to a "deeper note," which h e pref erred to sing. Haunted Oak, tr ~ a/.Y But while /\poems -H:-ke IT Sympathy, 1111 T'!:1e "The Debt ," a nd ''Ere Sleep Comes Down to Soothe the '!:Teary Eyes:r ' do h av e deep a nd complicated n:ea ni ngs, one searc es in vain .for Dunbar the !i1an i n thelil. I n the dialec t pi e ces, Dun ar was ab le to capture the r h:rth ·1s, phonetics and idi oms of lack spee ch . But it is generally a greed t Jat, es pecia_ ly since be 1sed ridicule-directed ,;-rb ite models, h e s·aw the 1_,.Elac :<: rr.an as a su"l-iject for either humor or pity . The Sout" ' s reve nge for t '!'.le Civil Har h ad c or.1e i n part through its ph ilos o. hers a nd vri ter; wh o reflec ted nostalgically a.b out t . e "peac e and t ranqu i 4 t:r " of plantation lif e . This was p olitical chicanery at its Horst, but several .,.11-ack poets, :i)un'!Jar included, followed the ·Th i te originators of t he n i::ii,. strel and pla ntation sch ool of poets . (Whites did not ori s i f- nate m.instrelsy-4"½ut th ey did corrupt it; see Loften Hitch ell's Blac k Drama.) As a result , ~unbar 's treatment of Blacks i n ,.J ,, o °'~.-."4L h is d ialect poems i i stock•• -uJ'f\for t he era: . . . . s , i nging, grinning, ob sequious, head-scratching, master-loving, water-l, ~- meJJjn-eating, da ncing , banj o-pic ki ngl darkies . Certainly Dunbar comes t'!:lrough realis ti cally as i n "A Negr o Love Song " �(a ·written account of a song sung "Little Brown Baby, 11 theme) , "The Party, 11 ' y Black( :1 e b ad worked witb ), fuen / e Co' n Pone's Hot+ " ( t h e good-eating 11 "How Lucy Backslid, He also achieves subtlety and irony 11 The Rivalsn and others . :L~ t : "When Malindy sings" is by all accounts his important linguistic-cultural c ontribution. Yet Dunbar seemed to reserve the "serious" su jec ts for standard EnglishM for whic~ack critics will not forgive . imi and even in this seriousness be speaks of people laflt li@-behind lonely . 11 masks 11 or Wllg "caged " or "dreaming" or •~r•ce ~ In these standard piec es , Dunbar treats ~m. 10•111;.: unrequited love and goes on lofty flights as a kni ght or wan~ derer or theologian; or he is resigned. as i n "J.lesignation/ ~ 7 \iib,e;pe he invites God to "crush me for Thy use II if ~eed e. fav\ Yet accusations that Dunbar was c ompletely torn fro m t!1e real world of J3lackness are not true . In "The Haunted Oak, 11 for ex ample , he i ndicts the judge, the minister a rrl t h e doctor ~ for the lynching of a /lack man . He also brooded over h is dark skin, feeli :1g that, dur ng a t1.me of preference for lig...rit f skin and t e :1ab:!. t of "passing, 11 • is color beld bi .1 back. But some of 1is poetr:r anticipates Garvey rs c all for purity . 11 et?'.:l nic He pra ises the brown skin of :-.T.a.ndy Lou in "Drea:-;1in' Tow~" and he loves "Del:r" for being ,f • • • brown ez rown can be 1 ••• : Cv 11 \ ' She ain't no mullater; She pure cullud, -/;.,_d on ' t you see\·•. �k=,--Dat's de why I love hub so , ~2~ ~D' ain't no mix a out huh . A similar tl1eme pervades "Song 11 ( "African maid ")J '"Dinah Kneading Dough" ( ''Brown arms buried elbow-deep") and "A Plantation Port trai..J' ("Browner den de Frush ' s Hing" ). In bis dialect poems , Dunbar reveals a love for spirit and revelry and good times . But nowhere is there an indic ation of the enormous suffering a nd violence in.lierited . y oosti>·war Afr o-Americans . - -er~ksq~ '½ The lynchings , t e patty-rollers s1-rooping down on defenseless ex-slaves, t h e night f rides or t ~ e Ku IUux Klan and Hbite Citizens ~ the bars o1's, and deb ilitating economic situation or Blacks in ge nera-~ none or these things find their wa~r into Dun ar 's poetry. All t~i~, or course, is ironic against Dunbar's great adtliration for sue ~n as Frederick Douglass, Alexander Crumr:1ell, Book er T. ;-!as:1in;tonA h e h -i.'TI.ortalized :1 i: II lack Sampson of Brand~dne n ( all of whom o-etr:'". I nstead, in b is "deeper note" Dun ar ( notwi t __ standi ng t'he exari1ples of Hhi trield, 1:·Jbi t..:an, Dt~ ois, a nd others) spoke of ~ ear tbreak, probed ::1is own pessimis~ and :.." clig io Js doubt and s e er.ied li teral_:r to !):!. ne a1·ray. l e ct ~oer.:, :: oHcvor, he aa :ris ed Blacks to (In one die.t, 11 1":e ep Plt~ggin r A_onG ")0 ::uch of tl'}is eni gr.ia of Dunbar seems to be explained in his poem "A C~:~oic e 11 ( General':.y overlooked hy critics> w. o n onotonousl:r quote fror.1 11 '.:'he Poet 11 ~ in which he complains of hein r;- tired of proble~s and stresses: CJ But :tn a oer... let me sup, not simples brewed to cure or ease �!": :·:a:1i t:r ' s co nf e s sed d ise a se, But t ½e spirit- i ne of a si ngi 1: ,.,_i. ne , O Or a deu- d r op . n a _ o ne:;r c p ! On more t ~ an one occasion, Du nb ar inti~ated to ass oci ate ~ tBat 1-: e was all ½ut fed up with racial a ::;i tatio n-J a.ppare:-it~-:'" f e e li t";: t _at f lack-w ite relatior.s were h eyo d r e pair. T'~~.s co ld •~e ~ at least one reason wl :· h e nnasbed 1:: is b ands II of i nvo _ ~e~nc:-:t. T~ere are poe ts~ fe e l t 1 e sa:::~e - i in ti--e middle of the @ . ce nt a:·. r~~-4: "t-{ - c , '!IT ·o ,, . . f ~ ~e,e.ive.t! ~lt~Pj,.J/ · t#\ . ,e v ort .. eless Dun,::-, ar s r ~qnes vA"r.MB arm;;u i&a J. a c onte~~1porar:" , Cotter, "'11;::;: w:1 0 in ~1is trA nswer t o D :1,ar' s ES 'A Ch oice t ' " said : i:111at poets s .. ould (j >iy s11ift de :::"e e s Ane wed ste r ~ facts to so~er so n3 . Du~: har ei t~er d id not .. eed/hear or i:...ras not aware of t '1is "ans1 er 11 ; . t if ~ e h ad ta ~e n Cotter ' s adv ice per~a s t, e worl d ~ 10A½o re uoulu k n ow a d ~ffere!1t poet, all, D ::.i½ar was a s!d.1'2.f u l reader of :: is poetr:r-/4 often . __)ri :1;i :1::; a.udie c1ces to t .-::eir feet for sta cdi nc ovatic ~s nn~ ,_oas for en core s. Pis d exter o s ncss i ~ t l::.e use of l nn;::;ua; e a~d st:rl e ~-1as ad:;:i red , _,:.,. s e':eral ;:;e:10 t, rations of }(lack colle :::;e poets and la:~ wrtters w11 o I~1 al .::os t e·:or:· ;-,1.i tated •~1:-1 . ::u~:: stantial . flac k co;n:11un i t:r t h ere is some li e facility na:ned after DU ~'}':)u ~e wrote i ::1 al:1ost e v er:-r prev ailing st-y _e~ tbe ,:reat e st /\exploiter of :Sn z lis :~ po e tic tech n iqu e s ~)etHeen '.'ihitma n a nd Cu lle n . Sonnet, '.· :adri ,::;al, c ouplet, ':.)allad, ..J'P iritual, pre- b lues, so n[;s (including use __ .__ - - ~ u""t �of r:msi c a_ not ati o::i i n some i nstances) see r1s to La ve t r i e d . _Th~m l • ~ Du n ar ' s p oe r.1s ca n >e fo t nd i n Complete Poe ms, t1::e text us e d for t h e d iscussion 1ere . F or critical-½iograp½ical writi ng on Dun ar see Wa gner ' s Black Poets of t h e United States (t~ e ~ ost am i tious study to dat e ) , Br: :11 of Hi ::; People , uor k s by Brm·m ~r( s Paul Laure nce Dun ar : Poet neddins , Victor La:wson ' s Du n1. ar - Criticall~ ExaQi ned, '!i r g i n ia Cu nning:1 a m' s Paul Laure nce Dunb a r and His Son;;, a nd Jea n Gould ' s Tba t Dun ar Boy: America ' s Far.10us I:er;ro Poet. Oti~ers 'W " Th e S tor:r of o .1 a ve writte n on D rn' ar i nc lt:.de Housto;.1 Ba:cer, Dar1·1:~_::1 Turner , Be n jamin IIa:rs, James nsfn;~fl([i/Mf:~ F ord He:don Jo __ a nd Addiso:1 Ga:rle, Jr~, 'r). i:~ o re c ent ly pu:J lis~ed a Dm o ar 1, iograpb:r(See b, k>L ,0~'1tlf o,oothe..r" poe., J, ni u s :-: ord e cai A~l e::i (_1 ~75 ' ?), "-a,, out wb o;:-1 we kn ow ver:r littl e , i s a n h 1porta.nt fi Gure in t '!J is transt tio :ial p1~ase of pl a ntation t raditio n i n p oetr:- a nd t h e wiltin.:; of Was , in 3:tQn ' s inf l u e nc e on/ ctxsss lack t:~i nkcrs a ;1d acti v ist . .. - 10m: trr re1 ta sTi sts .• . -...;;.-;c,t-:;;;:-~ ...... ~-· . " - ~ ,., -=-- ' - ·-·· Alle n ·w as ½orn i n Hont g or.1er:.,. , Ala1:a ma, a nd :,1ov ed wi t b ~~ is f'ar.1il:r to Tope a, KansS: w'::1 en 1-; e was se~r e n years old . Except for a t 11ree - ;rear period4, d.uri nc; w~ icl~ 1 m wrote for a nd t rav eled wit:-: a theatrical group , "h e spe nt most · of ·~ns 1·r _..---,, a· :z• ,..15 a.:asa 1 e as a. ·,)o ·n __ erma ,.cer.-:ttusI. if @I on w wa. ~ ~ i...a. - Eis o nl y volume is R,_y mes, Tales and Rl:rymeg Ta les (Tope ka, 1 90 6). �ii dialect, Uostl:r ;::r~:r~;ies co ntai ns ".:::;reat feli c :tt:~ of c:: arac{, terizati on, surpris inc t rns of -wit" a 1:d nqt ai ;2t p i losoph:ri.._ " ~ Tbe book appeared tl1e :rear of 'Jun:., a.r' s deat:,, and Kerli n plac es ct /-so aei·ma. , t of an ex(:lffra . . g t i· on . Alle n on~ par with 1Jun.b ar M '!"\ "J'__.T owe ver, Alle n is -0e ep and pr ofou nd i n . ot __ .. is standard-=-En.:l is , pteces --:..--- (he includes two in the· ook) and dialect. "Cou nt n;_; Out " is a rather li ·__t recolle ctio n of c'::1:.ldl: ood c a mes s .c:, as f ut , 11 '.)<ide-and -s eek, 11 T~'}e poem, and 1fo ~t i t s re~ c urrinc; ' 0 !I ··· 1 Allen also '~nows t 'he co nse q e,1ces 01,, " ut; - 0 tt;- 1 ,--u ca·,'--• '-' ,...'~-'-V 11 01 f-..., at -~ ni.;bt er in a:.i 0:1 tcrritor:,r a ~10n::; ·t1.cious, •,ate-~;:ot::::;erL:: n. ::.c. (I Deatl1 f ':1:tll sui.1s et of c t er ::-!. t:· ·.:4-'. �p To win one stride from sheer defeat; I To die t but s ain an inch. His pen remained silent after his first book. A if ~hr t11 And one wonders . •~,. like so many Jlack artists, renounced his artistic inclination (in view of the times) and simply gave up. His dialect poem~ carry , on t he surface, the' spirit of the "dialect traditio n." But Allen is a biting satirist of middle-class Blacks (Wagner attributes this to an "inferiority complex ")J an~okes fu n at wh ites. Temptation overf takes t he preacher who tries to "resist" in "The Devil and Sis Vine~ " but• "Sh i ne On, Mr. Surn~ " and "The si k o:f the Fiddle" show h is c;:;;se o~ servation 04 and take-it-or-leave-it attitude towar d ) whites. His satire of the / lack middlet class is reminiscent of the i m patience suggested in statements by Whitman and anticipates the works, especially, of Frank Marshall Davis and Melvin Tolson. Allen is also i mportant as a stylistic innovator. In "A Victim of Microbes," he again casts aspersions on whites and spoofs stereotypes of Blacks as field workers and laborers. But be couches his narrative in an exciting new literary form which allows for an alternation between ...._ -&:.loosely rhymed eight-lin4 stanzas and four-linef stanzas of blank verse in ~ - - - -- - - - - - - - - - - - - --=...,' . , �~ which repetition of the sort found in the blues ofj pirituals occurs: I done hyeahed de doctor say it-1 de .O doctor hisse'f said it ••• • Brown was right when he said Allen's work was "unpretentious" and contained "pleasant humor." poetry see Kerlints work; J.iii, For selections of Allen's for criticism,~own and Wagner. Primarily important as a writer of prose, journalist and .3 ~ 'l- I inspiration to other writers, Alice 1Nelson Dunba (1B75wl935) was born and ~eceived her public education in New Orleans• IJ-8.JL Aae.,.,-; Ca.m -42 1111iia ·ske. ~ marri-,, Paul Laurence Dunbarl\in 189§'\ -i.:;?? !51 pv~11ed · further study at Cornell and Columbia)1niversities and t he University of Penn~ylvania. S~ authored volumes of prose ; iolets and Other Tales ~ U.89 ~ The Goodness or St. Tocque nd edited Masterpieces or Negro Eloquence l (1913 and The Dunbar Speaker j (192g, in which appears some or her poetry. HEYL £& a: &~noted If i ~ l t 1 ·a ·1 • a ::S journalist and lecture~'Jff or a whf!e \she serve~ as managing edjtor of The Advocate and~ contributed to numerous magazines. ·?12 1 = _J1·,,..,. l <l''1 JGS 2f6U?lco~iQ; has little racial fla I5 ~ her tes /\ World War oftenf antholog'ize her technical abilities in that form. 'I Her poetry \ ~f but she does proi epresents 1sonnet"~ Sit and Sew" she laments that, as a woman, she can do little else to hasten the end to war. "Tl:_e Li& ts ~ Carney's Point" contains "fine symmetry, hi ghly poetic diction and great allusive meaningi " (k-frlin), An easy-tlow ~ n poem in four-linef stanzas or iambic tetrameter/ )i r:s • ~ ,_;,; uLig t" al lows the poet ( as with many romantic writers) - - -- - - - - - - - - - �- - - -- to stream associations from a central theme -' the lights. But I wef\'1" fN()A something :ilJN-ost when the lights 11'/\'gray in the ash of da~" J And the sun laughed high in the infinite sky, ,1 1 And the lights were forgot in the sweet, sane .0 calm. Studies of MI's. Dunbar-Ne ls on• s poetry e.r~ collected poems have yet to be published. ~:i,\:(;f:~ :,!r "The Sonnet" is printed in several anthologie~ and three of her poems appear in Kerlin's book. I. a 2 Kerlin also advances brief criticism • ....., <}fll C ill a n Although Sterling Brown says that Joshua Henry jones (1876~ ?) "gives little besides banal jingling)' we mention him briefly as part of our effort to survey2£!t:St f the poetic r1-t1~e. jifitput /, of t he period. \.Por more listings of lesser-known poets see the end of thf chapter) Jones was born in Orang;jburg, v South Carolina, and, after completing high school, attended Ohio State University, Yale and Brown. He served on the editorial staffs of several newspapers, was secretary to the mayor of Boston for four years, and published two books of poems (The Heart of the World and Oth er Poems, Boston, 1919, and Poems of the Four Seas, Boston, 1921) and a novel (By Sanction of Law, Boston, 1924). Jones ~ \poetry treats nature, nostalgia, race struggle ( as in t'Brothers 11 ) and sentimental love ( "A Southern Love Song "), themes "Love Song. " nality. - - V-1"1~-ti Kerlin has compared to Johnson's Though grim, "'110 Skull4 " does show.;;;. origi �Noted more for walking all the way from his home in the South to Harvard University, where he camped overni gh t and was arrested on a charge of vagrancy, Edward Smyth Jones (18?~ ?) published The Sylvan Cabin in 1911. Called "pompously literary" by Browll.>who adds that his verses are less interesting t han his "biography," Jones wrote "Harvard Square" wbile be was in jail. European model • -. ::::.;- He recites the names of Dante, - - - -- Byron, Keats, Shelley, Burns, bombast of stanzas. +he Ll-e and•=••••••lilli-.. - "A jong of Thanks, sensitivity and deeper feeling. 11 in a however, shows more While it leaves a lot to oe desired, one can certainly feel the power growing throu gh t he fheph~~e. wh1,"p~e.s repetition (in se,,eral dozen lines) of,-._"For the,; ",Asun, flowers, or nature. W , -ippling streams, and other tac ~ tyA.lex Rogers (1876 11930) is one of the several ~ ~ o r:=:=--=:::--- so "minorn writers of dialect during t h is period. ~ ets published pamphlets t hemselves, secured places . for their work in newspapers and magazines, and traveled on " l'\'I lt'l\ pt'r' \--Cr' a regular reading circuit "-011 111i41i-S their poems and ditties J often to the accompani ment of bands or single musical instr me nts. This practice ~ continu ~ p unti~this very da~ when many <II A i>e? poets, if not heard live, lo~e their signif ~ 'l'M~•)"c~a ~ and ~ i c flavor. Such was the case with Roger ') wh 'da-,,,W.tlJ... ''wrote lyrics for most of the songs in the musical comedies in which Williams and Walker appeared." Rogers was born in �Nashville, Tennessee, educated in the schools of t hat city, and finally worked his way ,;1orth1 where he wrote some of the most . popular songs of his day; he made a number of performers famous, !Miie ema,l V1 ..... His titles give including white entertainers looking for "Negro stuff. 6'i_ ii-- satire, humor and some slat1stick. some clue to his intentions: ''Why Adam Sinned, 11 (a Flip Wilson-type conversation between Simmons"), "The Jonah Man, Drop." 11 11 11 II The Rain Song" Bro. Wilson" and "Bro. and "Bon Bon Buddy, the Chocolate Rogers' significance, however, lies in his work in the theater and bis ground-breaking efforts to change t he popular (ministrel-inspired) image of Blacks. Dunbar had co authored lyrics ~Clorindy?1 0rigin of the Cake Walk (1898 ) and In Dahomey ( 1 9 0 3 ) ~ part of' a groundswell that ~"'f::r'~ 'to . . .ng to>Lof'ten Mitchell (Black Drama): In the latter part of t he nineteenth century a group of Negro theatrical pioneers sat down and plotted the deliberate destruction of t he minstrel pattern. ( These men were Sam T. Jack, Bert ~illianw, George Walker, Jesse Shipp, Alex Rogers, s.~r. Dudley, Bob Cole, J. Rosamond Johns on and John W. Isham. And in destroying the minstrel pattern, t hese men were to help pave t h~ way for the million-dollar musical pattern which .today dominates the American theatre. Mitchell's observation sheds great ligh t on the importance of many/ lack "poets n who, however dismally they may fare on paper, ;r;) �are of major i mportance to t he aggre gate ritual and musical sense/life of on goingr,-ack society . pattern, with radical variations Today we see a similar of cours ~11growing from the work of James Weldon Johnson and others ~ in Gil Scott-Heron, ; (be Last Poets, t he poets wh o are writing for t he ritual t heater, ~ &Y and in the efforts of" dramatists ~ Melvin Van Peebles (Ain't Supposed to Die ,f Natura~Paul Carter Harris o n (T!ce Great EcDaddy ) , Imamu Amiri Baraka (Slave Sh ip), t he work of Barbara Teer, Clay Goss (Andrew and Home-Cookine ), Eugene ilr _,,, Redmond (The Face of the Deep, 9 Poets with t he Blues ~ d The Ni ght John Henry Was Born ~ and t he experimental productions of Michael Gates {The Black Coffin, There's a Wiretap in or Quit Bugging Me and Will I Still Be Here Tomorr~ My . Sou2..._: ~ -: 5..G \ pattern, practically perfected by Langs to n Hughes, can al so be seen i n outstanding performing-cult u al centers conducted ~ by Katherine Dunham in East St. LouisA Val Gr ay Ward in Chi cago, and atilma Lewis' t Center for Afro-American Cultural and Pert forming Arts in Boston. Sterling Brown~· writers of dialect" .~ a Rogcns j ,-.ic1. __,, e, sib11a1 Hil:tffl other "minor includef Sterling Means (Th e Des erted v' Cabin and Other Poems), S. Tutt Whitney, Waverly Turner Carmichael, and just about anybody else who wrote dialect at the ti me. Means also wrote in conventional English forms. For evaluations of Rogers and other similar writers see Mitchell 's Black Drama, Johnson's American Ne gro Poetry and Black Manh attan{ ._ J and Brown. �Ohe oF """e. --;tream of' _}(lack "immigrant!," •••• haa nots boon• . 110 1 t; ad •• bids uor J J a9- George Reginald Mar gets on ( 1877 ! ? ) , N was born in St. Kitts (British West Indies) and came to the United States when be was 20 years l old. Margetson, a wh olly original poet, got a goo~ solid grounding in literature in bis childhood and produced f'our volumes of' poetry: _England in the West Indies (1906), Ethiopia 's ~li gh t (1907), Songs of Life (1910) and Tbe Fled3ling Bard and the Poetry Societ~ (1916). His a.cbievement can be seen in the last bool-y which consists of one 100- page poem. A satire, owing debt to Byron and other English influe nces, t he poem represents one of the most im.i portant technical undertakingtby a, llack poet si nce 1vnitman 's Rape of Florida. I~rcetson uses mostly seveh-linet stanzas ~ 00 of fi v e-fNt ., meter with the seventh line lengthening to an Alexandrine . . His rhyme scheme is ab ab . b cc and he exh ibits } a wacky, uproazkus use of both rhyme and humor . The basic stanzaic pattern is interspersed with shifting meters and schemes which appear as f'our-linef stanzas in an ab ab movement or an a a a~ context. The poem begins in a search f or t he Poetr Soc iety (reminiscent of several European poets) and Mar gets o OY\t!J ical and ~ s sa s an old theme: ~that of poetry being mecbai uccess dependinguJn school or dress as opposed n to -'--.:, talent•. ....._,, During this "quest fl Mar gets on "digresses fl to discuss and explore practically every major current theme in society: . . . social conditions, World War I, politics, religion, literature, the, /lack problem, and he even pokes fun at President �Woodrow Wilson : ( ? Come, Woody, quit your honeymooning! In t his important poem, Hargetson is scathing, sustained and brilliant . He views the many currents running t hrough t he community and satirically sums up all t he coni'usion: Some look to Booker Wash ington to lead them, Some yell for rotter, some for Kelly Miller, Some want ~ s with fat ideas to feed t hem, Some want Jack Johnson, t he big wh ite hope killer. Perhaps some want carranza, some want villa, I guess t hey want social equality , To marry and to mix in white society. Other, latert, satiri sts wh om Ma.rgetson's work calls to mi nd are Tolson (and h is i ncomparable Harlem Gallery ), Frank Marshall Davis, Dudley Randall, George S . Schuyler (Black No More), William Melvin Kell ey and Ishmael Reed. In bis other poetry }1argetson is strong and competent-l he reflects his i mmense /1, reading bac kground, "S pen~r to Byron"f but none of his earlier ,,,.., work matches up to Fledg• lit;ig Bard. For samples and criticism of Mar getson ' s writing s; e kobnson and Kerlin • ...___/ al so makes a br i ef critic al obs er vation. In many ways t he poetry of William Stanley Braithwaite or (1878ij l 962) has suffered t he fate of that tl!'kPh illi s Wheatley, Dunbar and others someh ow deemed i•not .Jlack enough " for inclusion in some Afro-American poetic - cultural circles. The Frenchman �Jean Wagner said that a study of Braithwaite does not belone among those of other J 1ack poets." A mulatto, Braithwaite was born in Boston to West Indian parents and was mainly self-educated. He is considered a major inf'luence on "tbe new poetry revival 11 in America and counted among his friends such white literary figures as Vachel Lindsay, Carl Sandburg, Edgar Lee Masters, Arrry Lowell and Edwin Arlington Robinson. His career as a poet began with the 1904 publication of Lyrics of Life and Love and his second volume (House of t he 1 Falling Leaves) was published in 1908. His Selected Poems was published in 1948 by Coward-ifuCann, Inc. Best known for his Anthologies of Magazine Verse, published fro m 1913 until 1929, Braithwaite was for many years a literary critic with the eJ§;i Transcript. His other anthologies i nclude The Book of Elizl betban Verse (1906h The Book of Georgian Vers~ (1908) and The Book of Restoration Verse (1909). F or :-: i n eff or t ~ Braithwaite received t he NAACP•s coveted Springarn medal in 1918 for high ach ievement by an Afro-American. The same yea he received honorary degrees from two/ lack universities and later became professor of creative literature at Atlanta University, a position he held until he retiredJ in 1945. 8raithwaite's poetry, Sterling Brown said: The result is the usual one: .....the lines are aceful; at their best, exquisite, and not their best, secondhand; but the substance is thin. Even t he fugitive poetry of some ,,, Of 1 ~ �of Braithwaite's masters had ereater human sympathies. Brown is implying, of course, that some of t he white "models" that Brai tbwai te used could l:>&~e-theu\·'w.,ott k. even if the / lack poet could not. th A. '9'2<.09t11,oklt. r'fd:iy Brown is essentially correct; we Shave tested the t hesis in classroom~ and t he best students I\ appear dum\..Vfounded upon confronting Braithwaite after leaving other J lack poets. Arrl Braitbwaite's problem is not the same sort of "problem" presented by a, say, Tolson /Y\wbose work is ------ difficult and complex but not unw • dy on repeated readings ~ ~ ( ~ Tolson's work is ~·essm~l,r!!"!.y / lack-based). Braithwaite seems to be reaching for a h i gher science in h is words; but he does not chart hi s path so we can follow. Fj\eitdt writing resembled~"poetry of the twilight you have his meaning, it slips away. ~ Brown said bis "i just as you t h ink This is especially true o " poems ~ 11 1 "Ironic: _,LL.D}' (about the waste:f1-and ! (cf. 'Del Cascar, 11 Turn Me to My Yellow Leaves" ( about a death t wish ?), Eliot) and history?), "Scintilla, 11 and •sic Vi ta. " 7 is one of Braithwaite's most attainable poems, is nebulous. T.\s. "Rhapsody" but the messa e 0 He expresses thanks to t he §Upreme geing for :: :; "the gift of song " and is replenished in the knowledge that "world-end things" that dangle on the ned ge of tomorrow" can be obliterated by dreams. In b is critical introduction to Braithwaite, Johnson (American Negro Poetry) apologizes for the poet's lack of sensitivity to , tbt mistreat ment o:t: Blacks and explains bis �A ti~ W"'v. c.i ~L (..c) "C~1'il failure to dip into the / lack fol k- b ~ This has not been a matter of intention on his part; it is simply that race has not i mpinged upon h im as it has upon other Negro poets. (I> fact, In his work is so detached from race t hat for many years he had been a figure in t he American literary world bef or e it was known generally that he is a man of color. Certainly J ohns on meant no harm in using t he word "colo1:," but it tempts one to punning. Braithwaite, as Brown a nd others have noted, rejected having h is work indiscriminately cal led "Negron poetry. This issue continues to raise its head with , first, Cullen and, later, Hayden (including many ot he~ lesser- known poets in between). And t here are oth er poets of t he @ ® century who have written (or write) Braithwaite's type of poetry . Some, of course, are experime nting and search ine for new forms. See for example some of t he work of Cullen, Hayden, Randall (More to Remember) Russell Atkins, Bob Kaufman, Tolson, Gwendolyn -------- / Brooks, Michael S. Harper (especially History as Apple Tree), and others. The debate over h ow much of (or when) a poet's work is or should be "racial" is a continuing one and is not li kely IV\ given the diversity of t he poets ~ to be settled in t h e very ne ar future.~lnti.t--est-n~Ly, , with the exception of Claude McKay, no other poet has as many (or more) poems as Braithwaite in Johnson's 1922 (1931) anthology. Whether Johnson did this out of debt or respect is not known. Braithwaite, we know, bad praised Joh nson �(Fif'ty Yee.rs) :for bringing 11 the first intellectual substance to the content" of Ai'ro-American poetry. But J. Saunders Redding called Braithwaite "the most outstanding example of perverted energy" that was produced in a Jfl-ack poetry. -year period of At Atlanta University, Braithwaite rubbed shoulders with Df ois, Mercer Cook, Rayford Logan and others, which apparently helped him doff some of his Bostonian snobbish ness. His poetry in general reflects the influence of Keats am the pre romantic British poets. He loves to speak of dreams, trances, impendi ng doom, silence and the prospect of touching other worlds. For selections of his wor iy see most anthologies of Afro-American literature. Brown, Redding and Brawley. He is critically assessed by Other evaluations are primarily concerned with Braithwaite 1 s work as anth ologist and critic. Barksdale and Kinnamon give a good over~ ll assessmen , of --••r b-J4- Whk P--- Braithwaite did include some Jlack poets in his magazine anthologie~ and h e stands at an important threshbold of t h e • t he era of modern poetry . A1'ro-American•Jentry into 1 Records show t hat literally hundreds of poets, inspar.ed by ~ the brilliant example of Dunbar and company, took part~ this exciting pre:f)fenaissance of / lack American culture and arts. For more on t hes e poets, students sh ould go to such publications as ']be Century, t h e Independent, ~=====~ Defender, and the numerous other art-and-poetry-conscious pub-t, lications of the day. Yet it is in some wa:rs appropriate t hat we approach our close to t his chapter with Lucien B. Watkins 2f>f �(1879 Nl921), first teacher a rrl t :::.en sold i er , wt. o was c e.lled "t h e poet l aur eate of t ~e / ew 1re 3ro . 11 Hatkins pu lis l': ed ot~c ~olume of poetr~ in 190 7 (Voi ces of Solitude ~ 1~1s s ec or.d hook ('\;Jhisperi ng Wi nds, n. d .) was brought out by frie nds sl1 ortl:,a:f'ter h is untimely death. Watkins is ch iefly noted for his militancy of tone) as t ypified in h is sonnet "The New Ne gr 'J" which opens with the words r He thi nks in black and goes on to describe a god wi t 'h Africa n f eature SQ Watkins also wrote h is own eulo~ a f ew weeks before h e died. I n t he pymn-inspired form>he is grippingly aware of h is ap proaching deatr;, as shown in t hese lines: H ' y summer bloomed for winter's frost: r:J Alas, I've lived "A Message to the Modern Pa a pass age from .John 11;44 in Y nd loved and lost! s" is inspired (i ntroduced ) by the Jible . The ifterations "Loose ( ~1 ,~ l ~ , ~ him!" and "Let him go! ft frame each of t he six ~-linef stanzas . "-' Taking the militant stand characteristic of b i s work, Wat ki ns tells the s to let t he~ lack man go because be "bas his part t<lJ play" ) In Life's Great Drama, day by day, 1- adding t hat freeing the Afro-American will "be t he saving " of whitest "soul. 11 In many ways a precurser of t he Harlem Renaissance , Watkins conducted experiments in verse ("A Prayer of t h e Race J2hat God Made Black") and expressed pride in bis African heritage .;:; ( "Star of Ethiopi a "). He was born in Chesterfield, Virginia, �educated at Vir ginia Normal and Industrial Institute, and was active as a teacher before b e served overseas in World War IJ which "wrecked his health ." Perhaps Watkins' feelin gs are best expressed in t h ese lines (reminiscent of Margetsonts f "The white man's heaven is the black man's hellt "}: God! save us in Thy Heaven, where all is /] well! We come slow-struggling up the Hills of 0 Hell! .. ..1 tc..'t') ~A Pr-a.ye.,.. o rih e r<ac.e thq1 ~ od tt'\tWe ~Gtc. For additional comme n't on Wat1dns.J see Brawley' s Negro Genius, Kerlin's study (which includes more selections) and Johnson's American Negro Poetry (selections also). Duri n:; t :1 is ver:'" i :--·portant period of t ransition ; ,,:,s /,.._..tOa,,w /f!LM,l(. .J -«l:J. :a ala of E?ae lru f ■oriua, t here wefe~~r1,P?ets writing. We ought to ~ite T. Thomas For tune (1856J l928J~ote jour nalism and i mportant political studies of Blacks. And alth ough Brawley calls h i m one of "the most intelligent and versatile Ne groes of t he era, 11 h is collection of poe ms, Dreams of Life: '<Mi ~ cellaneous Poems (1905), shows no marked distinction it I lit I •y ; 1iT (th ough he i mplies a desire to return to Africa. in "The Clime of My Birth"). A preacher-poet, George C. Rowe (1853~1903), publish ed Th oughts in Ver!!!:_ (1887) a nd Our Heroes (189 0 ). The first book contains sermons i n verse and t he second is aimed at "the elevation of the race." Rowe, a pastor of t he Plymouth Congre gational Church of Charleston, South Carolina, also published "A Noble Lif'e," a poem in memory of Joseph C. Price, first president of Livingston College. Known for her �now famous 1ournai, Ch arlotte L. Forten Grlmkf (1 837/21914J ls considered to have "possessed sensiti vity a nd creative s kills tSh!t'm,.r>) beyond the ordinary"il-n t he few poems she wrote. Uncollected, they are scattered through out her notes and various periodi cals published between the 1850 sand t he turn of t he ce ntury . Islay ,... Walden (1847?ij _,, 84) published 1iiscellaneous Poems i n Washi ngto n, D.C., in 1873. There is an i mmaturity in Walden's style, owing, according to Jahn, to t he fact that his enrollment at Howard University "destroyed his natural talent. 11 Loss: -The- Nation's - ------- A Poem on t he Life and Deat h of t he Hon. Abraham Lincoln, by Jacob Rhodes (1 835?j ?), was published in 1866. In Lays of Summer, Joh n Willis Menard ( 1838~ " 93), t he first _elected ...,, % ac k congressme n in t he United States, t___ hem eM cal ling t hem by name as he praises t heir , · ' ~ ,f ( 11 ps. 1 Wor rac lal reasons, he was denle~ in tn e House of Representati ves. •~arned " t er m James Epb:r; i n HcGi,\t (1874-1930 ) brought out Ave nging t h e :Maine (Ralei gh , Nert-_ arolina, 1399 ) , Some Simple Songs and ;( Few More Ambitious Attempts (Philadelph ia, 7 1901 ) a~d r.10; Y.O '!.r :Ji1eet 8a1:e (P1~ _adel p·, :.a, l':'')6 ) . I Charles / D9uglas Clem published Rhymes of a Rhymster (Edmond! Okl aboma, / _,.,...,,. -.,.._ , , 1896) and A Little Souven r (n. p., 1908 ) • . ~ Sa::i Lucas (1345? ?) cont ribu t ed to t he post ar transitional shaping Vith Careful :Man Songs ter (Ch i cac;o, 1881). i mpression t hat Lucas was a troubador of sorts. 0:-:e gets t he Bishop He nr y McNeal Turner, well known among h is contemporaries, published meditation and exhortatory verse in The Conflict for Civil Ri ghts (Washington, D.C., 1881). Revels of Fancy (Boston, 1892) �reflected t he t houghts of William J. Candyne. Prose was int eluded b~r Frank Barbour Coffin (1370? 19.51) in Coffin's Poems with Ajax' Ordeals (Little Roc k, 1892). James Th omas Franklin published one volume of poetry (JG m.s, Memphis, 1900 ) and one of prose and poetry (Mid-Da Book for Home and Holiday Reading (Memph is, 1893) • not extant . ( '"' c·? U ~-- !..J. - , --;:;,., .... - .ressamine apparently is Poems of To-Day or Some ,/ror:i t he Everglades or 1 c' a . ... \. ' , Qn3 ) .!.,. - ) ~1aC" ~· .._. - u • ' J1- 1· Joshua Mccarter S1mpson (1 320? ' ..., Car (Zanesville, Ohi o,) in 1874. s1--ed "'··j c,·"" •·d t:' - d ~- Ale-r.rt' s i -r -d .,_ • ., I,. • • • - - J..Pj v .i.. - e,..LL;.~ • 76) released The Emancipation Simpson included a prose satire called "A Consistent Slaveh older's Sermon. 11 The Open Door (189.5) was publish ed in Wi nfield, Kansas, by F.\s. Alwe11.(/Aaron ~e ord /\ h,, Thompson (1883~1929) was a . member of a fa mily t h at caos10:ttna a trio of poets. Thompson and his sisters, Priilla and Clara, brought out seven volumes of poetry between 1899 and 1926t -the middle of t he Harlem Renaissance. Priscilla Thompson published Ethiope Lays (1900 ) and Gleanings of Quiet Hours (1907). Clara Thompson released Songs from t he Wayside (1908 ) and A Garland of Poems (Boston, 1926). Aar on Thompson published Morning Son€is (1899 ), Echoes of Spring .-e~-e:ro,e"l~~~ and Harvest of Thoughts (1907). Epb.Pes, in its ? • second edition of 1907 , bore a h andwritten, comp=..,-entary introf-duction by James Whitcomb Riley. Their subjects are t h e conventional ones of t he oa? century. Charles Henry Shoeman published A Dream and Other Poems in Ar{Arbor in 1899. Magnolia Leave:..; was published by Mary Weston Fordham in Charleston, @ �South Carolina, in 1897. Straddling similar fields of expression, as did Alex ✓ Rogers, James Weldon Johnson, Nathaniel Dett and others, George Hannibal Temple (a musician) brought out The Epic of Columbust Bell and Other Poems in 1900. Benjamin ~Theeler followed bim in 1907 with Culling from Zion 's Poets (t1-f obile, Alabama). Several dozen other Afro-Americans wrote poetry during the la~er part of t he~ an~ arly~ centuries. ( 135~t ?':> Among them were Robert Benjaminl\Poetic Gems, 1883), Lorenzo 00 !) (IISl/iN!) (~/q3J./,) Dow BlacKSOlt, Walter He derson Broolr~ John Edward Brue~, , O"l#ff?) Alexander numan Delaney, 1Josephine Delphine Hear<L, Joseph Osa. v ) .11 - Cephas HollyN ....A· f • Jackson (A Vision of Life, 1869), Henry ~-H~> <fll~ 7) llen Laine4{Footprints), :Hary Eliza Lamber1k Lewis Howard (lZ •lw4f2'1> / I Latime~ Grace Map~ J ournalist William H.~ . Moo e 1 Moss~~h fames Robert Walk r Poetical Diets). Gertrude Other occasional poets who were ·q uite popular among t heir contemporaries included Solomon G. Bvown, William Wells Brown, Ka.tie D. Chapman, W~~I. Crogma.n, Frederick Douglass, Leland 1-1. Fisbe --_,.:;- and Virgie Whitsett. a few of J ~.lili:~~fP9eM~ Some notable turn-of-the-century poets, . . will be heard from late3:, werei Benjamin Brawley (critic and social historian), Charles Roundtree Dinkins, David Bryant ul on, Gilmore F. Qrant, H•r• Johnson, Otis M. Shackelford, Walter M .r . Rayson, Jefferson King, J.r . Palsey, E. Todd, Richard E.f . Toomey, Irvine W. Underhill, Julius C. Wright and others. li'or more on these poets, including delightful pictures of some, see �Brawley•s The Negro Genius (and other wor ks), Sherman's Invisible Poets and Kerlin' s Ifogro Poets and Their Poems. Kelly Miller's Race Adjustment appeared in 1909 as a partial answer to some of the evils and ills plagui ng Blacks. 0 But against the b"locaustal "panorama of vio!.ence n~ nd 1::i loodslj ed, the title of Hiller's book seemed al nost 'h ollow. Tbe NAACP was born in 190~ and a y ear later Duf ois was put at t he hel m of its publicity de~artment and made ed itor o Crisis. Ech oes . A \ •. from t he 1906 Atlant a riots, in wh ich @ Blacks were "butc!1eredl,;'/ could sti~l be hea~d reverberatinc i n speech es and fear-seized ~ ack lJes.rts0 (For more on t his senseless and sadistic mur der of B~a.ck~ see .John Hope Franklin's Fro '..l Slaver:•· to Freedom and Ralph Ginzberg ' s ~00 Years of' L~"nching.) On t~e lecture-circuit rampage, D ois heatedl:r criticized President Th eodore Roosevelt; wh o had declared) .~ "Rape is t he greatest cause of l :rnching . " ,_/ The nat ion was trying to turn back the clock, as evi denced by t h e nostalBic minstrelsy, a nd was conductins a BOOd "sabotage" of Reconstruction. And Blacks were fe verously mobilizing to keep from bein6 sold "back into a n~w for m of slavery ." - - -- - -- -- - - - - - , {ft, N""O"" ~,...,. po._1' l ~ fJtt.L,,1 � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Eugene B. Redmond Digital Collection Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. 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