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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