https://digitallis.isg.siue.edu/files/original/c2b251a29f7c07b4777ff57b5eef0eca.pdf 3235d2917b3f86667f84d6a679b33c52 PDF Text Text (_ c/1 \.7 ~ CHAPTER VI I CONCLUSION: Z- /v C-- As AFTERTHOUGHTS ¼ promised in our Prefac~ we have tried to avoid forcing our research and findings into manicured paradigms and neat frames. / of'iher-11 However, Drumvoices 0t-fhet1' ~ J does advance theories and thesest/1-manyAwell known and someAoriginar , _ _,,:~ j.l'"-1"\\\~-SlcJ6yhQ&. h<Utl\~Dttda critical hbtory;and one must take stands. Indeed, the poets have taken their own stands, as individuals and groups, since to project an inner self to the public is to -.J work out one's systems of beliefs, perceptions, relationships and values within the function or framework of poetry and poetics. ha.,ve, Such stands,\ always And es1, represent~critical choices for poets.A/or Afro-American poets they have ,,e;~ealed · a unique crisis-continuum in that so many "unusual" factors attend their written "commitments." One factor was the apparent self-mockery that initially accompanied the poets' use of written English. For the I early bards, there was the simpleM but grave~I task of "proving" their ability fl, to employ literafy skills; this tes alas, was conducted by "liberal" slave,., V master~ while many states made;Biack literacy a crime punisht ble by imprisoni ment, beating and, in some cases, even death. There was much confusion and misdirection of values and energies in the earlier poetry: the poets were neither encouraged nor allowed to retain an African flavor (let alone language). The Christianization of slaves had I aided in the development of a ghastly "duality" -or wall between the African I and himselfM which cluttered the poets' self- and world-views, indeeasending S53 �most f lack intellectuals into psychic chaos. by W E.,B. Df ois, held Afro-American This tendency, called a "veil" i n a state of moral limbo up through the beginning of the twentieth century. And though there were exceptions (Horton, Whitfield, Whitman, Frances Harper), any- one with proper '-" background study can understand the isolat ionism and alienation of a Phillis Wheatley or a Jupiter Hammon1 who refused freedom for himself it for young Blacks. but advocated One need only read David Walker to discover the boundaries of Negro "freedom" in the "free" states of jarly America. In the meantime, a folk traditioni on the plantations, among escaped . slaves, out of the minstrel era~ was also developing. This folk strain in the poetry (separated by Wagner from the "spiritualist" vein) has survived as a conscience, more or less, of Afro-American letters, philosophy and art. pl .,fl' y And even thoughl'critics .., lilte Wagne: k make false distinctions between the folk and the literary (or spiritual1!96) realms, all but a few of the ntw~ .._, "intellectual" poets l\delved into the folk roots and origins in one way or another. ~ -. 4-./ This fact is not as obvious in/\poets lJ.i:.e Countee Cullen, Claude McKay or Jean Toomer as it is in, say, Paul Laurence Dunbar, James Weldon Johnson, Sterling Brown and Langston HughesM but it iden11P,&! Co.n:'oe:ft: At the same time, however, the ambivalent attitude toward the Christian God and white people is as evident in the C___? itis folk poets asAin those steeped in book theology. Examination of the artificial boundaries established between folk (oral, gestural) poetry and l i terary (intellectual, book) poetry has not been pursued with enough intensity by critics and writers. ~ Europe "Qr larger America have J~ecuifeJ. I Just because communal art forms does not �mean that Afro-America has to follow suit! Or does it? And, as we stated -#;e.. in the beginning of Chapter VI, the social-connnunal value~ ofApoetry has yet to be viewed in the context of/lack reading trends and habits. fr»- we know Blacks place great emphasis on the dramatic presentation of a poem. Witness the magnetism and charisma of poets at live readings and the development of a national / lack audience for poetry via such vehicles I/ as Ellis Haizlip's ~ •I showi Sou. All ~ the foregoing statements tie in with our opening remarks about stands ~ eei~ ~ taken by poets. For, if the trans literation, if you will, of the thought or impulse to the page results in a reduction of poetic intensity, then the silent reading of the poem cuts a similar nerve1contact ~ : len reader and the originating idea or instinct. poet ~ One has only to hear an "intellectual" A Robert Hayden read his own works to understand this principle. r, Our point, then, is that much of the !i.t__.51 strai! t-laced poetry of the early periods has less meaning for us when it is not delivered in its natural environments of church services, abolitionist rallies, choir-singing, dances or social activities. For example, one should avoid listening to a poor reader present dialect poems of Dunbar, Davis or CorrOthers. A number of devices and t h e m e s ~ are central to Afro-American poetry. And while there have been instances (Wheatley, Hammon, Ann Plato, the Creole/ oets) wii poets 1 -t1•IIIP<h:a:sz:,=#e!etl immune to the social whirlwind, most Afro-American poets have been in that whirlwind. segregation in America turned a "curse" into Hence, patterns of 1'blessing /(t~ paraphrase Alain 1 11 Locke) and provided fl ack poets with private languages, forms, styles and tones. From the ditties, blues, /pirituals, dozens, sermons and jokes, the - - - - - - - - - -- - -- - - - - - - - �poets fashioned an endless stream of poetic forms and fusions (Tolson d~ . •the Plndaric ode in a blues form) . And that same., segregated pattern gave these poets their ominous themes~ heir grave tones and tem.:l, perament51which, coupled with their crisp insight into America's contradictions tt> 1o and paradoxes, allowed them_ to project,/\prophesJandArefine their "duality" into one of the most powerful aesthetical tools available to any group of writers. Hence the Afro-American poet has his own private (cultural) F o v- e~~M\>~J symbols and themes as well as t h o s ~ r g e r world.~ost/lack poets I have written poems about lynching@~!!!!!!!!!!!~-1.)but most Euro-American poets have not. Themes related Xla.ve.~y, to10b ~ .. discrimination, the c(fflblV~\efJC4 of · h on\e Less ()ess and res+Less. n~ a.., Christian God, psychic tu'rn,11L~, ,':,·· in a .white world,Apoverty reinforced r-,ve~~.and TV\tl.ltU 1 by oppression, racism, prejudice,~castration, i/ius the landscape of terror I and fear resulting from a web of social inequities, all, in one way or I another, work themselves into Afro-American poetry. ,~--- old'ff¼:8ed• ;eir wt J t i U i l ( - - 1 i ( j "lfll 0 stvf 1¥ ••••• om• I . ldi!MJJI ••t;iun? 01nl• - Though certain forms and themes have historically dominated Afrcr- American poetry, Vhique, IOU I 1 •A ,t/0~1<.ttthns. characteriz~e :tJ$B: oP. #\eJ~ Yl». a, a ;:, .,. . -~ . -rhe • a\s0L~ _ , ' and divergent approaches Outside of~dominating clusters,- 1 1heme.s j the poets ~ I Q . ~ other interestsJtnd preoccupations. ~v-ol'A~t family _units, 1 haweve9 Mo.ny of:·fh;T" ><P;rf-. ,,~ ,,-.ends ~/ti ve "4~ isf-,d ....,_:; for hundreds of years-/4even if such a fact is obscured by a socio-media representation with all its accompanying pathological emphases. culture i~<-Lvdes. .7 ------- ..auo. i (,:;:_ -. "-■ i :: I Any young Black ' sAanalysis o f wh ite ~~--~ ~ :_ his own unstated or implied cultur al preferences.) ,1..-,c; I :,) ..,,,,, 1..0 �True, Africans in the new land have lived theft,ghtmare amid-. talk of an a; and, understandabl>J the darker poets' songs are full of unpleasantries and recollections of that~ghtmare. But the end of jdack poetry C/.lh .f\eV.-'tl-:#:iae self-pity, chauvinism, ideolog1 , rhetoric or complain,t (Baraka says., 'the ~nd of w,an J s ~is Beauty"). Thus Margaret Walker, amidM: her sisters' use of "safe" female subjects and her brothers' '--' trips to the altar of the white literati, is able to celebrate / lack life (For My People). Robert Hayden transcends artificial barriers between (GlhO VS) himselfAand nature and enters the flower (Night-Blooming Cereus) as does ) Henry Dumas in Play Ebony Play Ivory and Pinkie Gordon Lane in Wind Thoughts. Other examples of such diversity and sensitivity abound: Owen Dodson '-, (Powerful Long Ladder), Langston Hughes (The Dream Keeper), Alice Walker (Once), Raymond Patterson (26 Ways of Looking at ;{° Blackman), Joyce Carol > Thomas (Blessing), an~c~oss-spread of almost any anthology. We have said the poet takes a stand not inherent in, say, the musician's, when he commits his thoughts to paper. social change And.:ove,,. The pas'+,f:'Q'w ye:u•.r and 'I\ position~tlSnot unrest, thejlack poet .whose aesthetic or religious dLl()he.6- v,At/1.,1/Jd.T - ~ of vested interest group~ c~e · up before many a stran(:court, at which times his own feelings and we,-eI\c/:fen ..._neutralized sensibilities , in favor of the "popular latex brand." Serious critics and "cultural stabilizers" need to examine such "one-way" /1, approaches to poetry/criticism, especially as they have occu~ed over the ast ears. We mention this ~ "side" show of the contemporary ,, ff poetry scene because its presence has often dirtied the waters of \ open thought and either crippled or destroyed many a budding talent. In a few �cases, it has even muffled a rich or significant voice. time the critical flood gates were "ope However, it is d" completely and honestly . Only in this way can Afro-American poetry cont inue to breathe the breath of the ancestors. Finally, as winds of change shift, speed up or slow down, and the "tradition" congeals, readers and poets must ask about ultimate designs and inherent missions. As the drum stands at the cross oads of traditional African and Afro-American culture, so the poet should stand at the center of the drum. Most poetic principles, and the language asssociated with them, rely on the vocabulary of sound and music. Music is the most shared experience..lthe most vital commodityi -among Afro-Americans. "'' is music's twin. And poetry word Ir\ Both the metaphysical and the metaphoricalAstem from and return to the drum: _ life, love, birth and death labored out in measured rumble or anxious cocophony. Between the lines are the rattle of choruses, the whine (hum) of guitars, and the shriek of tambourines, framed by rivers that will not run away. And the drumvoices urging us to cross them, cross them. - - - - - -- - -- - - - - - -- - - � 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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