https://digitallis.isg.siue.edu/files/original/ef6cda4a87f7eef43d4b05d4690f40e3.pdf 4f19363ad31ffa169d31dc4cd12b8409 PDF Text Text CHAPTER III AFRICAN VOICE IN ECLIPSE: IMITATION & AGITATION 1746 - 1865 I Slaves, though we be enroll'd Minds are never to be sold --from David Ruggles' Appeals, 1835 · I Overview As we embark on a survey of the chronological development of Black written poetry, it is important to remember that any study of such literature concerns that which is "written" and "available. tr The fact that one writer has made more works accessible to the public than another writer does not make him/her the "greatest" or even "greater." In every era, quiet and important writers have been passed over in favor of literature that is more "timely , " 'flamboyant" and "relevant ~' CD 991:i; lead IUtiblP\21 a; a s I lffl! L ill@ Jal 25 Ji g ■e la f I & J --•--••..-lf!'II•.,-. 5o) while t-e.p.,.estn1i,1"i,~ &1..mpL1nqs o ~ Po~y ~~~~:.\oilt±t~t7llzrJ;:~~•!IIP-l!... this t¥ certainly is not an anthology, /\ · are VS'ed ~o reinf'orce comments on styles, themes, subjects, language ~rt1pl,,1¥ 1 we fee L, <l.rt po."'~"Lu-l'} iMpo~tut"tfh o.n vnde"ffi. di'h9 0Pth 1~ eo.a-1.y po~'/. and other aspects,. ., 11 r r: I\ The poems included, it is ~ -----* hoped, will allow thf reader and. teacher immediate t> t-efl.d'1hs access to comparisons, contrasto/~nd tentative analyses. also is no ove~ iding effort to explain the works in a '-"""' 1!J There �poem-by-poem breakdown. However, eo.<:..h' d -,o..~\€...Y' wLlL bv\\J o\r\ an historical "running" analysis of several poems with emphasis faffii ,... on how the poems can be read silently and aloud. n · rh~s • · · u ,.,r.oJ duJ.y ti ,t.;; )X; II Literary and Social Landscape Blacks have been in the Western Hemisphere almost as long as whites. After 1501, most of the Spanish expeditions to the SC),) New World included Black explorers.~ the time the 20 slavesto-be were brought on a Dutch vessel to Jamestown in 1619, the presence of Blacks had been felt for at least 100 years (see Bennett, Franklin). Crucial to an understanding of early Black poetry are the circumstances surrounding slavery and the political and religious moods of both England and Colonial-Revolutionary America. British America did not follow the Greco-Roman tra- dition of the well informed slave. It was quite unlikely, then, that a "revolutionary" Black poet would emerge from a social and literary landscape so charged with self-righteousness and;(eoclassicism (or from the;(omanticism of the 1800'""s). Lucy Terry's "Bars Fight 11 (written in 1746 and published in 1895) could hardly be called "protest"; neither could the work of Phillis Wheatley, considered the finest Black talent of the colonial era, caught between contrivances of the Age of Enlight- ~ enment and the approaching grip of the romantics. The neoclassical �tradition that reached its height in the poetry of England's Alexander Pope, had already begun to die out with the death oi' Pope ain111ai' in 1744. All over Colonial America, however, white poets were imitating the stii'i'-collared conventionality oi' that period. The moral issues considered by most • ill - poets (Black and white)--universal brotherhood of man, quest i'or reason and order, the Jeffersonian ideals oi' freedom, liberty and representative government--were removed from the everyday brutality of slavery. Some of the most liberal men oi' the day (Jei'i'erson, Washington, Hume) implicitly justii'ied slavery by suggesting that Blacks were in some ways inferior. Despite Jefi'erson's pontii'ications on humanitarianism, he was unable to reconcile the disparity between his public stands and his failure to manumit his own slaves. Although Jefi'erson carried on a written correspondence with Black astronomer and mathematician, Benjamin Banneker, he considered Phillis Wheatley's pt>-e.t'~y "beneath criticism. 11 On the general American scene, tbe Revolution behind, a national literature had begun to emerge. Fascinated with American employment of new technology (Franklin's lightning experiments, printing presses, etc.) and the prospects oi' unexplored regions oi' the New World, writers started recording travels and observing the mixture of races and religions. Although religious fervor was still high it: J I I sni dsism bsd a Ii s sssL J:Isz?r ; I political problems dominated. Between 1790 and 1832 the new American government was being consolidated and the writings of men like William Bradford, �John Winthrop, Cotton Mather, Thomas Shephard, Roger Williams , Edward Taylor and Jonathan Edwards were succeeded by the embryonic nationalistic works of Franklin, Jefferson, William Byrd, William Cullen Bryant, Charles Brockden Brown, Washington Irving, William Gilmore Simms am James Fenimore Cooper. Irving, Cooper and Bryant were to become the early writers most taught to American school children. .Often called the "New England Renaissance,'' the early decades of the 19th Century saw increasing tension between New England puritanism and Southern aristocracy over the question of slavery. over slavery Debates continued up to the beginning of the Civil War . The early part of the century also saw the birth of many of tile devel.oprnenToP white America's greatest writers along withAromanticism and rugged individualism. Mystified by the noble savage (Indians and sometimes Blacks) and challenged by the "new frontier,rr Americans began to romanticize their situation and especially that of explorers who became the first original folk heroes. White writers who dominated the period from 1826-1865 included Edgar Allan Poe (poet and short story writer, credited with creating the first detective in American fiction), Nathaniel Hawthorne (considered the first great American novelist--Tbe Scarlet Letter), John Greenleaf Whittier, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russel Lowell, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Harriet Beecher Stowe (one of the first w ite American novelists to feature a Black protagonist in fiction--Uncle Tom's Cabin), Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, 73 �Herman Melville (considered to have written one of the handful of "great 11 American novels--Moby Dick), Walt Whitman (termed the "greatest" American poet--Leaves of Grass). Other writers, primarily political activists or abolitionists, included John G. Calhoun, William Lloyd Garrison, and Abraham Lincoln. Using their own and Black material, a number of white composers immortalized the era in songs--many of them nationalistic. It was during t'hi~ period that Francis Scott Key wrote 1,,d Star Spangled Banner." ~Step1en Foster bas since 11 The een accused of merely putting to music the songs that were sung by slaves. There was no general encouragement, however, for Blacks to learn to read; but many slave owners indulged their chattel in writing exercises as personal pas ti'!':.1.mes and bobbies. So \,J many of the early Black poets J I L grew up in relative security. To be totally free, David Walker observed in bis Appeal (1829) was to be economically insecure, socially ostracized and psychologically oppressed. Consequently, those slaves priviledged to read and write invariably took European literary models. Poets, of course, were not the only ones writing. In addition to abolitionists-essayists, like Walker and Frederick Douglass, this period of Black literary activity was highlighted by exciting slave narratives • ;jJ I fii 2 s? nns 4 j]Jtsb1 5tli!I 113 5 z 1 2 z 1 1 urts of @§£ @P@d The most popular of these, and one of the first recorded, was Tte Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, or Gustavus Vassa, the African (1789). Arna Bontemps includes it in his Great Slave Narratives (1969). �' . ~,t, ''°' \.\,~o<.s.l• . Vassa, who also included • • - some notable verse~ co~structed a story pattern that was to become familiar to readers •~arly America: that of the escaped, freed or run away slave wbo reported his or her hardships and struggles. Vassa describes his life in Africa up until the time of his kidnapping. With vivid memory and detail, he establishes the original bases for what we have come to call the nAfrican Continuum" in America. It is not just mere coincidence that this statement from 1789 m~,t fits~parts of Black America of today. We are almost a nation of dancers, musicians , and poets. Thus every great event ••• is celebrated in public dances which are accompanied with songs and music suited to the occasions. Vassa's debut into this literary genre was followed by hundreds of other narratives, many of them fakes. Early Negro Writing: Dorothy Porter, in 1760-1837 (1971), has discussed the problem of determining authenticity of the narratives. -eme►iT-,1 Mrs . Porter is librarianJ\of the Moorland Foundation at Howard University--which houses an outstanding collection on the Black past. eook sh~ lncluded tn\, ~ 6--h, "lfn her µQ. constitutions and laws of beneficial societies; speeches before mutual aid and educational societies; the report of the earliest annual convention for the improvement of free people of color; arguments for and against colonization; printed letters, sermons, petitions, orations, lectures, essays, religious and j 75 0 �moral treatises, and such creative manifestations as poems, prose narratives, and short essays. . Mrs. Porter thus sums up the intellectual and literary output ' • I h Ame f'I/C.£, of' the ft r $T Af'rican~. The word "African," was used generously by most writers and speakers of the era. not emplij<?- it was tte.~lo..ced. ~Y sy"onyrn..s "" Sv d-, When "African" was <U "Coloured," "Black, ""- "an Ethiopian Princess:' •••••■ Placed against the sometimes sophomoric and heretical accusations of some of today's Black critics, these early displays of pride in the African heritage makes one want to sent m;_ny Uninfo~meo 'e~,e~t1~ back to school! In addition to the plethora of pamphlets, broadsides, books and news orga1that emerged from Black individuals and institutions during the period up to t h e end of the Civil War, there was also much political-social consciousness raising through oration. In the early years great religious and political leaders such as Richard Allen, Peter Williams, Absalom Jones, Prince Hall (founder of Black Masonry), Paul Cuffee and Daniel Coker, took up projects of "mutual aid" for Africans. Their work set the stage for missionary, abolitionist and self-help programs undertaken later by people like Jarena Lee, Frederick Douglass, R. Martin Delaney, Sojourner Truth and Alexander Crummell, 4s•t••- -•sMID~I~lJ""'•'•t•·•tl.,f(!illllllilill•:•e The intellectual, religious and moral work of Blacks in the North was paralleled by the development of folk materials �(the songs and stories) of Blacks on Southern plantations. In general few states, North or South, allowed educational or vocational opportunities for Blacks. Thus the energies of early Black writers and intellectuals _. Nrs Pawt11 and Uii:i:i: a:1i1 n I ; were Co ttn M jfteJ 'lo .---..... various "African" D 1 l societies and free schools, and the promotion of literacy and self-betterment among newly freed slaves. "'i ""' bl ?I111Jh ISO 11 JI 5 3£ Jail J etw Un a z y\R-f¥l The Rev. Allen, popular religious crusader and founder of tre Bethel African Methodist Episcop&b Church, seems to have been referring to the same Black "sensibility" described by Vassa when he said (in 1793) that be was confident that there was no religious sect or denomination that would suit the capacity of the colored people as well as the Methodist; ••• Sure I am that reading sermons will never prove so beneficial to the colored people as spiritual or extempore preaching •••• Much evidence exists, then, of Blacks banding together for "mutual" concerns in the early days of America. The horrors of slavery, the psychological pressures of Northern "freedom," white reprisals in wake of slave revolts (such as those led by Gabriel Prosser in 1800, Denmark Vesey in 1822 and Nat Turner in 1831), made for a most unsettling atmosphere (see Walker 's �Appeal). Reporting on white America's "needn to vent its fears and hatreds on Blacks., Winthrop Jordan (White Over Black, 1968) noted that whites initially feared tbree things: loss of identity., lack of self-control and sexual license. In an effort toe.scape the nanimal within himself the white man debased the Negro., surely, but at the same time he debased himself.n And a young Frenchman., Alexis de Tocqueville, visiting America in 1831., said racial prejudice was nstronger in the states that have abolished slavery than in those where it still exists.n Needless to say, creative literature of the "arty" sort (though much of it was being done at the time) was not the number one priority for Blacks, jft•iifiailll!J•Jiiai?liii•?•-•llilll•••••11s•s•r Nevertheless a literary tradition did develop and flourish in Black America. The example of the narratives (including those by }larrant., Douglass and Truth) led to publications by the first Black novelist and playwright, William Wells Brown. novel was Clotel: Brown's or The President's Daughter (1853) and his play was called Escape: Or A Leap to Freedom (1857). The second novel by a Black American was The Garies and their Friends (1857) by Frank J. Webb. Delaney published the third novel, Black, or the Huts of America, in 1859. Webb were both published in England. The works by Brown and Brown also worked• in the cause of abolition and other social reform programs. His Anti-Slavery Harp (1848) contained songs and poems whose themes are implied in the book's title. The pattern of the Black educator., intellectual or artisan carrying on the dual role of creator and activist, characterizes the history of Black ' �creativity in America. Yet many critics, Black and white, unaware of the stresses and demands on Black artists do not approach their sub jects with <An.understanding or +hl's. F-o..<.-t-. J Political journalism (see Dann's The Black Press, 1827-1890), als~ was a strong vein in the development of Black American writing. Beginning with John Russwurm (the second Black college graduate and first Black newspaper editor, Freedom's Journal, 1827-29), and evolving through Ruggles' Mirror for Liberty (first Black magazine, 1838), Douglass' Monthly 1844) and North ~ (1847), to Hamilton's Anglo-African Magazine (1 859), t h e tradition of Black journalism and research on the African experience was firmly established. Much of the journalistic writing (like the poetry) took pros or cons on tbe question to of i~gration, colonization or the elevation of t he Black man's plight in America. During the early and middle years of the 19th Century, white travelers through the South collected and compiled slave songsASeculars and Spirituals. the v,eU.. spri"' tor-- These songs g; 1111 later ~1-oJt d e d much of the Black and white writing the mes. On the eve of the Civil War, the Dred Scott decision (a blow :to to slaves and abolitionists) hel~tep up the demands for t h e abolishment of slavery. Brown's The Black Man (1863) was a capsule of one era which closed on the blasts of cannon and another that opened on the sound of jubilant sh outs. �III THE VOICES ON THE TOTEM "Mean mean mean to e free" --Robert Hayden Against the foregoing background, t b e poets of ColonialRevolutionary-Slavery America appear curious, tearful, exciting, paradoxical, frightening and puzzling. Biblical imagery, classical allusions and themes, hatred of slavery and ambiguous praise for slave-masters, recollections of Africa, appeals and condemnations , all become enmeshed in the intricate linguistic and psychological webbing of this early poetry. In 1770, at 17 years of age, the privileged slave girl Phillis Wheatley became the .first Black "exception to t1e rule" in English and American poetry. And for decades students of American poetry bad gone about their recitations and researc_1 as though nothing or no one of importance happened and Dunbar'~ loefwee.V\ he1- fiint It was not until 1893 that Lucy Terry 's "Bar• s Fight "--the account of a l 7L~6 Indian massacre in Deerfield, Nassachuse tts--came to public lig~~t. And readers had yet anothe r 27 :rears to 11ai t before Oscar Hegel in j_n 1915 discovered Jupiter Hammon's 11 An Evening Thought, Salvation by C r1st, With Penitential Cries" (1761) in the New York Historical Society, thus establishing Hammon as the first published African poet in America. �lt h<A.s bee.,, ,~ ,u1 ~ht.,'R~ /\ mentioned~earlier1'that many ant ologies omit "Bar's Fight." This is understanda le since Hiss Terry (1730-1831) never wrote, or at least presented, anymore literary works • .America's 11 f'irst 1-egro poet," then, is important primarily for being just tbat--first. Like ph;Uis • eatley, Vassa and ot1er L.w.y r New England slaves, ~ was kidnapped as a child and rougbt re.... to New England (Rhode Island). She witnessed t1e Indian rad w.h'l'-". sh ow!. • • reported in her 2 8-line doggerel••• ■ F"-a flair for storytelling. Hence despite the poem's "obviously weak literary merit, 11 tis Black writer performed one of the earliest services of the poet--that of a singer of history-- in recording actual names and places in her narrative. Since she was 16r,rears/old and a servant girl, writing was surely not her pr mar&«y respon"'-"' sibility. Yet "Bar's Fight, 11 ac ieves some success when seen against the oral tradition in poetry: Listen my children and you shall hear Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere. or Now, children, I'm going to tell you the story about raw-head and bloody-bones! and There was an old woman who lived in a shoe She bad so many children she didn't know what to do. Compare the foregoing lines to August 'twas, the twenty-fifth, Seventeen hundred forty six, 8J �The Indians did in ambush lay, Some very valient men to slay, The names of whom I'll not leave out: Samuel Allen like a hero fout, and the elemental connections will readily be seen. One bas only to read this poem aloud to get both the effects and taiD Terry's apparent intentions. Ill L a Lvcy When she wrote "Bar's Figh't;," s ke worked for an Ebenezer Wells of Deerfield, Massachu- setts'; given ~ freedom ten years later . . . she 1 married a free Black man, Abijah Prince, by whom she bad six children. Prince later became the owner of considerable land and was one of the founders of Sunderland, Vermont. t~~V Robinson (Early Black American Poets) lists the "orator II poets and rightly so. William Terry with Other details about an j] h4i-- , . . . and the Princes can be obtained from George Sheldon's A History of Deerfield, Massachusetts, 1895. See o...Lso £il~eK Socniernl 't!J_e M..v.1!.' C l ~ ftmeto•c.~nJ'. -s-Iave poet and i nteTlectual, .Jupiter Hammon (1720?-1800?), "f- provides yet another look into the capabilities, mind-sets and limitations of Africans in Colonial America. Hammon is generally not regarded as an "important" Black writer--but is distinguished for being the first African in America to publish his verses. This he did in 1761 ( "An Evening Thought, 11 composed in December of 1760); 1778 (nAn Address to Miss Phillis vfueatley"); 1782 ( 11 A Poem for Children"); and in the mid-1780-""s ("An Evening's Improvement 11 ) . In his "Address to the Negroes of the State of New York 1' (written in 1786 and published in 1806) Hammon •)ou-,ect ••••s•••·••·•taa., a tradition that included pamphleteers like �Quinn, Walker, Ruggles and others of the period. Hammonts "Address" sought freedom for younger Blacks, claiming that 11 f'or my own part I do not wish to be free." This statement appears, on the surface, to be the ultimate in self-debasement and self-denial; but one has to view it in the context of statements by de Tocqueville, Walker, and others, along with the circumstances of the aging and religious Hammon. That Hammon himself was deeply religious is reflected ·in his poetry--as with many Black poets, e.g., Hayden today-and he obviously labored under the influence of Methodism and the Wesleyan Revival (see Early Negro Writing) . In the poem \)h,Llts to . . . W11eatley, he notes that it was through that 11 God 1 s tender mercy" that she was kidnapped from Africa and bro.ught to America as a slave. '"'· And Hammon seemed, generally, to reflect ..-.Aprevailing white attitude toward the "darkn continent: one engulfed in ignorance, barbarism and evil. ~~\LL\.J Obviously not as well read as JiMll(Wheatley , 'Hammon was unable $\J'.i[\'n to"' levels. It I 1 universal and intellectual 8orn a slav~~- belonged to the influential f'amily of Lloyd's Neck on Long Island and was encouraged by his masters to write and publish poetry. There is not a great deal of information ava'ilable on the life of Hammon; but it is difficult to understand why an intelligent Black man, who lived such a long life, mirrored almost complete ignorance of the horrors of slavery--despite the 3 • daily local newspaper and verbal accounts and discussions of the �"peculiar institution. 11 ~-Iammon's literary modei[-0,.$ ; ; f 1· the conventional material of hymns of the period. q.4Q Col orj al :Sworn trm: Thought, 11 ◊irnrf LS as as;;r? a ,. tttmts l.ta 2 11 J J• •:R••·J•2•·----• lgilBSIG 36!£ s tits o!#fli! t J i;Jp l gs "An Evening which f!t>~YPorter tells us was probably "chanted during the delivery of a sermon," begins: Salvation comes by Christ alone The only Son of God; Redemption now to every one, That love bis only word. Dear Jesus we would fly to thee, And leave off every Sin, Thy tender Mercy well agree; Salvation fro m our king; Like li,<...1 Terry, Hammon was not primarily a poet. And hence, unlike approaching Phillis Wheatley, one should not spend too much time or be too harsh in criticizing (or complaining about) him. The basic structure of the English hymn--which merged with the Spiritual--as Hammon interprets it, is an alternation of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter combined with a rather clumsy ab ab rhyme scheme. Compared to other hymns, it is no worse and is better than many. Despite the times, pressures and censures, however, one is bari,.ressed to accept Hammon's assurance to the slave1 In Christian faith thou bast a share, Worth all the gold of Spain. �(JJti Hammon' s works,\ 1 n:: J 1 3 8 critic ally introduced in Robinson's anthology, in Stanley Ransom's America's First Negro Poet, the Complete Works of Jupiter Hammon of Long Island (1970) 9.nd in Barksdale's and Kinnamon•s Black Writers of America( 1972); a.LSD a.ppe(l,t,S critical-biographical attention ill"-in Vernon Loggins• The Negro Author (1931) ...._ J. Saunders Redding's To Make A Poet Black (1939) ., ~ 1ee iCAm1n '.l?>htwLty~ "'e Nee"-o G-tnWj,(jq'31), Tberuhas been substantial critical-biographical 1153(-411'1-) treatment of Miss 4£iji7;11 eatle1t -&re go ettom'9il ,rill ']•iz;::;;r -- ,m 1 lih £&11 UdtiS !de 11abiS1h 1 .. I By far the most gifted and com~ plex poet until Dunbar, Phillis Wheatley was also privileJ ged '-' as a young child and allowed access to the Boston library of ~ John Wheatll:r)~ to whom she was sold after being brought from Senegal when she was six or seven years old , ul!!er 1 11l!u I rad • r; J, e HJUJ.ed lt ■ SLI •ls By the time •Aner teens she had learned to speak and write English, and acquired a New England education which put great emphasis on the fible and the classics. ~\lim•••••• reflects · deep r Her poetry,~L~o interest in and knowledge of religion; but it is also steeped in classical allusions and conventions of tbe neoclassical writing school. Critical attention to Miss Wheatley (who, like Dunbar, lived a short life) has been both raving and unkind. Benjamin Brawley (The Negro Genius) reports that Jefferson viewed her as beneath the dignity of criticism. Yet, other great personalities of the day generously praised and received her work. George �Washington, so moved by her poetic tribute ("To His Excellency General Washington"), invited the young poet to visit him at bis camp at Cambridge, Massachusetts--an invitation which she later accepted atrl was treated as royalty. p)ulf.j) y Wheatley's earliest verses were penned during--. ;auf her adolescence. Whitefield: "On the Death of the Rev. George or 1770,n reflects the elegaic tbeme/\..wi.e@ much of her poetry. @0011pi<ils Manumitted and sent with other members of tbe Wheatley family to London in 1772, because of frailness 5 and poor health, itas received like a visiting dignitary in London's literary circles and hailed as the "Sable Muse .ti The next year ( 1773), while in London, she became (at 2¥year;fold) the first African, atrl the second woman from America, to publish a book of poems: Poems on Various Subjects, Religious and Moral, by Phillis 1rJheatley, Negro Servant to Mr. Wheatley of Boston. The volume, the only one she ever published, became an immediate success in both England and America and won her an everlasting place in bath C '-ll1~1ts the history of' English poetry in :A!1 rn 1 ,r Upon her return to America, J«:J:Wll17 I 7 J 1 ~isfortunes seemed to come in such lightning succession that one wonders bow she withstood adversity as long as she did. First, there was the death of Mrs. fueatley and then, during the 1770 1 s, the deaths of the remaining Wheatleys. The poet then married e. JotnPeters, who "proved to be both ambitious and irresponsible,n for whom she bore three cbildren--all of whom died in infancy. �Add i t i onally , the Peters family lived in s qualor a nd poverty, lJn d~..,1hese.C.&l"CV"" tr"-"Lts1pl.;t.Lts '/,fa.Lili" wh~h h~J beeti foohFo11 v-111os, l'i.,Ltd ltt,- (:?,MU.yin \"1 like so many New England Blacks ·A Commenting o~ the circumstances surrounding her death , Barksdale and Kt nnamon (Black Writers of Ameri ca ) observe wit_ stomac -curdling accuracy t1at: Her early death provides a commentary on the desperate marginality of life among free Blacks at that time . oston ' s To Phillis '1eatley, at one time a privileged servant who enjoyed an extrei,:ely benign master-servant relationship , freedom's uncertainities and i ns ecurities were overwh elmi ng . Certainly, b ad she been initially free in Boston, she would probably never have bad the time, the opportunity , or the peace of mind to write poetry. For the state of freedom for t h e Black man in the 1780 1 s--even in godly, liberty-loving Boston--was indeed precarious. The preceding explanation, coupled again with the observations of Walker, de Tocqueville and others, make Hammon's statement about preferring not "to be free" somewhat more tolerable if not plausable. We noted that Phillis Wheatley has been praised as well as condemned. Some critics denounce her for not being inventive and original enough, claiming that she simply followed t he conventions and themes associated with neoclassicism: Salvation, Mercy and Goodness. Truth , Some resent her so-called "pious I"f ftO 't ~ . �sentimentality" and accuse her of calling on Christ when she should be calling for the abolishment of slavery. Still others, during the current period, have accused her of not wi11t 1,.; Lit~H.ley being "Black enough. 11 Considered j\l the Alandscape of the times, however, L 'J,(!, ~em~u as a genius--wi th hardly an equal among pt.ck or white contemporaries. James Weldon Johnson, during a comparison of Miss Wheat1ey's "Imagination" to Anne Bradstreet's "Contemplation," said ''We do not think the black woman suffers by comparison with the white n etry) • During her life time ~eatley published some 50 poems, almost half of them elegies, five or six political and patriottpieces ("General Washingtonn and "Liberty and Peace"), and the remainder consumed by religious and moral subjects--as she states in her title. Though she never deals with the question of slavery--and makes only tentative reference to her own predicament--her work sustains a high level of emotional, linguistic, religious and general poetic force. Since her greatest models were Pope, Dryden, Milton and the earlier classical writers, one must examine these sources to uncover some keys to her techniques am allusions. But one only has to read (aloud) the following passage from "Rev. George Whitef'ieldrr to feel impact: "Take him, ye wretched, for your only good, "Take him, ye starving sinners, f'or your food. "Ye thrifty, come to this life-giving stream, �"Ye preachers, take him for your joyful theme; "Take him, my dear Americans, he said, 11 Be your complaints on his kind bosom laid; nTake him, ye Africans, he longs for you, '~mpartial Savior is his title due; "Washed in the fountain of redeeming blood, 1 ~ou shall be sons and kings, and priests to God." , . ''(c:,twtni1'on"; M1'.. [ttl ~~<nLyihe~e Ltnes. Conlo.tn, l~~mtni}vL. 'PCiwe.i,.sitio.it1ft.i\-Scetldt, Awe should state that some of the previously harsh critic ism of ,m z -ttie P~i LLts Wheatley bas been tempered in ligbt of~increasing feminism and, especially, efforts by Black women writers, scholars and intellectuals to reevaluate her uio~1'J ru>ltoF wr..· is done in the heroic couplet which dominated the period.. ti .,;w;ae:=iiil'!!fl tt, 11! g Tbese pentameter couplets (which would be popularized in the 20th Century as "unrhymed iambic pentameter" by Robert Frost) call for end-line rhymes to appear in twos, with 10 syllables per line. Literature) complains that Roger Whitlow (Black American ~b }L<~ ~Wheatley rrfalls short in what Pope called the 'correctness' of diction and meter, that near-perfect choice of word and measurement and weighing of syllable. · n One could agree, if were simply to imitate. 17 g he ••Joie aim But there is a great evidence that ,nt,.h'f she--likel\Black poets s?neps s 3 i 11~--was trying to o.n C\V~H~Ly achieve "readable poem without losing the essence of the couplet. After all, as Stephen Henderson (Understanding the New Black Poetry) bas suggested, many Black poets have their ears and thought-rhythms attuned to the spiritual and phonological • �demands of the audience that loves "extempore" delivery, even when the written lines are strict and tight. Also, in placing "Their colour is a diabolic dye" in quotations ( "On Being Brought from Africa to America"), Viliilil'f-P'',Ll\.~ Wheatley suggests that others deem her color negative but that she may not. This remains a possibility despite her closing couplet: Remember, Christians, Negroes, black as Cain, May be refined, and join the angelic train. Yet there is firm evidence that Hfl JIM tI □ ShQ c was not insen- OWr'\ sitive, at least to her •~redicament as a slave without a fundamental and geneological identity. Honourable William, Earl of Dartmouth," In nTo The Right she says Should you, my lord, while you peruse my song, Wonder from whence my love of Freedom sprung, Whence flow these wishes for the common good, By feeling hearts alone best understood, I, young in life, by seeming cruel fate Was snatch'd from Africts fancy'd happy seat: What pangs excruciating must molest, What sorrows labour in rrry parent's breast? Steel'd was that soul and by no misery mov'd That from a father seiz'd his babe belov'd: Such, such my case. And can I then but pray Others may never feel tyrannic sway? The capital "F" in "Freedom," the phrase "cruel fate," the sorrow felt for her parents and the reinforcement of the agony �via repetition ("such, such"; see Margaret Walker's lines "How Longin), place her alongside other Black voices that searched for answers to the pall of racial insanity that enshrouded them. Phillis Wheatley also experiments with the hymn for:iji. In "A Farewell To America" and "An Hymn To Humanity" one bounces along with her alternating lines and rhythms. Perhaps the capstone of the critical 11 shift 11 in viewing Phillis Wheatley 1 s work was the Phillis Wheatley Poetry Festival, held in November, 1973, at Jackson State State College, Miss·issippi, to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the publication of Poems. At th.at festival writer Luci Horton noted that recently there has been more respect for the nslave girl who, under unspeakable circumstances, was able to write poetry or any literature at all. 11 Ebony magazine (March, 1974) featured a five-page picture essay on the festival, organized and hosted by Margaret Walker, poetnovelist and Director of Jackson State's Institute for the Study 4 of History, Life and Culture of Black People. According to Ebony "eighteen Black women poets converged" on the Black college campus to salute Phillis Wheatley, read their own poems and discuss poetry and life. Other :poets partioi,pating in the festival included: Naomi Long Madgett, Margaret c. Burroughs, Marion Alexander, Margaret Esse Danner, Linda Brown Bragg, Mari Evans, Carole Gregory Clemmons, Lucille Clifton, Sarah Webster Fabio, Nikki Giovanni, Audre Lorde, June Jordan, Gloria c. Oden, Paula Giddings, Sonia Sanchez, Alice Walker, Malaika Ayo Wangara (Joyce Whitsitt Lawrence) and Carolyn �• •=•9't4l~8-WNIIIIMSII&- The festival was also the subject of a six-page picture essay by Carole Parks in Black World ( 'file br ;y et, ry, 1974). _-.J IIPll! !@J_ .112-•·•·11112,-.w"t~S!Jll9- ·ii:••■ -f..-lbllll!IIII _ t~ tl!PIS!!II B!!J1191Bll!J... iili a most revealing comment appeared shortly after -th~ pestb.,e..C..,, in M.A. Richmond•s Bid The Vassal Soar: Interpretive ~ssays on the Life and Poetry of Phillis Wheatley and aeorge Moses Hortontl974). Reacting to the adverse criticism whe~ of~h,LU~ ilil•81-.•••llii!!III•••••, Richmond states: These poems are vicarious in theme and imitative in style. In the circumstances it hardly could have been different. ~he was permitted to cultivate her intelligence, to develop her feeling for language and her facility in its use, but one thing she was not permitted to develop: the sense of her own distinct identity as a black poet. And without this there could be no personal distinction in style or the choice of themes that make for great poetry The barter of her soul, as it were, was no con- scious contract. Enclosed by a cloying embrace of slavery . at a tender age, alternatives did not first intrude, and later, when she might have chosen one, she was drained of the will and pe rception to do so. M,A ,R,dn-ltM.Q has Pt"ovi.<ie.c! what appears to be a balanc ed answer to the protestat i ons of' Redding, Brown, Brawley ("no racial �value") and others. It remains to e seen as to whether current and future generations of Black and white students ;1-~~ will keep ~ . Nfbeatley a "statul~e in the park" or bring her ;.:;..., (<Ly 1"-0t.y Io~) to the table and "examine her blood and heart. " ACritical treatment of th i s first Black woman of letters eJ~eod¥ has been extensive: Julian Mason ' s The Poems of P illis Nheatley {1966); Barksdale's and Kinnamon's critical introduction; ~~~---v, Robert C. Kunc o's "Some Unpublished Poems of Phillis Wheatley" XLIII, June, 1970, 287-2°7) ; Loggins' The ~egro Author (1931); Brawley's The Negro Genius; Redding's To Make A Poet Black; Shirley Graham's The Story of.' Phillis Wheatley (1949); and Jerry Ward's and Charles 'A.o well's article Freedomways { Sv!V\t't'\•t" 1 M7f). in \fer JiNro e J r eedy muii:i 1 1riT Gustavus Vass a {1745-1801), one of the most interesting of the early writers ,,,_ii.4!1l!'~l'!'elllf!'!ill..,...._i!ia!!9 ~ ,u11.S-r1, ~~ ~f::r,c,.~ ~ · · r orn the seventh and youngest son of A chieftan {in Essake, now Eastern Nigeria) _ Vassa {Africa n name: Olaudah Equiano) was first sold to a Virgi nia plantation owner. His journeys later took him on several Atlantic voyages and then to the Medi terranea n where be served in the Seven Years War. Vassa held technical jobs on ships as a result of his adeptness at the English language and bis mastery of basic mathematics. He became a tireless worker for the abolition of slavery and worked, briefly, in behalf of efforts to colonize ~ poor blacks of England in SierrA Leone . Vass a is chiefly known for his Narrative (1789) which was a best-seller among abo- �litionists in England and America. Slave narratives, we have -t,;o., observed, were a part of a branch of Black writing wkl9ilAgave rise to the more sophisticated autobiographies (that stretch from Douglass through Baldwin and Cleaver) which in turn laid some of the foundation for American fiction. Vassa was not the f irst writer of a slave narrative, as is popularly thought. Briton Hammon {no relation to Jupiter) published in London A Narrative of the Uncommon Sufferings and Surprising Deliverance of Briton Hammon, A Negro Man (1760) and John Marrant published (also in London) A Narrative of the Lord's Wonderful Dealings with J. Marrant, A Black (1785). Vassa, who we turn to briefly for his efforts in poetry, included "Miscellaneous Verses" in his Narrative. His verse is interesting because it helps to establish ·the portrait of a complex and many-sided man; it also provides further insight into the workings of the African mind making contact with white culture and especially Christianity. While in his prose and speech-making Vassa was firm in his attacks on slavery, he proves in the end to be a believer in some ultimate force of "deliverance." In the last line of the last stanza of his "Verses" he reminds us that "Salvation is by Christ aloneJ" }4dhich is, of course, reminiscent of Hammon's opening line: Salvation come by Christ alone Nevertheless Vassats language is less saturated in/iblical terms than Hammon•s. of And the former, as verse writer, has a better control e.~he language. In the "Verses" he applies a �with an a ab b rhyme scheme: driving iambic tetrameter Those who beheld my downcast mien Could not guess at my woes unseen: They by appearance could not know The troubles I have waded through. Lust, anger, blasphemy, and pride, With legions of such ills beside, Troubled my thoughts while doubts and fears Clouded and darken'd most my years. In the first stanz4 q I i Vassa presages the duality and mental pressures that more skilled writers would describe,. \Ii :r et 4iP1!1 as . jt Implying that the job of the oppressed Black is to keep his head lt~e.l and up, Vassa says even those who see him in his sorriest state cannot envision the sufferings he has enMo"t1J:iQn tA..C.e KTCftY u:fe,,. l>""h,.,.. dured. /\ say, the same thing in a different way in ''We Wear the M.a.s kV'tJ And Countee Cullen would state it more than 130 years later in yet a different way. This apparent ability of Blacks to "keep cool" and adapt (see Johnson's The Autobiography of An Ex-Coloured M.a.n) under the most trying circumstances has been promoted, nurtured and praised by leaders of the race. Vassa, then, is important as an early writer, not only because of his skill, but for the insight and understanding he brings to the social and religious pressures, demands and choices around him. There is a releasing therapy in Vassa's work which acts as only one of numerous �"rat.t/ conduits for Black anguish and outrage when the ,-.o ~tions were slavery or death. Vassa's Narrative is most accessible in Bontemps' Great Slave Narratives (1969) . In 1967 Paul Edwards published an edition of the Narrative including a comprehensive introduction . Edwards also did a two-volume facsimile reprint of the first edition (1969). See also Africa Remembered: Narratives by West Africans from the Era of the Slave Trade, edited by Phillip D. Curtin (1967). Loggins assesses the Narrative and Robinson provides a handy biographical-critical introduction. More on Vassa can be found in Marion L. Starkey's· Striving to Make It My Home: The Story of American~from Africa (1964) and in Whitlow's Black American Literature. 'Iha iWIMHI! 1t tr2 a l:9~, iila1eeia ::ewa01 coadaobua a g±adaabo and ,u1b @&daabo somltra1 ca 81&00 1ia11arbi:c:!I aii Ji111a 8tate 1Uutec1s1bJ• l'1-ame ho a11eets the eenboz f &i f2t 1s ArH11~21r C12 Jfnra • The early and middle years of the 19th century witnessed the maturation of Black autobiography, political journalism and abolitionist activities. George Moses Horton was 34 years old when William Lloyd Garrison founded The Liberator (1831), the most influential and famous of the abolitionist newspapers. And by 1830 there were more than SO Black antislavery societies in America. Blacks in the United States bad been sti~d by l~ 'the. vM 'tt.4 s:r&, slave rebellions both 1 Carribean and Trinidad. ~and in places like Haiti, the ' .Is. w;,lf►.s OAcl o.c.T.v1s7j Especially inspirr ng'-during this period was the 1839 revolt of slaves aboard the Spanish schooner L'Amistad . Led by Joseph Cinque, a Mendi-speaking �prince, the f'ifty slaves%'~ed the captain, set the crew adrift and demanded that ship owners steer the ship to Africa. Apprehended, the Africans were escorted by a United States brig to New Haven where the would-be slaves faced murder and other charges. Ex-President John Quincy Adams defended the Africans' right to return to their homeland and in 1842 they ~ sailed to Sierr~ Leone. Ironically, neither the international press nor most Blacks knew of the connection between Cinque of the Symbionese Liberation Front, apparently headquartered in northern California during 1973~4, and the Cinque of the L'Amistad revolt. In light of the growing consciousness among Blacks, it was to be expected thatf George Moses Horton (1797-1883) would appear to inveigh against tyranny and slavery. Born a slave near Chapel Hill, North Carolina, Horton is considered to be the first Black to employ protest themes in a volume of verse. His Hope of Liberty (1829) ranged over the whole area of general and personal protest. The poet was first owned by a pla nter named Horton who later rented him in the service of a janitor to the University of North Carolina. Horton exploited the academic environment by reading the English classics and composing poems. Often called the first professional Black writer, Horton hired his poetic skill out to students who paid him rather handsomely f'or composing "personal" poems. His second book of poems, Poetical Works of George M. Horton, the Colored Bard of' North Carolina, was published in 1845. �Horton's hopes that he would gain enough money from the sale of his books to secure his freedom were never realized; and he was not freed until Union soldiers arrived in 1865 when his last volume, Naked Genius, was published. Horton's themes are not devoted exclusively to protest and he has been criticized, along with Phillis Wheatley, Hammon and Vassa, for writing such lines as those that appear in "On Hearing of the Intention of a Gentleman to Purchase the Poet's Freedom 11 : When on life's ocean first I spread my sail, I then implored a mild auspicious gale; And from the slippery strand I took my flight, And sought the peaceful heaven of delight. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • e • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Hard was the race to reach the distant goal, The needle oft was shaken from the pole; In such distress who could forbear to weep? Toss'd by the headlong billows of the deepJ Horton goes on to say that "Eternal Providence II saved him when he was on the "dusky verge of deep despair" and when "the last beam of hope was almost gone. 11 Yet Horton writes bitterly of slavery as well as lightly of love and humorously of life in general. Influences on bis poetry are Byron, Wesleyan Hymnal stanzas, and other sources from books that be bad read. In the poem from which the stanzas above were taken he pursues a --:--, rather monotonous iambic tetrameter •at • • But in a poem like "Slavery" (published in The Liberator, March 29, 1834), he can vary the hymn pattern in the way that Phillis vlheatley does in �her hymn-inspired works. The effect is almost ballad-like: When first my bosom glowed with hope, I gazed as from a mountain top On some delightful plain; But ohJ bow transient was the scene-It fled as though it had not been And all my hopes were vain. • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • • Is it because my skin is black, That thou should'st be so dull and slack, And scorn to set me free? Then let me hasten to the grave, The only refu e for the slave, Hbo mourns for libert1r. Also e.f.fective and sustaining in po"Ner is "The Slave's Complaint" whkh .features seven three-line stanzas with a final indented one- word refrain) 11 Forevern which is followed by either question I mark, colon or exclamation mark. Horton handles well some of bis love poems and in nThe Lover's Farewell" is able to touch base with that broad and painful understanding of what it means to say goodbye: I leave my -parents here behind, And all my friends--to love resigned-'Tis grief to go, but death to stay: Farewell--I'm gone with love away! In this and other pieces Horton makes ~eud• use of dashes--which allow him to develop suspense and render his statements more �dramatic. Because of its various uses, the dash has arrived as an important ingredient of modern and contemporary Black poetry. Contrary to many of his learned contemporaries and predecessors, Horton apparently consciously thought of, and worked toward, his freedom. This fact is reflected both in his life's work and his poetry. His own position, coupled with his sanguine delivery of folk wit and emphasis, can be seen in the following stanza from "The Slave": Because the brood-sows left side pigs were black, Whorsable tincture was by nature struck, Were you by justice bound to pull them back And leave the sandy-colored pigs to suck? For appraisals and selections of Horton's works see Robinson's anthology, Collier Cobb's An American Man of Letters--George Moses Horton (1886), comments by Barksdale and Kinnamon, Whitlow's study, Brawley's Negro Genius, Loggins' work, Redding's study, Richard Walser's The Black Poet (1967), Brown's assessmen~ Jean Wagner's Black Poets of the United States (1973) ~{d,mono~ ~.J'h&-\41,MAL ~011~ (tq '"') .a:;;:g: 50AI'\ <hel\rnOJ'l 'S ..J:n V cs,~1.e aim i M ...o-A:Je.-, tC(u\l Q €th f rimrt'frlib Horton, of course, trails and precedes a long line of t:en'ivl'\'IK¾7t orators and poets, many of whom we know very little about today. . . In fact, comparatively _s peaking, there is a wide disparity between the readily available insignificant information on white writers of the period and the lack of vital data on Blacks. We do know that the early decades of the 19th century witnessed a developing Christian and political consciousness among Blacks 100 �. and that most northern Black writers, intellectuals and educators turned their attention to the educational, physical em6troll<lL andM._ 2 I 1 uiill needs of free and enslaved Blacks. t)o►,,,...,,_, Of these and other matters, ~~ f'orter provides ample proof and discussion in Early Negro Writin~.1/-ocoasional verse was also somewhat of a tradition among many learned Blacks as was the practice of writing hymns, psalms and other spiritual songs. One such recorded item is "Spiritual Song" by Rev~ chard Allen, probably nchanted or sung during the delivery of a sermon." Rev. Allen employs internal rhyme by repeating similar sounds in the middle and at the end of lines. Varying his meter and using an irregular end-line rhyme scheme, he expresses the religious fervor that consumed many Blacks of the period: Our time is a-flying, our moments a-dying, We are led to improve them atrl quickly appear, For the bless'd hour when Jesus in power, In glory shall come is now drawing near, Me thinks there will be shouting, and I'm not doubting, But crying and screaming for mercy in vain: �Therefore my dear Brother, let's now pray together, That your precious soul may be fill'd with flame. Another such example is a "New Year's Anthem" written by Michael Fortune and "sung in the African Episcopal Church of St. Thomas" on .January 1, 1808. Fortune's anthem is tra- ditional in its use of materials from Methodist hymns. He tells the congregation to "Lift up your souls to God on high" d Who, with a tender father's eye Looked down on Afric's helpless racel //RobeffY. Sidney composed two anthems ''For the National Jubilee of the Abolition of the Slave Trade, .January 1st, 1809." "Anthem I" begins: DRY your tears, ye sons of Afric, God has shown his gracious power; He has stopt the horrid traffic, That your country's bosom tore. See through clouds he smiles benignant, See your nation's glory rise; Though your foes may from indignant, All their wrath you may despise. This stanza is .followed by a "Chorus, n "Solen and "Recitative. 11 In ."Anthem IIn an abbreviate form is employed and Sidney drops the solo and recitative--keeping only the chorus: Chorus. Rejoice that you were born to see, �This glorious day, your jubilee. Sidney also wrote a hymn which Mrs. Porter includes along with hymns by religious leaders Peter Williams Jr., and Williams Hamilton. Both men, using the English forms, celebrate freedom, call for mutual aid among Blacks and preach the virtues of the Christian God. Williams praises the "eloquence/Of Wilberforce" after whom a predominantly Black university was named in Ohio. For detailed information on sources for these and similar writings see Mrs. Porter's Early Negro Writing: 1760-1873. The collection includes two very touching examples of writings non Slavery" and "On Freedom" by 12-year-old boys from the . . New York Af'rican Free School established in 1786. In reading into the life and works of Daniel A. Payne (1811-1893), one is immediately struck by his dedication to the task of upgrading Blacks. Educator, university president, missionary and poet, Payne was born in Charleston, South Carolina of free parents. He was orphaned at 10-years-old, apprenticed to a carpenter and then to a tailor. Later trained in classical education at the local Minorts Moralist Society's school, he taught free Black students for a fee and slaves free of charge at night. Payne's travels took him to various places (New Orleans, Baltimore, Canada and twice to England) where he helped expand the programs of the African Methodist Church. Trained in the Lutheran Seminary in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, he was ordained in 1839: after preaching for several years, he was made an A.M.E. Bishop in 1852. In the political and educational spheres he helped urge Lincoln �{on April J.4, 1862) to sign the bill to emancipate slaves in the District of Columbia, and spearheaded the purchase of Wilberforce University--serving as its president for 16 years. Payne devoted most of his life to the cause of free and enslaved Blacks and to writing poetry and religious history. His Pleasures and Other Miscellaneous Poems was published in Baltimore in 1850. He also wrote books on the history and mission of the A.M.E. Church. Especially valued for its social and intellectual insight into 19th century Blacks is Payne's Recollections of Seventy Years)published in Nashville in 1888. As a poet Payne is erudite and imitative. Robinson 4a•s-. . a•t~l3,- observes that a major problem with the poetry is nthe repetition of end stopped lines, and his diction, a hybrid of classical and Biblica.l vocabularies, can prove distracting to many readers. tt Nuch of this we can forgive, however, when we understand Henry Dumas' remark that "a Black poet is a preacher." Certainly a preacher--in fact or as poet--knows very well the meaning of and need for repetition. convince us of his seriousness. Yet Payne never fails to So hurt was he th-e n~wake of the 1834 South Carolina law that, effective in 1835, made Black literacy illegal, Payne wrote nThe Mournful Lute of the Preceptor's Farewell. n We find his 4'bossed concern for students in these lines: Ye lads, whom I have taught with sacred zeal, For your hard fate I pangs of sorrow feel; Oh, who shall now your rising talents guide, ere virtues reign and sacred truths preside? • �Payne is a handler of the language, observing that "tro revolving moons shall light the shores" after the dread law "shut the doors II on educatlon for South Carolina Blacks. En ulfed in the religious and moral fervor of many Black ministers of the period, the poet and orator reflects age-old concerns about deceit and mistrust in such pieces as "The Pleasures." He complains that Men talk of Lovet But fe do ever feel The speechless raptures uhich its joys reveal. Men rrmistake love,n Payne notes, For grovelling lust, that vile, that filthy dame, Whose bosom ne'er ever felt the sacred flame For insight into Payne's life and works one could go to any one of his "considerable number" of writings. Among others, they •include The Semi-Centenary and the Retrospection of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (Baltimore, 1866) and The History of the A.M.E. Church (Nashville, 1866). Josephus R. Ooam 1 s 1935 (Phild.delphia) biography: See also Daniel Alexander Payne, Ch~istian Educator, Robinson's comments and Brawley 1 s Negro Genius. Unfortunately too little is known of romantic poet John ~B~~:k-~~.~ 11,,...~--An~, Boyd, "-especially since .'his ·work reflects genuine gifts and talents. Boyd's poetic images are brilliant, sustained, searing and generally accurate even if they are not always �connected in a way that makes them readily a~ssible. The only record of Boyd is made available by C.R. Nesbitt, Esq., Deputy Secretary and Registrar of the Government of the Bahamas. Nesbitt must have recognized the talent and the promise and he aided Boyd 1 s poetry through publication in London in 1834. Boyd, it seems, was self-taught on New Pro~ idence Island where he remained all his life. His poem "Vanity of Life" was published in the February 16, 1833, issue of the Boston-based Liberator. His 1834 volume is entitled The Vision/ and other/ Poems,/ in Blank Verse/ by John Boyd/ a man of Colour/. Practically unedited, the manuscript is what Robinson calls a "publishing scramble." Like most of the poets of the period Boyd's work owes debt to Milton, the /ible and classical influences. "The Vision/ a Poem in Blank Verse" is immediately reminiscent of Milton's Paradise Lost. Boyd skirts a rhyme scheme but employs a fairly regular iambic pentamete~ ~• w, All things considered, his work partially cancels the criticism by Sterling Brown that Black poets lag in their stylistic awareness. opens brilliantly with: Me thought the Moon, pale regent of the sky, Crested, arxl filled with lucid radiance, Flung her bright gleams across my lowly couch; "Visionn �And all of heaven's fair starry firmament Delightful shone in hues of glittering light, Reflecting, like to fleecy gold, the dewy air. In his "Vision tt Boyd encounters characters of both the heavens and the hells. When the narrator, "dreamer" joined the train Fervent hosannas struck the astonish1d ear, As when in the midhour of calmest night, Stillness pervadeth the awakened wave, Roused by the secret power that moves the deep, It heaves its loud surge on the sounding shore; The ttvision" is also peopled by ngrim death and ghastly Sin" who "lay coiled, like snakes in one huge scaly fold,n and consider their "inexpiable doom--." Boyd's tones are sacred and surreal and he assembles harmlessly complex subordinate clauses that help build an exciting linguistic cr~endo as in "Ocean": When the fiat of the most High, Thy fountains burst, ar;copiously �Thy secret springs, with ample store, Pour 1 d forth their waves from shore to shore Wide as the waters roll, oh, wave. Boyd's work has yet to be appraised in terms its importance. ~w~ comrrk ea with Robinson makes brief but significant comments on his poetry •. Ann Plato, another romantic poet, is also one for whom there exists little ·• I L important factual data. This second Black American female to publish a book almost skirts the racial theme completely. Her Essays:/ Including/ Biographies and Miscellaneous Pieces,/in/ Prose and Poetry was published in Hartford in 1841. What little is known of her comes by Wf.l'{ by Rev. J. W. C. of an introduction to her book Pennington, pastor of the Colored Congregational Church in Hartford, of which she was a member. Except for her "To the First of August.," written in celebration of the 1833 abolition of slavery in the British West Indies, there are only allusions to slavery. Her book also contains essays on religion, mod- eration, conduct and other conventional themes. Th~~ame themes are pretty much paralleled by the 20 poem~in her book, which deal with home life, deaths of acquaintances and moral issues. "Reflections, Written on Visiting the Grave of a Venerated Friend" begins: Deep in this grave her bones remain, She's sleeping on, bereft of pain; �The language and the subject matter are stock but "Forget Me Not," each stanza of which ends with the title, is well handled and bas flashes of the preachment of self-control that Vassa alluded to in his verses: When bird does wait thy absence long, Nor tend unto its morning song; Wbile thou art searching stoic page, Or listening to an ancient sage, Whose spirit curbs a mournful rage, Forget Me Not. Her interest in oral literature and the storytelling tradition is apparent in "The Natives of America" where she asks: "Tell me a story, father, please," And then I sat upon bis knees. Again, as in her contemporaries, we find the inf~uences of English writers of a preceding generation or so, the debt to lblical learning and much imitation. For brief critical not~s on Miss Plato see Robinson• s Early Black American Poets. SJ..-e. IS. a.Ls~ b.,.1·E ~lt n-u.Ted ivi .Shal'-f"'IIV\'' ~11,uhl • ~ waA Another abolitionist-minister and orator-poet~Elymas Payson Rogers (1814?-1861) who, after teaching public schools in Rochester, New York, took up pastoring in Newark, New Jersey. One of Rogers' students was Jerimiah w. Loguen who later become an important social-religious leader and a Bishop of the A.M.E. Church. Fugitive slave Loguen's bio- graphy (see Negro Caravan) appeared in 1859, in Syracuse, under the title, The Reverend J.W. Loguen, As a Slave and as 1oq �a Freeman. Known, as were many of the orator-poets, for reciting his poems orally, Rogers• themes are unashamedly abolition, Black betterment arrl political hypocrisy. Working politically on behalf of Blacks, Rogers apparently designed The Fugitive Slave Law (Newark, 1855) and Repeal of Missouri Compromise Considered (Newark, 1856) to be read aloud from platform~ Like, James W. Wbi tfield, who came later, Rogers gave up hope in America's ever giving Blacks a fair deal and tM~ 1\fever a sailed for Africa where he died few days after ht arrivoL,Ytoae, His incisive no-holds-barred approach to the political climate and conditions of the time is seen in "On the Fugitiv.e Slave Law": Lawl What is Law? The wise and sage, Of every clime and every age, In this most cordially unite, That 'tis a rule for doing right. And the ringing cry of the elocutionist can be heard later in the poem when, Ill discussing the fugitive bill, he asks and answers: That Bill a law? the South says so, But Northern freeman answer, Nol Anticipating the fiery and torrential Whitfield (and 20th century "angry voices n) Rogers continues: That bill is law, dougbfaces say; But black men every-where cry nNay: We'll never yield to its control Wbile life shall animate one soul. �0 At times biting and overf bearingly harsh as a poet, Rogers ..:,,,,' resounds in 11 The Repeal of the Missouri Compromise Considered" with these words: "I want the land., 11 was Feedom's cry; And Slavery answered., "So Do I J By all that's sacred., I declare I'll have rrr.y just and lawful share. The Northern cheek should glow with shame To think to rob me of my claim." With built-in drama and careful cuts., Rogers assessed the state of the nation during his time. In a line like nLawJ What Law?" he purposely begs the question in order to wring the emotional and rhetorical power from the words and to evoke responses from audiences. References to Rogers can also be found in Robinson's Early Black American Poets;z,,,J)_.$he"'m,-.t'\S £n\Jt~cbLe f4its•. Mathematician., poet, educator and Black community worker, Charles L. Reason (1818-1898) was born in New York City of Haitian parents. He attended the New York African Free School where he later returned as a member of the all-Black faculty. Seeking the ministry., Reason was., for racial reasons, forbidden full time attendance at the Theological Seminary of the Protestant Episcopal Church. Eventually., however, he ecame eligible for a professorship in Mathematics and Belle Lettres (1849) at the New York Central College in McGrawville, Courtlandt County. William G. Allen and George B. Vashon were also on the faculty there. He held various educational jobs includin palship of the Institute for Colored Yout tll- a princ - in Philadelphia �poe.-r and grammar shcool No. 80 in New York City w_ile~ . Cordelia Ray was a teacher there. Reason was an intellectual and a scholar but was not blind to the practical needs of AfroAmoricans . He opposed plans to colonize Blacks, claiming ·" instead that they neej,9-ed to pursue vocational car~ers. here in America. Again, not primarily a poet, Reason is competent vet-S(~{e~ as aN 11 in The Spirit Voice n which opens with: Comel rouse ye brothers, rouse! a peal now breaks From lowest sland to our gallant lakes: 'Tis summoning you, vho in bonds have lain, To stand up manful on the battle plain, and urges Blacks to fight for freedom and opportunity. The poem (whose complete title is "The Spirit Voice or, Liberty Call to the Disfranchisedtr) is indebted to the rhyming couplet so famous during the era and whic skill by Phillis Wheatley. had been used with great It appears in William Simmons' Men of Mark (Cleveland, 1887). Like that of other orator-poets, Reason's work is designed to be read aloud in order to stir and move poeple to action. Therefore he exhorts, reinforces, demands, warns, admonishes and issues veiled threats. His "spirit voiceu (see the idea of African Spirit Force) longs for the time when freedom's mellow light �Shall break, and usher in the endless day, That from Orleans to Pass'maquoddy Bay, Despots no more may earthly homage claim, No slaves exist, to soil Columbia's name. The poem was ·written in 1841 and shows Reason's poetic abilities etched out under the strain of racism and the countless chores demanded of an educated Black of the period. Elsewhere ( "Freedom") he gave this familiar cry: 0 FreedomJ FreedomJ Oh, how oft Thy loving children call on TbeeJ In wailings loud and breathings s!,oft, - Beseeching God, tr:jy, face to see. How reminiscent of and "not unlike" the Spirituals this burst isJ Certainly the stud~nt of this pe~ od of Black poetry will ~LS() want to keep his rhythmic lyres attuned to the fiblical and innovative cadences of those t'Black and unknown bards. n t),et-m().t> assessments of Reason see Robinson, Brawle~~and Kerlin. For More of Reason's work appears in A Eulogy on the Life and Character of Thomas Clarkson (1847) and in Autographs for Freedom (1854). Anticipating the Afro-American poignancy and humor in this line by Langston Hughes; America never was America to me 11 3 �and this one by Lance Jeffers: to make me more American than America) James M. Whitfield {1823-1878) voiced some of the most powerful and angry protest yet heard in Black American poetry wben he published Americ3 apd Otber*_ ;eQem,s n Buffalo in 1853. Barber, worker for Black colonization, poet and pioneer journalist, Whitfield had earlier authored various types of writings: Poems in 1846; "How Long?" (published in Julia Griffith's Autographs for Freedom in Rochester, 1853); "Self-Reliance., Delusive Hope., and Ode for the Fourth of July" (in The Liberator, November 18., 1853); "Lines--Addressed to Mr • .and Mrs. J .T. Holly, on the Death of Their Two Infant Daughters n (In Frederick Douglass' Paper., February 29, 1856); and Emancipation Oration {San Francisco, 1867). Whitfield is known chiefly for America which was received so favorably that he was . able to leave his barber shop and devote full time to making speeches for the abolitionist cause, working for colonization programs and general Black development. He had personal contact with both Douglass and novelist :Martin Delaney who called the 1854 National Emigration Convention of Colored Men which Whitfield attended. respected and admired Whitfield. Douglass apparently But the two men differed on the question of colonization and participated in a lively debate. Pursuing his own position with vigor., Whitfield established the African-American Respository, in 1858., as a pro-colonization propaganda organ. Though born in Exeter., New Hampshire Whitfield �spent most of his life in Buffalo where he barbered and conducted£ td his colonization efforts. He apparently died on his way to look into the possibilities of colonizing Black Americans in Central America. Delaney had changed his mind and the emigration scheme was never realized. Like most of the orator-poets, 1fuitfield is writing to be heard, listened to and read aloud. Consequently much of his poetry (though not lacking in religious fervor) reinforces his ideology and negative views of America. America, the Sweet land of liberty becomes for Whitfield, "America" '} Thou boasted land of liberty,-and To thee I sing becomes It is to thee I raise my song, Thou land of blood, and crime, and wrong. Like Rogers, Whitfield did not believe America was capable of redemption; and, again like his predecessor, he died on a journe1 to find something better. The idea of "giving"· up on America would appear thematically in the poetry of later writers l)c,11 t • like Fenton Johnson~ Lee, Baraka and some of the Muslim poets. It would also be implicit in th~tftriation C writers and artists such as Paul Robeson, Wright, Baldwin, Chester Himes and Katherine Dunham. In a driving iambic pentameter l SI (in couplets), whith has all the openings for spontaneous interjections and expletives, Whitfield in "America," accuses �the United States of killing the Black sons who fought for her and of general hypocrisy. Here one can see Whitfield a. anticipatingt._,_current slogan, which Hayden makes use of in 11 w·ords in the Mourning Time": Killing people to save, to free them? Though more general, Whitfield continues a similar assault (stating life s hel~) in "The Misanthropis-t;'' but tones down Ir\ . to a reverent salute,t\'To Cinque 11 : - . All haill thou. truly noble chief, Who scorned to live a cowering slave; Thy name shall stand on history's leaf, Amid the mighty anl the brave: ••• Whitfield praises the revolutionary Cinque who "in freedom's might" Shall beard the robber in his den; and ••• fire anew each freeman's heart. Since Whitfield's primary goal is to get a political "message" over, his poetry, as art, leaves some things to be desired. Robinson points out that 'Whitfield nis genuinely angry" (despite the influence of Byron) and that the bitterness and force in his work is not to be mistaken for romantic or linguistic cosmetics. Lastly, we must note that Whitfield expressed concern for global oppression; quite modern in this, he served, more or less, as a chronicler of world turbulence and a harbinger of the direct and emphatic assaults that today's Black poets heap upon tyranny. He viewed the "Russian Bear" (reflecting �on European despotism or the mid l80cr's) in his poem "How Long?": I see the rrRugged Russian Bear" Lead rorth his slavish hordes, to war Upon the right or every State Its own af'fairs to regulate; To help each despot behind the chain Upon the people's rights again, And crush beneath his ponderous paw All constitutions, rights ar:d law. Selections of Whitrield's poetry can be round in the Robinson anthology, in Negro Caravan (1941), and in the Barksdale and Kinnamon text. ~ Whitlow discusses i!!il [ 51 5 7 ••Apoetry and im- pact as does Loggins, Brown, Brawley, Wagner, and Ruth (Black American Literature, l97l)f Miller ~ g~ . The most popular Black 19th century poet berore Dunbar was Frances E.W. Harper (1825-1911), the rirst Black American to publish a short story ( "The Two Ofrers," 1859). Born free in Baltimore as Frances Ellen Watkins, she was educated in Pennsylvania and Ohio, and spent most or her adult life in the cause or antislavery and other types of social rerorm. She worked in turn for the abolition movement, the Underground Railroad, the A.M.E. Church and the Women's Christian Temperance ;eague. According to Dunn (The Black Press) she contributed to news and propaganda publications. Her reform work was slackened by her marriage to Fenton Harper in Cincinnati in 1860. But af'ter bis early death in 1864 she resumed her efforts, lecturing in all but two southern states and promoting Black �sel:r-help programs. Her fame rested primarily on her Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects published in 1854 in Philadelphia. A very popular volume, it went through twenty editions by 1874 (William Still's Underground Railroad, 1872). Her literary activity was stepped up after the Civil War and included Moses, A Story of the Nile which went through three editions by 1870; a volume entitled Poems came out in 1870 followed by a second edition in 1900; and attempts at prose fiction including Southern Sketches (1872, enlarged in 1896) and a novel, Iola LeRoy~ published in 1892. has not been located. Her first work, Forest Leave~, Critics generally agree that Mrs. Harper's poetry is not original or brilliant. But she is exciting and comes through with powerful flashes of imagery and statement. Her models are Mrs. Hemans, Whittier and Longfellow, and so we find an overwhelming influence from the ballad. In reading her poetry in public, Hrs. Harper was · able to appeal to what Johnson (Q:94-!._s_~~I.l~til) called a "highly developed sense of sound" in Afro-Americans (see, again, statements by Rev. Allen and Vassa). She apparently knew her limitations, for Robinson tells us that her popularity ••• was not due to the conventional notion of poetic excellence, Mrs. Harper was fully aware of her limitations in that kind of poetry, it was due more to the sentimenta_, emotionfreighted popularity w;;, she had given the lines with her disarmingly dramatic voice and gestures and sighs and tears. �Up until the Civil ,, ar, :Mrs. Harper's .favorite themes were . slavery, its harshness, and the hypocri~es of America. She is careful to place graphic details where they will get the greatest result, especially when the poems are read aloud. An example of this is .found in "The Slave J:.Iotber": He is not hers, for cruel Pands :Iay rudely tear a.part The only wreath of household love That binds ber breaki n.• heart. A. sir:iilar play on the emotions is seen in poer,1s like "Bury He in a Free Land, n "Songs :for the People, 1t "Double Standardn (with its stirrings o.f feminism) and 11 The Slave Auction.tr A woman is not solely responsible for her nfall,n she suggests in 1tA Dou le Standard/ adding; '4illlli' And what is wrong in a. woman's life In man's cannot be ri ht. Highly reada le and less academic in her use o:r poetic tee niques and vocabularies, ~s. Harper is nevertheless quite indebted to the /1-ble for much of her imagery a nd moral message. And she is able to merge and modify the folk and religious forms in a poem like "Truth" where she opens with a debt to the Spirituals: A rock, for ages, stern and high, Stood frowning tgainst the earth and sky, , And never bowed his haughty crest When angry storms around him prest. Morn, springing from the arms of nig t, �Had orten bathed his brow with light, And kissed the shadows from his face With tender love and gentl-~ grace. Several religious songs are suggested here; but she also loves to return to the theme of women as she does in rrA Doub le Standard 11 and "The Slave Mother. u In the ballad rrvashti rr she tells of the heroine who dared to disobey her dictator-husband. The strength and determination or womanhood is expressed in the last two stanzas: She heard again the King's command, And left her high estate; Strong in her earnest womanhood, She calmly met her fate, And left the palace of the King Proud of her spotless name-A woman who could bend to grief But would not bow to shame. Certainly a comprehensive biographical-critical study of Jllfrs. Harper is long over due. Selections of her work can be round in: Kerlin 1 s critical anthology, llt Negro Caravan, • book, • Miller's anthology, 1 Robinson ' s 1 Barksdale and Kinnamon and in numerous other recent anthologies. f'f&ipc1 1 e works are critically examined by Loggins, Wagner, Whitlow, Brawley, Brown a nd Sherman. ,pena• ears /l. -A ..17 ?OP 2 ...-----~-- -~-::-- - -· ,_..... __ - ' iS lilil I i • r 5J Like other writers, educators and activists of his day, �George B. Vashon (1822-1878) contributed to the influential Anglo-Af'rican }Tagazine which was published intermittently between 1859 until the end of the Civil War. Vashon had a good solid education--in classics and history--at Oberlin College where he received his A.B. in 1844 and M.A. in 1849. tie.•1\. ,s~~hiAf:f'llvl :nn ____ o w n ~ for his "Vincent Oge," which Sterling Brown tells us., "is the first narrative poem of any length by a Negro poet. tt jsslr n MiUWnJt lat htE Ir as a tba lj;ijfP udli\SPPill□ s tr 1 : a 11 , ..... taught school in Pittsburg; J t He~acticed law in Syracuse, served on the faculties of College Faustin in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, New York Central College (where he was a colleague of Reason and Allen) and Howard \Al 41htt\tTo il,; University inf',..D.O. where he was a ]aw professor. Much of Vashon's poetry reflects debts to his strong education and the influence of Scott and Byron. All are seen in nvincent Oge.,u inspired by the courageous (but foolish) eff~rts of Vincent ogi, a Haitian mulatto who was "entrusted with the message of enfranchisement to the people of mixed blood on the island." The order had come down from the Con- vention in France, of which Ha ti was a colony. Internal disruption in France (due to the Revolution, 1789-1799) had r echoed to its colonies in the Caribbean where Oge led a short-lived armed uprising that cost him his life when he was refused asylum n Spanish Santo Domingo and remanded to the French authorities in Haiti. As punishment and a warning to others, the French had Og~ tortured on the wheel and severed his body into four parts ..,._,.e....,.e which__. hung up in the four �leading cities of the island. ' Oge's followers were either put to death or imprisoned and their properties confiscated. I Vashon was as moved by Ogets example as was Whitfield by f Cinque•s. In the lengthy poem, "Vincent Oge," Vashon immor- ' talizes Oge in an admixture of classical and fiblical language, fbMpl...1.11t.i':1 'f1 "U\ using a pleasant iambic tetrameter G7277 and iP P a sf dissonance in his rhyme scheme which features an alternating ab ab/ a a bb. The style is somewhat reminiscent of ~lhitfield who breaks his rhyme scheme (see "American) after each group of eight or nine lines. ''Vincent Ogt II and · "A Life-Day" were both printed in Autographs for Freedom for 1853. For Vashon, the struggle is very much alive~ f And Oge stands mid this array Of matchless beauty, but his brow Is brightened not by pleasure's play; He stands unmoved--nay, saddened not, As doth the lorn and mateless bird f and Oge, dedicated to struggle, presses on. Vashon carefully weaves the graphic details of his protagonist's execution into the narrative and anticipates the more fire-tipped pens of later Black (lync~~theme) poets such as Johnson, McKay, Hughes, Brown and Dodsen: Frowning they stand, and in their cold, Silent solemnity, unfold The strong one's triumph o'er the weak-The awful groan--the anguished shriek-The unconscious mutterings of despair-- �The strained eyeball's idiot stare-The hopeless clench--the quivering frame-The martyr's death--the despot's shame. The rack--the tyrant--victim,--all Are gathered in that Judgment Hall. Draw we a veil, for 'tis a sight But fiends can gaze on with delight. Freighted with emotion and terror like much of the work of~~nGt) Harper, and setting the stage for such awesome poeril} as Wright's "Between the World and Me, n :McKay's "The Lynching, n Dunbar's "The Haunted Oak" and Dodson's uLament," Vashon•s relentless . . narrative signals a new and sustaining power in the work of ' Black poets. Compare, for example, the last two lines of the stanza above to McKay's couplet in his sonnet nThe Lynching": And little lads, lynchers that were to be, Danced round the dr~ul thing in fiendish glee. Unlike McKay, however, Vashon cheers up at the end: Thy coming fame, Ogel is sure; Thy name with that of L'fOverture, And all the noble souls that stood With both of you, in times of blood, Will live to be the tyrant's fear-- .. ,. Compare this ending, if you will, to the ending salute to "General Washingtonn by ~~LL~~fueatley. "A Life-Day" is a f shorter poem, in three parts, and, like "Vincent Oge, is founded �.-.... on a factual event f-the love-arfair and eventual marriage of I,.., a young white man and a light-skinned Black. For selections of Vashon•s works see Autographs for Freedom and Robinson's anthology. For critical discussions see the works of Brown) .a B r a w l e y ~ ~ ~ . As we prepare to move to the next phase in the development of Black poetry, it is important that we tarry long enough to pay brief attention to some_of the Creole poets. We select Pierre Dalcour, Armand Lanusse (1812-1867), Victor Sejour (1817- 1874), Nelson Debrosses a nd Nicol Riquet. Somewhat of an anomaly in Afro-American literature and poetry, these Creole poets are nevertheless important if the complete portrait of this many-sided and complex tradition is to be understqod. There is nothing typically American in their poetry--not even in terms of American imitators of English forms--and they rarely display any racial consciousness or concern for slavery and general injustice. Most were fluent in speaking and writing French and from that influence their work derives a ir. spicy melody and an u~ibited treatment of romantic love and revelry. Much of the work is also intimat~and sophisticated in its use of conventions and materials gained from French educations. The Creole poets• works appeared as "the first published anthology of Ne~o v9rse in .America" in a volume ~ f!:gf.i_ GCJ:Nt:; called Les Cenelles wrew Orleans, 1845). In addition to French, the Creole poets also wrote in Spanish, Latin and Greek and were generally from the wealthy land-owner class �I /YI q..~y o~ Wh or,,1 h ~d j;: bvroMJ °'9 l e~ (el\ e.LLet, fr1C.l..'6dfJd I?d' Ht es(; P, 0 e'li ' u., -:-::;:;~•''"'"'1.""•.Z:"',-,,• 4 ~ "-, f 't i'l p t,1:111,,UtJt• ,., !I'\~ 1UWil -~ and owned slaves . ~ ' 1"~ :, t,:At.b11Ml;;1Tt,o• •.-~. - , .. ., , , About Dalcour little is kno1n except tat he was born of' wea lthy parents who sent him to France in the early 1800's to receive a good education. Returning to New Orleans after his schooling, he was una le to accept the racial temper and again took up residency in France. While in Mew Orleans, however., he wrote a number of' poems, one of' Written int e Albur.i of' Hadamoiselle. relives the 11 vaul ted skies" and fl 11 ch was "Verse The poen touchingly gentle f'l9ishes II whic , to the poet, are "less lovely" when seen against the lady 's ey es Beneath their brown l ashes. Lanusse, Le1aenelles editor, contributed to New Orleans Creole newspapers, L 'Union and La Tribune, served as a con0 scripted Confederate soldier in the Civil 1 arl\. :fe'nt some time as principal of' the Catholic School f'or Indi ent Orp ans of' Color. He also encouraged literary and other artistic expression among f'ellow artists and sol cited work f'or Les Cenelles. He eulogized is brother, Numa., in the poem "Un f ' Frere/ Au Tombeau de Son Frere , death has cut you down." 11 recalling that "unfeeling Elsewhere Lanusse ref'ers to deat as "some other hand shutting your eyelids., 11 Somew at naughtier and more poignant in "Epigram.," Lanusse gives the account of' a "wor:ian of evi l n who ·wants to urenounce the devil n but, asks Bef'ore pure grace takes me in hand, Shouldn ' t I show my daughter bo-1 to get a man ? " �sijour lived most of his life in France and only returned to New Orleans for brief visits to his mother. Son of a wealthy family, he wrote several plays, 21 of which were staged in France and three in Hew Orleans in the 18.50~. S~jour•s literary abilities were praised by Tapoleon III and he rubbed shoulders with major French literary personalities of his day. His scope is wider than some of the other Creole poets. ;a. ' "Le Retour de Napoleon tt ( "The Return of Tapoleon") is an elegy f and a celebration all in one. While eulogizing Napoleon, Sejour praises both his and France's triumphs and glories. poem of flowing., graphic exaltation. It is a Opening on the scene of a "sea II that "groans under the burning sun., n he narrates the growth and collapse of France as a world power: And on and on she swept., an unleashed tempest wild., and France moved on ahead. No more. ••• Yet., hail., o, All is over. captainl Hail my consul of proud bearing. Admonishing France to ''t.veep, France., weep., 11 sJjour reminds the . . country that "death has lightning struck the people ts giant." Little is known about the personal life of Debrosses which., according to Robinson., "seems in keeping with his Haitian gained experience in Voodoo., aspects of which he practised in New Orleans. 11 In Debrosses' "Le Retour .a u Village aux Perles" ("Return to the Village of Pearls")., be seems to anticipate what Waring Cuney sees through the 11 dishwatertt in his poem �"Images." Th.e Creole poet returns to the village to find that Her spirit dances here and there in these enchanting places and to locate --that flower-bosomed grove again, the witness of our secret passion, and too, the cherished brook to which my soul would on this day confide its happy memory. A cigar-maker by trade, Riquet lived all of his life in New Orleans where he pursued a vigrous avocation of writing light verses. His "Rondeau Redouble/ Aux Franc Amis" ("Double Rondeau/To Candid Friends") leaves no doubt that Riquet saw himself as at least serious in his avocation. A rondeau is a French-originated lyrical poem of 13, or sometimes 10 lines. There are two rhymes throughout the poem and the opening phrase is repeated twice as a refrain. The form is remotely reminiscent of the blues atrl Spiritual forms of Afro-American poetry. says that since his 11 Riquet candid friends are calling for a rondeaul" he and his "Muse .... must work a wonder." ,=...-- ~ ...-_........._--...__......._ Other Creole poets included Michel Saint-Pierre (18? - 1866), Camille Threrry (1814-1875), Joanni Questi (18? - l86 tompiled 1 an Almanac~ of Laughter) and T.A. Desdunes whom Jahn says "is reminiscent of the Senegalese poet Birago Dio .. " poet is to 11 rhyme in an uncommon way" or h e will name of poetaster--from our candid friends." - - - - - - -- - - - - - - -- - - - �The Creole poets are examined and represented by selections in E. Ma.ceo Coleman's Creole Voices (Washington, D.C., 1945) and in Robinson's anthology. See also Charles Rousseve's The Negro and Louisiana (Xavier University Press, 1937), and the ~>h~-Y\• critical selection by Jahn~ Lanusse and Lecour also appear in Hughes' and Bontemps' The Poetry of the Negro (1949, 1970). There wer~ther poets writing and publishing during this . . hNii"~h-+ov'tsame period. Many - - - 1111itlartua~~heir works in single editions, and copies of some are no longer extant. Brawley refers to a poet known as "Caesar n who allegedly wrote but whose poetry is not available. are: Other poe~ and their collections Maria and Harriet Falconar, Poems on Slavery (London, 1788}; James Montgomery, James Graham, E. Benger, Poems on the Abolition of the Slave Trade (London, 1809); Anonymous, The 1est Indies and Other Poems (1811); John Bull, The Slave and Other Poems (London, 1824); Rev. Noah c. Cannon, The Rock of Wisdom ••• To Which Are Added Several Interesting Hymns (New York,? 1833); Anonymous, "The Commemorative freath: In Celebration of the Extinction of Negro Slavery in the British Dominions~(London, 1835); Anonymous, Anti-Slavery Helodies (Hingham, Massachusetts, 1834); George Whitfield Clark, compiler, The Liberty Mi nstrel (New York, 1844); William Wells Brown, Anti-Slavery Harp (Boston, 1849); "A West Indian," Charleston, South Carolina: a satiric poem showing that slavery still exis•ts in the country which boasts, above all others, of being the seat of liberty. (London, 1851); Sam-----------------Darkness Brought to light (Derry, �New Hampshire.,? 1855); George '1. Clark., The Harp of Freedom (New York., 1856); and Abel Charles Thomas., The Gospel of Slavery (New York., 1864). In 1860 Blacks represented J.4.1% of the United States population and were 4.,441.,830 strong. The sour tastes left by the worst internal social inflagration until the 19601's and17o'rs., the problems of caring for and protecting the soon-to-be-released slaves., the need to develop and staff ... educational facilities for Blacks., all engulfed Afro-Americans in a deluge of horror and hope. Although it is clear that the works of many poets leap the arbitrarily-imposed chronological '<J., boundaries., the tempe~ents, themes., dictional preferences and limitations discussed generally hold for most of the poetry of the period. Despite the surprising successes., and the flashes of brilliance intertwined with mediocrity and comedy., the Black poet would labor long to remove rrthe image of a .face II that., in the words of Corrothers., "Lieth, like shadow on the wild swe·e t flowers. 1zi I fqJ? 'iii ,,. ,.. "''' al 3 t iiili~ililijjii Ill~ I II 13 Si@ iWiiil lncludai 1!!!1 iUlllllllii' • 2 t"I\? •• Iii lli ■ll1 ■ U1 • � 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. Text Any textual data included in the document Text Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context EBRWritings_08_22_23 Title A name given to the resource First typed draft of Drumvoices: The Mission of Afro-American Poetry: A Critical History, Chapter III. African Voices in Eclipse: Imitation & Agitation, p. 70-129, typed with handwritten edits Relation A related resource Eugene B. Redmond Digital Collection Language A language of the resource English Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource For digital rights and permissions, see <a href="https://www.siue.edu/lovejoy-library/about/policies.shtml">https://www.siue.edu/lovejoy-library/about/policies.shtml</a> or contact <a href="mailto:library@siue.edu">library@siue.edu</a> for direct inquiries. In copyright. <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a> Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Redmond, Eugene B.