https://digitallis.isg.siue.edu/files/original/1739bdc2d4df3577b4c9dd930e205905.pdf f584abca46f4e5ae18e51a3653c37988 PDF Text Text CHAPTER VII CONCLUSION: AFTERTHOUGHTS As promised in our Preface we have tried to avoid forcing our research and findings into manicured paradigms and neat frames. ,.. However, Drumvoices cf' ih~ YY1 Ot,#iert\ ~ does advance theories and theses--manyAwell known and someAoriginat ·-- ~O 11\\·:!1 s-Tvdy hqs bee ,~rm&Ja critical history;and one must take stand§. Indeed, the poets have taken their own stands, as individuals and groups, since to project an inner self to the public is to assume a stance: to work out one's systems of beliefs, perceptions, relationships and values within the function or framework of poetry and poetics. Y)().,V_e,, Such stands/\.always And e.& represent~critical choices for poets./\7or Afro-American poets they have C~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 early bards, there was the simple--but grave--task of "proving" their ability to employ literacy skills; this test alas, was conducted by "liberal" slave masters while many sta tes made Black literacy a crime punishible by imprisonment, 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 aided in the development of a ghastly "duality"--or wall between the African and himself--which cluttered the poets' self- and world-views, indeed sending S53 �most Black intellectuals into psychic chaos. This tendency, called a "veil" by W.E.B. DuBois, held Afro-American poetry in 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 isolationism and alienation of a Phillis Wheatley or a Jupiter Hammon who refused freedom for himself, but advocated it for young Blacks. One need only read David Walker to discover the boundaries of Negro "freedom" in the "free" states of farly America. In the meantime, a folk tradition--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. And even though critics, like Wagner, make false distinctions between the folk and the literary {or spiritualist) realms, all but a few of the J,,.f.tY.-e. "intellectual" poetsA,delved into the folk roots and origins in one way or another. This fact is not as obvious in poets like Countee Cullen, Claude McKay or Jean Toomer, as it is in, say, Paul Laurence Dunbar, James Weldon Johnson, Sterling Brown and Langston Hughes--but it iden11~,&.t At the Ca.v-,'oe,,,./t-. same time, however, the ambivalent attitude toward the Christian God and white people is as evident in the /tis folk poets asAin those steeped in book theology. Examination of the artificial boundaries established between folk (oral, gestural) poetry and literary (intellectual, book) poetry has not been pursued with enough intensity by critics and writers. Europe or larger America ,have Je.pnec,,ia1e,J Just because communal art forms does not �mean that Afro-America has to follow suit! And, as we stated Or does it? in the beginning of Chapter VI, the social-connnunal value #it of/lpoetry has yet to be viewed in the context of Black reading trends and habits. fi,.,. :: 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 Black audience for poetry via such vehicles as Ellis Haizlip's tv show, Soul. All of the foregoing statements tie in with our opening remarks about stands and positions 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 nerve-contact between reader and the originating idea or instinct. One has only to hear an "intellectual" poet like Robert Hayden read his own works to understand this principle. Our point, then, is that much of the a•t•r••••t straight-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 themes ~ poetry. are central to Afro-American And while there have been instances (Wheatley, Hammon, Ann Plato, the Creole Poets) when poets 1•• have been innnune to the social whirlwind, most Afro-American poets have been in that whirlwind. Hence, patterns of segregation in America turned a "curse" into a 11 blessing11 (to paraphrase Alain Locke) and provided Black poets with private languages, forms, styles and tones. From the ditties, blues, Spirituals, 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, their grave tones and temperaments which, coupled with their crisp insight into America's contradictions t'O 1o and paradoxes, allowed them to project,/\prophes_;:,andt\refine 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~AM\)LeJ symbols and themes as well as those of the larger world.~ost Black poets have written poems about lynching••••••ll)but most Euro-American poets have not. Slave~y, • Themes related to/\job discrimination, thee(ffiO\V~\,enc.e, of h o...ne Les.s r'>eS$ Qnc\ res+Less ne.ss ~ a..,, Christian God, psychic 1'vnivl't . in a white world,Apoverty reinforced / r--,vey.~ a.nd TV'~tfl.SJ. by oppression, racism, prejudice,~castration, pius the landscape of terror and fear resulting from a web of social inequities, all, in one way or another, work themselves into Afro-American poetry. O ■ r•etm?J ••••s Mo Though certain forms and themes have historically dominated AfroUhi u£ •••••*A VO..-. f,fft.b characterize The ·. se oPthem .. American poetry, and divergent approaches t --rhe Outside ofAdominating clusters, -themes I noweve~ interests and preoccupations. M<.Ln 11 oPfhese r;ends ')r-, 'f for hundreds of years--even if such a fact is obscured by a socio-media representation with all its accompanying pathological emphases. • I .. .J ,..._ ........----... c..:lT,~l (tat, ton· g be Any young Black'sAanalysis of white culture t\'\<.waes. · ~ , his own unstated or implied cultural preferences.) slim �True, Africans in the new land have lived theJl:ightmare amidst talk of an _!unerican Dream; and, understandably the darker poets' songs are full of unpleasantries and recollections of that Nightmare. Black poetry Can But the end of f\tVt.,.be self-pity, chauvinism, ideologue, rhetoric or complaint (Baraka says ''.the !nd of wan is his Beauty"). , Thus Margaret ~ Walker, amidst her sisters' use of "safe" female subjects and her brothers' trips to the altar of the white literati, is able to celebrate Black life (For My People). Robert Hayden transcends artificial barriers between (G\t\O 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 A Blackman), ·Joyce Carol . ~e. Thomas (Blessing), and~cross-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 'I\ position\,til().?not c~e And: ove..14 The pasf-,f'<2w }/i unrest, the Black poet ,whose aesthetic or religious ALi1neJ. wftlt.,tiJat: ~ of vested interest group~ up before many a stran~court, at which times his own feelings and wel-6 tJ/:fen sensibilities · I\ - neutralized · in favor of the "popular latex brand." Serious critics and "cultural stabilizers" need to examine such "one-way" approaches to poetry/criticism, especially as they have occured over the last 10 years. We mention this "side" show of the contemporary ,, ,, 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 t,,$ �cases, it has even muffled a rich or significant voice. However, it is time the critical flood gates were "opened" completely and honestly. Only in this way can Afro-American poetry continue 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-roads 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--the most vital commodity--among Afro-Americans. is music's twin. And poetry word Both the metaphysical and the metaphorical,\stem from and return to the drum: life, love, birth and death labored out in measured rumble or anxious coicophony. 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. them, cross them. And the drumvoices urging us to cross � 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_32 Title A name given to the resource First typed draft of Drumvoices: The Mission of Afro-American Poetry: A Critical History, Chapter VII. Conclusion, p. 553-558, 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.