7 10 650 https://digitallis.isg.siue.edu/files/original/68d012d0b9695bb0f7444cc1f4bae2f8.pdf c1ebbfda2c659719a00ed718ce279ad0 PDF Text Text ( contents s , conto.) I o...;v rview II Litero.ry rnc< .:)oci'll Iands c cne A. 'l'o ~ ID 1930 B. 1930 - 1960 \JOices II I The A. ?he C0 ning Cedence: Pre - enaissance--c"-"Voices " . ,......,.,,. ,______. c. on the -'otem ? 3 '2 ~ ~~,"W'.li. · ~ - , , ,·~.,,.........~ . , . . . . . . )'inor _Q_£_ ::,econd .wC'"'elon :oe ts of the nenaissance - - - - - --- -- al. --........ nnd ~an-. fri an .,r:..tin e ?...,llout : ne:::r itude Poet D. rs,,r_.;,,,,,I,. E. Til_e .c;xtended Renais~~: 30 , CHAP'l'~R !I: ?estivals and 7 l:' unerals: 13 o.C~{ u.a_s, 5~ "he 'lO\C€S n t "; L',-,~ B. oetr 3-enoral r:;: ?e1·iodtcals ~t•Y ::I Anth~lo ·es ) .:?o"' 1 .lo-re 1 (<-\'} J !'"'.C.e.: s~ ~ • - - . . . _ ............ J ~ .,j P0etry of the 1-;i'0s ·nc. l 7 s I III '") 3 2- t.Job 317 � 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_08_02 Title A name given to the resource Drumvoices: The Mission of Afro-American Poetry: A Critical History, partial Table of Contents with handwritten edits Description An account of the resource Drumvoices: The Mission of Afro-American Poetry: A Critical History, partial Table of Contents with handwritten edits. Draft includes Chapter V through Chapter VII. 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. https://digitallis.isg.siue.edu/files/original/f82dc5f7f4fa1297c88197deb4035a3e.pdf 9f5e5a58bd1a403bbb844888d1e80b15 PDF Text Text in!f[// #1 FrfJ.fe.rshe.11 Davis for lines from . "Jazz Band" from A Black Man's Verse, ( 1pyrignt ~ 1935 by Frank Ma.rshtll Davis . Author or representative could not be located for pm:!lmUi:l reprint rtgltlbs. insert #2 Robert Hayden f o~ lines lines from "Gabriel," from The Begro Caravan, copyright c 1941 by Robert Hayden ; for lines from "Runagate Runagate , 11 from Selected Poems , copyright c 1966 by Robert Hayden and published and by October House; for lines from 11 ~1-Hajj Malik El Shabazz" and "Zeus Over Rede-ye" , from Words in the Mourningtime, copyright @I 1970 by R0 bert Hayden and published by October House . All reprinted by permission of Robert Hayden. insert #3(add to on-going ackn . ) ; Harold Ober Associates for lines from "Goo<ibye, Christ, 11 from Good Morning, RevolJtion, copyright c 1932 by Langston Hughes, c renewed• reprinted by permission of Harold Ober associates . insert 1f4 Ted Joans for !ines from "The . 38, 11 from New Negro Poets: u . s . A., copy- right c 1964 by Ted Joans . S0 urce for reprint rights could not be located at publication time . insert # 5 Fenton Johnson for lines from "Tired, " from The Book of Ameri;JS Negro Poetry, copyright c 1922, 1931 by J ~ ~ a . ~ ~ ~ d @ r e n e w e d IC(~ 1959 by Mrs . Grace Nail Johnson . Source for r~print rights could not be found at publication time . insert :ff6 Elouise Loftin for lines from "Getting Oaugnt" and "Rain Spread," from Jum.bish , copyrignt c 1972 by Elouise Loftin and published by Emerson Hall, Inc . Reprinted by permission of the authamr. �• t f _p.ns; rtl ' #i I • ,' Oj/rn,'e(Alvin Saxon) for lines from "Watts," from 'the Poetry of Black .•••. / Kmerica, copyright c 1973 by Ojeknke. Reprinted by permission of 1 ' the author. insert #e 'Job:nJie - S'cott for lines from "The Fish Party" and"Watts," from From Ashes: Voices of Watts , copyright c 196"( by liohni-ie Scott. Negobiations for reprint rights incomplete at time of publication. ¼ Wrife ·, r Si'n /1.:1+ insert :/19 Paul Vesey(Sarnuel Allen) for lines from "To Satch, 11 from Soon, One Morning, copyright /4' 1963 by Paul Vesey. Reprinted by permission of the author . �I ' I' I '' ' ' I , t I • I l. , ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ✓ Many thanks are due the following poets, editors, publishers and survivors of poets for use of cited material. All efforts have been made to secure the proper permission for each selection. However, if some of the selections are not properly acknowledged, please contact Doubleday &Company, Inc., in order to clarify the situation. Mrs. Anna L. Thompson for lines from "Nocturne Varial, 11 by Lewis Alexander, from The Poetry of the Negro, copyright@l949, 1970 by Anna L. Thompson. Published by Doubleday & Company, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Mrs. Anna L. Thompson. Margaret Walker Alexander for lines from "Bad-Man Stagolee, 11 "For My People," "Pappa Chicken," "The Struggle Staggers Us," and "We Have been Believer~' from For My People, copyright(£)1942 by Margaret Walker and Yale University Press. Reprinted by permission of Margaret Walker Alexander. The Associated Publishers, Inc. for lines from "The Psalms of Uplift," by J. Mord Allen, from Negro Poets and Their Poems, edited by Robert Thomas Kerlin. Copyright@l923, 1935 by The Associated Publishers, Inc. Samuel Allen (Paul Vesey} for lines from "To Satch," copyright@l962 by Samuel Allen. Reprinted by permission of Samuel Allen (Paul Vesey). Russell Atkins for lines from "At War" which first appeared in American Weave, copyright01962 by Russell Atkins, and "Irritable Song" which first appeared in Naked Ear, copyright@l958 by Russell Atkins. permission of the author. 1 Reprinted by �'t .. ,I I Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc. for lines from Imamu Amiri Baraka s Black Art, 1 11 Black People, 11 11 leroy, 11 11 11 and Sterling Street Septembe13 from Black Magic: 11 11 E_getry 1961-1967, copyright©l969 by LeRoi Jones. Reprinted by permission of the publisher, The Bobbs-Merrill Company, Inc. Exposition Press for Austin Black's ASEXUAL FLIGHT from The Tornado in My 11 Mouth: 11 Poems by Austin Black, copyright@l966 by Austin Black. Reprinted by permission of Exposition Press, Inc., Hicksville, N.Y. 11801. Harold Ober Associates for lines from Arna Bontemps' 11 Golgotha Is a Mountai~ from Personals, copyright@)l963 by Arna Bontemps. 1 Reprinted by permission of Harold Ober Associates. Harper and Row, Publishers, Inc. for lines from Gwendolyn Brooks's The Anniad, 11 11 The Ballad of Rudolph Reed, the poor, 11 11 "Beverly Hills, Chicago, 11 11 the children of 0f De Witt Wi 11 i ams on His Way to Lincoln Cemetery, be afraid of no, "Negro Hero, 11 11 11 We Real Cool, 11 11 11 11 11 The Last Quatrain of the Ballad of Emmett Till, The Preacher: 11 Ruminations Behind the Sermon, 11 do not 11 and all of from Jhe World of Gwendolyn Brook_s , copyright@l971 by 11 Gwendolyn Brooks; and for lines from "Langston Hughes, Blood-Red Wrath and 0f Robert Frost, 11 11 11 11 Riders to the from Selected Poems by Gwendolyn Brooks, copyright@l963 by Gwendolyn Brooks. Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. 11 Reprinted by permission of Broadside Press for lines from Gwendolyn Brooks I s Speech to the Youn97 1 from Family Pictures, copyright (£)1970 11 by Gwendolyn Brooks Blakley. Reprinted by permission of Broadside Press. Ster 1i ng Brown for 1i nes from Memph is B1ues; f ram Southern Road, Beacon Press 11 reprint, copyright@l975 by Sterling Brown, and 01d Lem, 11 by Sterling Brown. Used by permission of Sterling Brown. 2 11 copyright@l975 �t The Associated Publishers, Inc. for lines from Benjamin Burrel1 1 s 11 A Negro Mother," from Negro Poets and Their Poems, edited by Robert Thomas Kerlin, copyright (f) 1923, 1935 by The Associated Publishers, Inc. Reprinted by permission of The Associated Publishers, Inc. Doubleday &Company, Inc. for lines from Marcus B. Christian s 11 McDonogh Day 1 in New Orleans, 11 from The Poetry of the Negro, cop_){ri ght © 1949 by Langston Hughes and Arna Bontemps. -re_nev.JW Copyright,@1970 by Arna Bontemps. Reprinted by permission of Doubleday & Company, Inc. Random House, Inc. for lines from Lucille Clifton 1 s 11 Lately 11 and 11 Mary~11 from Good News About the Earth, copyright(yl972 by Lucille Clifton, and 11 God s 1 Mood 11 from An Ordinary Woman, copyright@l974 by Lucille Clifton. Re- printed by permission of Random House, Inc. Sam Cornish for lines from Middleclass Girls with crippled fingers waiting for 11 me to light their cigarettes;• from People Beneath the Window, copyright@ 1968 by Sam Cornish. Published by Sacco Publishers. Reprinted by permission of the author. Jayne Cortez for lines from Festivals and Funeral~' from Festivals and Funerals, 11 copyright €)1971 by Jayne Cortez. Reprinted by permission of the author. The Associated Publishers, Inc. for lines from "The Don t Care Negro" and 1 "The Negro Child," by Joseph Seamon Cotter, sr;and for lines from 11 Rain Music) by Joseph Seamon Cotter, Jr., from Negro Poets and Their Poems, edited by Robert Thomas Kerlin. Publishers, Inc. Copyright@l923, 1935 by The Associated Reprinted by permission of The Associated Publishers, Inc. 3 �Harper and Row Publishers, Inc. for lines from Countee Cullen's "Heritage," "Scottsboro, Too, Is Worth Its Song, I Stand. 11 and "Yet Do I Marve yr from On These Copyright@l927, 1955 by Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. Waring Cuney for 1ines from "Hard Times" and "No Image~;' from Storefront Church, copyright @1973 by Waring Cuney. Reprinted by permission of Waring Cuney. Broadside Press for lines from James Cunningham's "St. Julien's Eve: Cross; from Jump Bad, edited by Gwendolyn Brooks. Broadside Press. For Dennis Copyright(S) 1971 by Reprinted by permission of Broadside Press. Frank Marshall Davis for lines from "Jazz Band" from A Black Man's Verse, ) copyright(f)l935 by Frank Marshall Davis. Author or representative could not be located for reprint rights. Jupiter Hammon Press for lines from Walter Delegall's "Psalms for Sonny Rollin~• from Burning Spear: An Anthology of Afro-Saxon Poetry, copyright (s)l963 by the Dasein Literary Society. Reprinted by permission of Jupiter Hammon Press ~asein Literary Society. Doubleday &Company, Inc. for lines from Alexis DeVeaux's Spirits in the Streets, copyright('.9 1973 by Alexis Deveaux. Reprinted by pe~ission of Doubleday & Company, Inc. Charles Dinkins for lines from "Invocationj' from Negro Poetry and Drama, copyright@l969 by Sterling Brown. Reprinted by permission of Atheneum. Farrar, Strauss &Giroux, Inc. for lines from Owen Dodson's "Countee Cullen," Divine Comedy, "Guitar," "Jonathan"s Song," "Lament," "Open Letter" and Poems for My Brother Kenneth from Powerful Long Ladder. copyright@ 1946 7 4 �by Owen Dodson and copyright@renewed 1974 by Owen Dodson. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, Inc.; Owen Dodson for lines from llll!I. 11 The Confession Stone," "Let me rock him again in my trembling arms" and "Mary Passed This Mornin~ from The Confession Stone, volume 13 in the Heritage Series, published by Paul Bremen, Limited, London, 1970. Copyright @1970 by Owen Dodson. Reprinted by permission of Owen Dodson. Mrs. Shirley Graham DuBois for lines from W.E.B. DuBois's "A Litany of Atlanta," copyright@:)1906 by W.E.B. Du Bois, "Hymn of Hat~• from Darkwater: The Twentieth Century Completion of Uncle Tom's Cabin, copyright@l920 by W.E.B. Du Bois, and "Song of the Smoke, 11 copyright@l899 by W.E.B. Du Bois. Reprinted by permission of Mrs. Shirley Graham Du Bois. Random House, Inc. for Henry Dumas'~: Talk Joke" and for 1i nes from "Jackhammer," "Ngoma, 11 "Play Ebony Play Ivory," 11 Rite, 11 "Root Song, 11 and 11 A Song of Flesh," from Play Ebony Play Ivory, copyright©l974 by Loretta Dumas and edited by Eugene B. Redmond. Reprinted by permission of Random House, Inc. The Associated Publishers, Inc. for lines from Alice Dunbar-Nelson's "The Lights at Carney's Point, 11 from Negro Poets and Their Poems, edited by Robert Thomas Kerlin. Inc. Copyright@l923, 1935 by The Associated Publishers, Reprinted by permission of The Associated Publishers, Inc. Paul Bre"":;)o, L i m i t e ~ : Durem's "Broadminded," from Take No Prisoners, __/~ume 17 in the Heritage Series, published by Paul Bremen Limited, London, / 0 1971. Copyright@)1971 by Dorothy Durem. Bremen Limited. 5 Reprinted by permission of Paul �Mari Evans for lines from "Who Can Be Born Black" and "The Rebel," from I Am A Black Woman, copyright(0)1970 by Mari Evans and published by William Morrow, 1970. Reprinted by permission of Mari Evans. B. Felton (Elmer Buford) for lines from "An Elegy to Eternity," from Conclusions, copyright@l971 by B. Felton and reprinted by permission of the author. Moore Publishing Company for lines from Julia Fields's "Aardvar~ from Nine Black Poets, edited by R. Baird Shuman, copyright {)1968 by Moore Publishing Company. Used by permission of Moore Publishing Company, P.O. Box 3143, West Durham Station, Durham, N.C. 27705. Black River Writers Press for lines from Sherman Fowler's Thinking, 11 Sides of the River: 11 from A Mini-Anthology of Black Writing, edited and copyright@l969 by Eugene Redmond. Reprinted by permission of Black River Writers Press. William Morrow &Ca., Inc. for lines from Nikki Giovanni's ''Concerning One Responsible Negro with Too Much Power," "Of Liberation," "Nikki-Rosa," "The True Import of the Present Dialogue, Black vs. Negro," from Black Feeling, Black Talk, Black Judgement, copyright@l968, 1970 by Nikki Giovanni; for lines from "Africa" from My House, copyright c 1972 by Nikki Giovanni. All reprinted by permission of William Morrow & Co., Inc. Jupiter Hammon Press for lines from Oswald Gavan's "The Lynching," from Burning Spear: An Anthology of Afro-Saxon Poetry, copyright© 1963 by the Dasein Literary Society. Reprinted by permission of Jupiter Hammon Press of The Dasein Literary Society. Farrar, Strauss &Giroux, Inc. for lines from Angelina Grimke's "The Black Finger," j 6 �from American Negro Poetry, edited and copyright@l963 by Arna Bontemps. Reprinted by permission of Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, Inc. University of Pittsburgh Press for lines from Michael S. Harper's Dear Coltrane. 11 11 Dear John, Reprinted from Dear John, Dear Coltrane, by Michael S. Harper, by permission of University of Pittsburgh Press. Copyright@1970 by University of Pittsburgh Press. Robert. Hayden for lines from "Gabriel , 11 from The Negro Caravan, copyright@l941 by Robert Hayden; for lines from 11 Runagate Runagate, 11 from Selected Poems, copyright@)l966 by Robert Hayden and published by October House; and for lines from "El-Hajj Malik El Shabazz" and "Zeus Over Redeye, 11 from Words in the Mourningtime, copyright (£)1970 by Robert Hayden and published by October House. All reprinted by permission of Robert Hayden. John Wesley Hollaway for lines from "Calling the Doctor" and "Miss Merlerlee 1 from From the Desert, copyright@l919 by John Wesley Hollaway. Reprinted in The Book of American Negro Poetry, edited by James Weldon Johnson. Copyright@l922, 1931 by Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc. 1959. by Mrs. Grace Nail Johnson. Copyright@1950, Source for reprint rights could not be found at publication time. The National Urban League for lines from Lucy Ariel Williams Holloway•s 11 Northboun 1 11 , from The Book of American Negro Poetry, copyright (9 1926 by Lucy Ariel Williams Holloway. Reprinted by permission of the National Urban League. Random House, Inc. for lines from Langston Hughes 1 s "Mother to Son" and 11 The Negro Speaks of Rivers, 11 from Selected Poems, copyright© 1954 by Langston ~I" Hughes, reprinted by permission of Random House, Inc.; iliile:l"'ines from 7 �"Harlem," from The Panther and the Lash: Poems of Our Times, copyright @1967 by Langston Hughes, reprinted by permission of Random House, Inc.; A1fred A. Knopf, Inc. for 1i nes from "Jazzoni a," from The Weary Blues, copyright(s)l926 by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc. and renewed by Langston Hughes, reprinted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.; Harold Ober Associates for lines from "Goodbye, Christ," from Good Morning, Revolution, copyright @1932 by Langston Hughes, @)renewed , ~printed by permission of Harold Ober Associates. Broadside Press for lines from Lance Jeffers's "Black Soul of the Land" and "My Blackness Is the Beauty of This Land," from My Blackness Is the Beauty of This Land, copyright(91970 by Lance Jeffers. Reprinted by permission of Broadside Press. Ted Joans for lines from "The .38," from New Negro Poets: U.S.A., copyright (g 1964 by Ted Joans. Source for reprint rights could not be located at publication time. The Associated Publishers, Inc. for Charles Bertram Johnson's lines (no title given))from Negro Poets and Their Poems, edited by Robert Thomas Kerlin. Copyright@l923, 1935 by The Associated Publishers, Inc. Reprinted by permission of The Associated Publishers, Inc. Fenton Johnson for lines from "Tired," from The Book of American Negro Poetry, copyright (£)1922, 1931 by Harcourt, Brace & World and ®renewed 1950, 1959 by Mrs. Grace Nail Johnson. Source for reprint rights could not be found at publication time. Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. for lines from Georgia Douglas Johnson's "Dreams of the Dreamer," from Caroling Dusk, edited by Countee Cullen. 8 Copyright@ �1955 by Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. for lines from Helene Johnson's Magulu from 11 Copyright@l955 by Harper & Caroling Dusk, edited by Countee Cullen. Row, Publishers, Inc. 11 Reprinted by permission of Harper & Row, Publishers, Inc. Viking Penguin, Inc. for lines from James Weldon Johnson's My Lady's Lips Am 11 Like de Honey" and 0 Black and Unknown Bards, 11 11 from Saint Peter Relates an Incident, by James Weldon Johnson, copyright©l917, 1935 by James Weldon Johnson, copyright@renewed 1963 by Grace Nail Johnson. by permission of Viking Penguin, Inc. Reprinted The Viking Press, Inc. for lines from James Weldon Johnson's The Creation and "The Prodigal Son, 11 11 11 from God's Trombones by James Weldon Johnson, copyright@1927 by The Viking Press, Inc. reserved. Copyright@l955 renewed by Grace Nail Johnson. Reprinted by permission of The Viking Press, Inc. Jupiter Hammon Press for lines from Percy Johnston's Opus All rights 5) from Burning Spear: 11 Fitchett's Basement Blues, An Anthology of Afro-Saxon Poetry, copyright @ 1963 by Dasein Literary Society. Reprinted by permission of Jupiter Hammon Press of Dasein Literary Society. E.P. Dutton & Co. for lines from June Jordan's Uncle Bull-Boj' from Some 11 Changes by June Jordan, copyright@ 1967 and 1971 by June Meyer Jordan. Reprinted by permission of the publishers, E.P. Dutton & Co., Inc. Third Horld Press for lines from Norman Jordan's "High Art and All That Jazf from Destination-Ashes, copyright@ 1970 by Norman Jordan. Reprinted by permission of Third World Press, 7524 South Cottage Grove, Chicago, Ill. 60619. 9 �City Lights Books for lines from Bob Kaufman's "Heavy Water Blues," from Golden Sardine, copyright@)l967 by Bob Kaufman. Reprinted by permission of City Lights Books. Broadside Press for lines from Etheridge Knight's "The Bones of My Father," from Belly Song, copyright © 1973 by Etheridge Knight, and "Haiku _"9_)11 from Poems from Prison, copyright©l968 by Etheridge Knight. Reprinted by permission of Broadside Press. Pinkie Gordon Lane for lines from "Griefs of Joy, 11 from Wind Thoughts, copyright @)1972 by Pinkie Gordon Lane. Published by South &West, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Pinkie Gordon Lane. Elouise Loftin for lines from "Getting Caught" and Rain Spread, 11 from Jumbish, 11 copyright(s)l972 by Elouise Loftin and published by Emerson Hall, Inc. Reprinted by permission of the author. Black River Writers Press for lines from Wayne Loftin's of the River: 11 Realit:f from Sides A Mini-Anthology of Black Writing, edited and copyright~ 1969 by Eugene Redmond. Reprinted by permission of Black River Writers Press. Broadside Press for lines from Audre Lorde's "Black Mother Woman, from From a 11 Land Where Other People Live, copyright@l973 by Audre Larde and reprinted by permission of Broadside Press; Audre Larde for lines from Moon-minded 11 the Sun" appearing on pp (fill in), from Sixes and Sevens, copyright(g 1962 by Audre Larde, and "Rites of Passage," from Cables to Rage, copyright@ 1970 by Audre Larde. Used by permission of the author. 10 �Twayne Publishers for lines from Claude McKay's "Baptism," "If We Must Die" and "The Lynching," from Selected Poems of Claude McKay, copyright@l953 by Twayne Publishers, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Twayne Publishers, a Division of G.K. Hall & Co. Broadside Press for lines from Haki R. Madhubuti's "First Impressions of a Poet's Death," from Think Black, copyright(s)l967 by Don L. Lee, and "The Self-Hatred of Don L. Lee" and "Don't Cry, Scream," from Directionscore: Selected and New Poems, copyright(s)1971 by Don L. Lee. Reprinted by permission of Broadside Press. George Reginald Margetson for lines from The Fledgling Bard and the Poetry Society, copyright@ 1916 by George Reginald Margetson. Reprinted in The Book of American Negro Poetry, edited by James Weldon Johnson. 1931 by Harcourt, Brace &World. Johnson. Copyright~l922, Copyright(91950, 1959 by Mrs. Grace Nail Source for reprint rights could not be found at publication time. G.C. Oden for lines from 11 ••• As When Emotion Too Far Exceeds Its Cause, 11 from Kaleidoscope, edited by Robert Hayden. Copyright@l967 by G.C. Oden. Reprinted by permission of the author. Ojenke (Alvin Saxon) for lines from 11 Watts, 11 from The Poetry of Black America, copyright@ 1973 by Ojenke. Reprinted by permission of the author. Pat Parker for lines from "Brother," from Child of Myself, copyright @1972 by Pat Parker. Reprinted by permission of the author. Third World Press for Dudley Randall's 11 copyright(pl971 by Dudley Randall. Iwo Jima 11 from More to Remember, Reprinted by permission of Third World Press, 7524 South Cottage Grove, Chicago, Ill. 60619. 11 • �Black River Writers Press for lines from Eugene Redmond's 11 Invasion of the Nose, 11 from River of Bones and Flesh and Blood, copyright(£)1971 by Eugene Redmond, and "Inside My Perimeter," from In a Time of Rain & Desire, copyright© 1973 by Eugene Redmond. Reprinted by permission Black River Writers Press. Paul Bermen Limited for lines from Conrad Kent Rivers I s II In Defense of Black Poets 11 and "The Still Voice of Harlem" and for 11 Watts, 11 from The Still Voice of Harlem, Volume 5 in the Heritage Series, published by Paul Bremen Limited, London, 1968, copyright@l972 by Mrs. Cora Mciver Rivers; for lines from "To Richard Wright, 11 from The Wright Poems, Volume 18 in the Heritage Series, published by Paul Bremen Limited, London, 1972. Mrs. Cora Mciver Rivers. Copyright(£)1972 by All reprinted by permission of Paul Bremen Limited. Broadside Press for lines from Sonia Sanchez's 11 Malcolm 11 from Homecoming, copyright~l969 by Sonia Sanchez, reprinted by permission of Broadside Press; Sonia Sanchez for lines from 11 definition of blk/children, copyright@:)1969 by Sonia Sanchez. 11 from Homecoming, Reprinted by permission of the author. Broadside Press for lines from Judy Dothard Simmons's Schizophrenia, 11 from 11 Judith's Blues, copyright~l973 by Judy Dothard Simmons. Reprinted by permission of Broadside Press. Johnie Scott for lines from 11 The Fish Party 11 and 11 Watts, 11 from From Ashes: v·oices of Watts, copyright@l967 by Johnie Scott. Negotiations for reprint rights incomplete at time of publication. Welton Smith for lines from Malcolm, 11 11 from Penetration, copyright@Jl971, published by Journal of Black Poetry Press. available. 12 Source of reprints not �• • . • The Jupiter Hammon Press for 1i nes from LeRoy Stone I s from Burning Spear: II Fl amen co Sketches, 11 An Anthology of Afro-Saxon Poetry, copyright(E)l963 by the Dasein Literary Society. Reprinted by permission of Jupiter Hammon Press of The Dasein Literary Society. Firesign Press for lines from Joyce Carol Thomas's "I Know a Lady, 11 from Crystal Breezes, copyrightes)l974 by Joyce Carol Thomas. Reprinted by permission of Firesign Press, Box 402, Berkeley, Calif. Dodd, Mead &Company, Inc. for lines from Melvin Tolson's "Rendezvous with America, 11 "Dark Symphony" and "An Ex-Judge at the Bar, 11 from Rendezvous with America, copyright~l944 by Melvin Tolson. Reprinted by permission of Dodd, Mead & Company, Inc.; Twayne Pub 1i she rs for 1i nes from 11 II Do, 11 Do and Ti, 11 from Libretto for the Republic of Liberia by Melvin B. 11 11 Tolson, copyright(f:)1953 by Twayne Publishers, Inc.; and for lines from 11 Alpha, 11 11 Beta, 11 11 Eta;' 1 11 Gamma, 11 11 Lambda, 11 11 XI 11 and 11 Zeta 11 from Harlem Gallery by Melvin B. Tolson, copyright01956 by Twayne Publishers, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Twayne Publishers, A Division of G.K. Hall & Co. Liveright Publishing Corporation for lines from Jean Toomer 1 s "Song of the Son, 11 from Cane, copyright©l923 by Boni & Liveright; copyrigh~enewed 1951 by Jean Toomer. Reprinted by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation; W.l~. Norton & Company for lines from "Blue Meridian," from Black Writers of America, edited by Richard Barksdale and Keneth Kinnamon, copyrigh,0 1972 by The MacMillan Company. Inc. Copyright 1936 by W.W. Norton & Company, Copyrigh~ enewed 1964 by Lewis Mumford, co-editor with Alfred Kreymborg, of The New Caravan. Reprinted by permission of W.W. Norton & Company, Inc. 13 �• ! ' A. Philly Riginalski for lines from Mark Traylor s Cool Black Nights, 1 .. Black Poets Write On: 11 11 from An Anthology of Black Philadelphian Poets, copyright (5)1970 by A. Philly Riginalski. Reprinted by pennission of the publisher (author dead at age 22.); permission granted by James G. Spady of the Editorial Staff. Quincy Troupe for vJhite Weekend, 11 from Embryo, copyright© 1972 by Quincy Troupe. 11 Reprinted by permission of Quincy Troupe. Paul Vesey (Samuel Allen) for lines from To Satch, 11 copyright(c)l963 by Paul Vesey. Alice Walker for lines from Rage, 11 11 11 from Soon, One Morning, Reprinted by permission of the author. from Revolutionary Petunias & Other Poems, copyright©l973 by Alice Walker, Reprinted by permission of Harcourt, Brace, Janovich, Inc. Black River Writers Press for lines from Romenetha Washington's from Sides of the River: 11 Rat Race, 11 A Mini-Anthology of Black Writing, edited and copyright@l969 by Eugene Redmond. Reprinted by permission of Black River Writers Press. The Associated Publishers for lines from Lucien B. Watkins's A Prayer of the 11 Race That God Made Black, Thomas Kerlin. 11 from Negro Poets and Their Poems, edited by Copyright©l923, 1935 by The Associated Publishers, Inc. Reprinted by pennission of The Associated Publishers, Inc. Jupiter Hammon Press for lines from Joseph White's Burning Spear: 11 Black Is a Soul, 11 from An Anthology of Afro-Saxon Poetry, copyright@1963 by The Dasein Literary Society. Reprinted by permission of Jupiter Hammon Press of The Dasein Literary Society. 14 �I ! • i :' I ' 1 , I Paul R. Reynolds for specified lines from Richard Wright's "Between the World and Me, 11 copyright@l935 by I.re Partisan Review, and ! Have Seen Black 11 Hands, 11 copyright{£)1935 by The Partisan of Paul R. Reynolds, Inc. 15 Reyiew. Reprinted by permission � 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_08_01 Title A name given to the resource Drumvoices: The Mission of Afro-American Poetry: A Critical History, Inserts and Acknowledgments, p. 1-15 Description An account of the resource Drumvoices: The Mission of Afro-American Poetry: A Critical History, Inserts 1-9 and Acknowledgments, p. 1-15 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. https://digitallis.isg.siue.edu/files/original/12195e3e706875f4469b6ff791ea9674.pdf 4a2988f26c02d4148da367bd2ccaee5d PDF Text Text DRUMVOICES: THE MISSION OF AFRO-AMERICAN POETRY Table of Contents Preface CHAPTER I: Introduction, Black Poetry: CHAPTER II: Views, Visions, Conflicts The Black and Unknown Bards: Folk Roots I. Origins of Black Expression II. Black Folk Roots in America III. IV. V. Spirituals Folk Seculars Folk Anthology Section (Sample) Spirituals Go Down, Moses Slavery Chain No More Auction Block Shout Along, Chillen Swing Low, Sweet Chariot Steal Away Deep River Folk Seculars He Is My Horse Did You Feed My Cow Song Many a Thousand Die Freedom �. .. Table of Contents (cont'd) Folk Seculars (cont'd) Rainbow Roun Mah Shoulder John Henry Hammer Song A Big Fat Mama How Long Blues CHAPTER III: African Voice in Eclipse(?): I. II. III. CHAPTER IV: Overview Literary and Social Landscape The Vo~ces on the Totem Jubilees, Jujus and Justices (1865-1910) I. II. III. CHAPTER V: Imitation and Agitation (1746-1865) Overview Literary and Social Landscape The Voices on the Totem A Long Ways From Home (1910-1960) I. II. III. Overview Literary and Social Landscape (A) To 1930 ( B) 1930-1960 The Voices on the Totem (A) The Coming Cadence: Pre-Renaissance Voices (B) Poets as Prophets: The Harlem Renaissance (C) Minor or Second Echelon Poets of the Renaissance (D) Renaissance Fallout: Negritude Poets and Pan-African Writing (E) The Extended Renaissance: 30s, 40s, 50s �, _I I( . (/ ... Table of Contents (cont'd) CHAPTER VI: Festivals and Funerals: I. II. III. CHAPTER VII: Black Poetry of the 196Os and 197Os Overview Literary and Social Landscape The Voices on the Totem (A) 'Soon One Morning': (B) 'Griefs of Joy': (C) Reflections on the New Black Poetry Conclusion: Threshhold of the New Black Poetry The Poetry of Wings Afterthoughts BIBLIOGRAPHICAL INDEX I. General Research Aids II. Periodicals III. Anthologies IV. V. VI. Literary History and Criticism (A) General (B) Poetry Folklore and Language Discography and Tape Index (A) Collections (Phonograph) 1. Single Poets (Phonograph) (B) Single Poets (Tape) � 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_07 Title A name given to the resource Drumvoices: The Mission of Afro-American Poetry: A Critical History, Table of Contents, typed manuscript 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. https://digitallis.isg.siue.edu/files/original/cb2e35d7b15c39f0f46a976d860bc966.pdf fe4dd022507740f7ba61f7d9fb7eca27 PDF Text Text rent voice, was bugg ing t h e rim of the "dream." And we were not yet "Bey ond the Blues." III THE POETS AND THEIR TOTEM Good mornin', blues, blues, how do you do? -- Leadbelly A. The Coming Cadence: Pr e - :1.eiw.issanc e Voic es As th e 20t~ ce ntu r y c ontinu ed to open its bewi l der ed ( some say "sh ocked ") eyes , al 1 s or ts of che. n13es we r e occuri ng-not t h e l ea s t a monc th ere in Black poetry and the arts. With the inc reas e i n t~ e nu~1e r of publ i cat io ns tak inG their work (due to t he pionoer i nr, efforts of Du n½ar , Car r oth ers, Campbell, Cott er, Sr ., and ot~ers ), Blac k poe t 3 c ou l d at l e as t a ntic i pate hav i ng t heir work read 11y wh it e ed i. tors . l'Ia ~1y of t h e poets i-rr i ting i n the f irst and se c ond de cades of the century would never be heard f r om a ga i n; h u t a few would he coffie "mi nor" li ghts of t h e Har l.2; m Ren a i s s ance . Th e poets i:rnrked l n a sur- prls ing d i ve r sity of styles , lineui stic-b e nts , t he mes, temperame nt s a nd a c e cate g orie s, and came from prac t ically every cor ner of t he United States , t h e West I nd ie s and South Amer ica. Among th e early p o ets were Kelly Mil ler (1 863- 1939 ), Les li e Pi nc k ney Hi l l (1830- 1960 ), Charle s Bertram Johnson (1800- ), Be nja~i n Brawl ey (1882- 1939 ), Raymond Garfield • 2 81 �) , James Da ndrid co (1 882 -193 0 ), Otto Lee Bohanon ( :Sduard I:1cCall (1n 8C- ), Anc015-na Held Grin:1'::e (13 D0 -l950:), J33sie Redmond Fauset (1 132-1<)61), Wal ter Everette Hawkins ) , i'Trs . Sarah Lee (Brown) Flem:t n:3 , Leon n. Harris ( 1033(1 80 6- ) , Effie Lee N01-rnome (l l305- ) , 1-!alter Adolpl1e nob ert8 (1 88 6-1965), Eva Alherta Jessye (1 8 97- ), Georcia Douglas Johnson (1 2f 6-1 966 ), Theodore Eenry Shackelford (lCSIJ-J.923), I\oscoe C. J amlso n (1 8/"3 6-l C)l'."' ), Cl:arles 1Hlson (1885- ) , 1:r s . Ifae Smi tl~ Jobnson (l 190- !razafker•iofo (1 295- ) , Andrea ), Be nja min E~e~azer Burrell (1292- '.!illiam Edgar Baj_ly ( ), ), Josep 1, Se a mon Cotter, Jr. (1 195-1919), Clarissa Scott Dela □ ey (19 01-1927), and scores !Jore. Eajor poeti.c contr1-h1.1tions Here t,m de b:r Tames Weldon ,fo), nson, Fenton ,Tol·rnson, Cotter, Jr. ( cut down to early to deve lop his promise) and a few ot~ers; yet it is i mportant lhat we at least note so:,10 of t110 l er; ser lichts of this period. '."' terlin c; Bro-i-m and ,T. Snunders Reddi nc feel not11:i.ng of L1i)ortance, heyo nd. tl, o Jo1- ns ons, occured i r. the first two decades. Dut, for purpose.::: of ou r stndy and co n tinuit:r, He must note that this was not a period of inactivity amonc poets. nically, there was s ome expe ri ment ation. Tech- However, most of the poets eith er ~elpcd ~ 1ase out t he dialect v og ue or wrote h armless piece s o n ~ature, l ov e, cardens, death and human .:iorro1v. Others wrote ·hars11l:r and hi tterl:r of tbe war. Miller, mat11e maticj_an and sociolog ist, was a leadinG 2 82 �Black spokes man of t h o d ay and onl:r occa :J iona 7.l~r wro te poet r :r. His prose-poem "I Sec and Am Sati s fi ed " pro v ided fuel for further discussion of conte mporary racial issues. Consistine of 25 stanzas, it i. s r c nr.i. n is c e n t of F e11 ton Job ns on ( "Tired 11 ) and Margaret Walker ( "F or II:r People"). Hi 11 produced 1:1an::,r good students while he was principal at Ch e:rney Tra:lnin 6 School for Teachers (later Ch eyn e~ ntato Coll e g e). Ile attended Harvard and taught at Tuske c;ee and bis literary i nfluences are Lon gfellow, ifordswortb , Mil ton and Bnrn :.1 . !-Ti s pn~) lis b ed works are The Wines of Oppression (1922) and Toussaint L'Ov erturc--A Dramatic History (192 ~). Roy L. Fi l l, p oet a nd edu cator, is a prote g e of the se nior Hill 111, 0 fe e ls t 1, e Afro-A me rican r' con strained O '"'pression ~ l 1_ 1.•_r1 •1 ~I,.rf nr:q. -~ to G,....ive. 11 Hi.s po e tr:r l1as a strenc; th laced Hith Washington-t:r po f e ol :i n 0 s a,...,0 1 1t rac e re latio n::;. us that he will "monrn t r e trav ail of ..::r rac e . 11 T-Ie tells TJ:ost g rippinc;ly memorab le, b ovre7er, i c 7i s nso Qu1.0tl:r," a p oe tlc distil~ati.on (a par:i pb l e t, 1 9 00 ) , T> o l ian tl o of Dti n 1·· ar a nd Otb or P,o e ms (a pam" "'d C" c,.1-~· of _--.,.r -o: o,L p~e ( 7'J 1 ci) ~ J.. ... c?. L.! r.) U..:, ed u cator a :-10. pre a c 1~c r b iri1, 11 l if o 11 if' a 11 _,.,!_ · t :1 II:i. sf'c11r :i. a nd 1;'" ~.:-:c c~ s on ,:::: ." ..... ,, 10 . ... ~, • 5. s p oetr:- :i. s J oth li crit An oc c-a s i onal p oe t , P,rm-rle~r �( .. ,-. - 0'i .,_ .I - · · '- ' I\ ,1, l. t'l-i e d evelo pme nt of 'llla c 1- Amo r 5. can po c t r :r. !!o wrote stories a r~d poer:s t1• a t ' ,o.d :,ot ½con c ol:_s ct ed at the t l.110 of h is de at'I; . Dandri dc;o ' :.:. po c tr~r 5. s r l cl~ a nd ~o .. :o t i me:J ra d .al. l n co n- and contemporary violence against Blacks, he asks: Or can it be you fear the grave Enough to live and die a slave? "Zalka Peetruza 11 recalls McKay's "Harlem Dancer 11 in that pa.rt of the woman is dancing "--save her face. 11 A native of Cincinatti, Dandridge suffered a stroke when he was 30 years old which le.ft his legs and right arm paralized. Thereafter writing most of his poetr:r from his bed, he published The Poet and Other Poems (1920) and Zalka Peetruza and Other Poems (192 Dandridge also wrote competent poetry in dialect and, in this form, was a disciple of Dunbar. poetry to various magazines. Bohanon and McCall contribute A teacher from Washington, D.C., t Bohanon did not publish a volume. Neither did McCall who became • ;1,t~ ;!l an editor of the Independent after being made blind by typhoid., l An13e lina Grimk6 published a three-act play (Rachel) her poetry remains uncollected. 284 Born in Boston, she was �educated in various schools, of several states, and later taught English for many yea.rs at Dunbar Hic;h School in Washington, D.C. More than slightly resembling Gwendolyn Brooks, Miss Grimk~ 's poetry contains some of the most distilled language in modern American literature. Brilliant, precise and poignant, she writes of' love, seasons, darkness and high spirits during her maturing years--typified in the phrase "the New Nee;ro. rr Although she had been publishing poetry in periodicals her first big break came when she was included in Cullen's anthology, Caroling Dusk (1927). Not until the sixties would suqh lines as the following take on tbeir full political/cultural significance: 'Why, beautiful still finger, are you black? And why are you pointing upwards? In 11 The Want of You" even the moon and clouds join in "the crying want of you." work. Long overdue is a detailed study of Miss GrimkJ's But she is included in the best anthologies of Afro- American poetry and literature. Critical comments on her work can be found in the work of Kerlin, Kinnamon and Bttrksdale, and Brown ( 11 irony and quiet despair 11 ) . A brilliant student in college and for several years literary editor of the famous Crisis magazine, Jesse Fauset also served as an interpreter for the DuBois-inspired Second Pan-Af'rican Coneress in London. A native of New Jersey, she attended Cornell (Phi Beta Kappa) and the University of Pennsylvania, and published four novels: There is Confusion (1924), Plum Bun (1929), The Chinaberry Tree (1931) and Comedy, American �St~rle (1933). Her poetry appeared in numerous periodicals during the twenties and thirties. "Oriflamme, 11 Her skill is evident in her most famous poem. Inspired by a quotation from Sojourner Truth, the poem views the Black mother "seared with slavery's mortal scars" but vows that ber sons are Still visioning the stars! Black poets apparently spent time reflecting during the period between the beginning of the century and the Renaissance. So much of the poetry takes us into their private lives--sometimes into racial tones and sometimes not. Some of J essie Fauset's verse, for example, mirrors her knowled ge of French (she taught the language and translated into English several West Indian French-speaking poets). This is seen in the titles of some of poems and in other places where she interpolates French words into the texts. Generally her tone is quiet, neat and well written. Hawkins (a native of North Carolina) graduated from Kitrell College in 1901 and worked for many y ea.rs in the railway mail service. In "Credo II he announced t h at I am an Iconoclast. With obvious irony, Hawkins goe s on to claim he is "an Anarchist," (see Brown) and "an Agnostic." Additional irony and cynicism is seen in such poems as "A Spo.de is Just A Spade" and "The Death of Justice. 11 In h is rush of language and boldness of subject matter, Hawkins anticipates Tolson. .. His Chords and and Discords was published in 1909 and h is work appears in 2 36 �The Poetry of Black America (ado.ff, 1973) and Kerlin's anthology which includes critical notes. on Hawkins (a 11 Brown also comments .foreshadow" of new nNe gro Poetry "). Harris, Mrs. Flemi nc; , Hrs. Newsome, Rob erts, Hiss Jessye, Shackelford, Jamison, Wilson, Mrs. Johnson, Raza.i'ieriofo, Burrell and Bailey were among oth er poets contributing to various periodicals of t h e day. Harris brougbt out The Steel Makers and Otber War Poe ms in pamphlet form in 1918. · He served as editor of the Richmond (Indiana) Blade and published shortstories in The Century. "The Steel Makers II is emotionally and technically akin to some of the work of Whitman (Walt) and Sandburg. It praises t he steel workers--amone whom Harris himself numbered at one time. In another place, Harris asks the white man to accept him since, despite color and feature dii'ferences, The NeGro's the same as the rest. Harris' work can be found in Kerlin's book. Mrs. Fleming published Clouds and Sunshine (1920) in Boston at the inception of the Renaissance. Mrs. Newsome, wb o writes primarily for children, did not publish a volume of poems until 1940 (Gladiola Garden). Among the "earliest Necroes to employ free-verse with artistic ei'fectiveness" were Razaf'keriei'o and Will Sexton. Sexton contributed to various periodicals as did Razafkeriefo whose work appeared in Th e Crusader and The Ne gro World. through the t h eme of t h e day, Sexton announced I am the New Negro. 287 Carryinc:; �Taken i'rom "The New Negro", this line will be seen a.gain in various places and temperaments including in Tolson•s "Dark Symphony. 11 In "The Bomb Thrower" Sexton plays the role of "America's e'1il e;enius II and sardonically proposes a reversal of the ideals of Democrac:t. Razai'keriefo, born in Washington, D.C. to A.fro-American and Hadagascaran pa.rents, only had an elementary education. He asks, in "The Negro Church, 11 for "manly, thinking preachers 11 And not shouting money-makers, after declaring (in the manner of a Stokely Carmichael, Malcolm X or Rapp Brown) t h at t he church has great "power." Preachers, he warns, should work to "fit the Negro" For this world as well as heaven. In addition to anger and impatience, this poet also expresses race pride and praises 11 Tbe Negro Woman." to him to pick a woman for 11 If it were left up queen of the ball of fame," be would "select the wonderful Negro woman. 11 Burrell, who con- tributed poetry to magazines, echoes Razafkeriefo in Nee;ro Mother. 11 11 To A In four eight-lined stanzas (using iambic octa- meter) Burrell celebrates the "grace and fortitude" of the Black mother. Recalling that greatness of Black history, he asks earth mother to Create anew the captains of the past; Build in your soul the Eth iopian power, ... The preceding two poems call to mind Hue;hes' "The Negro Mother," Watkins' '1Ebon Maid and Girl of Mine," Hrs. Johnson's "To 28 3 My �Grandmother, 11 11 Owen Dodson's Black :1vi: oth er Pra.y inc; ," and other moving tributes to t h e Afro-Americ an woman. 11 Wilson's body's Child" is not good poetry but its subject is. Some- He worked a s a pr :1.nt cr and tbeatr i cal performer a nd s e r v ed time in t 1.1 e llioso ur i St a t e: Peniter~ti nr:r d'...1r i n::; w1·, :T. ch ti me 11e put togeth er a small b oo k of l 1i s ver ses. of Co.nada who s·::, c~.Y-~ ::-,t 11 Ph ilad e lph ia. Art ?lus e um . Shac kelford was n native i_:x1-_,st,:-- ia ~- tra.i ni nc; s ch ool and t be '1'' His b oo k , ~,tr _Qoun t r :r and Ot11 er Poems, was pub lish ed i n Pb ilaclelpl1 ia. in 1 91 ,'.J . Jamison publish ed Nccro So l diers n.nd Oth er Poe ms in S outh St. Joseph , Hi ssouri, in 1918. Jamison wri te s ab out :rca.stles i n t r e Air, nHopeless ness II a nd 11 Th e :tfoc;ro Soldiers." 11 love, Th e latter poem has someth ing of t h e flav or of Dunba·r 's "Colored S ol diers n and salutes the bra.very and courac e of Black troops whose "souls grandly rise. 11 Th ese troops, Jamiso n points out, fou ght for America instead of se eking 11 venc e nce for t h eir wrongs. 11 A native of Hissouri, Bailey's only volume of poems (The lt,irstlin 0 ) was released in 1914. "The Slump II makes a baseball (via Christian s y mb olis m) game an a lo r; ous to t h e hardships of Black life: Well, we'r e all at t h e b at-and warns that t h e "ball may be hurled" as a plea. "Hr. Self 11 is at the bat b ut There's the Be ggar and Gate-and a wh isperinc voice from above calls "Strike t h ree." Miss Jessy e wrote movine:; poetry but is much b etter known 289 �for her work in developing and leading professional choruses. Born in Kansas, she received musical training at Western University in Kansas and Langston University in Oklahoma. Moving to New York City in the twenties, she continued working with figures like Will Harion Cook, J. Rosamond Johnson, Hall Johnson and others. In her famous concerts around the world she has used work from Porvj and Bess, John Work 1 s compositions and that of the men listed above. Her published collections include My Spirituals (1927), The Life of Christ in Negro Spirituals (1931), Paradise Lost and Re gained (Milton 1 s work adapted to Black songs, 1934), and The Chronicle of Job (a folk drama, 1936). I mportant for t~e same reaso ns noted in our discussion of Alex Rogers, Hiss Jessye successfully combined the poetic and the musical lan 0uage (though they are so similar to start with!). Her poem, 11 Tbe Sinc;er" recalls the work of Corrothers, Dunbar, Johnson (James), and numerous other poets who h..a ve bridged the gap between t b e two art forms. One is reminded of Johnson 1 s 11 0 Black and Unknown Bards" in Miss Jessye 1 s statement t b at the singer's "speech was blunt and manner plain. 11 Like the "unknown bards, song was "but the essence of the heart." 11 his unlettered Her poems, published in newspapers during t h e twenties, s h ow a li gh theartedness but a sincerity and sense of conviction. "spring" and the 11 She writes about Rosebud 11 and while she is not singularly distinguished as a poet, her life 1 s work is an indispensable float in the grand parade of the AEro-American creativity in 290 �the arts. In choral work, Hiss Jessye is especially noted for her direction of the Original Dixie Jubilee Singers, later named the Eva Jessye Choir. For a thoroue;h ·discussion of Miss Jessye 's life and works ( alone; with that of her contemporaries) see Eileen Southern' s The Music of Black Americans. For poetry selectio ns , see Kerlin. Durine the period of the Renaissance, poets such as Georgia Johnson, Jessie Fauset, Anne Spencer, Alice DunbarNelson, I-Iill, 1'-foKay, James Weldon Johnson, Dandridge and Cotter (sho had achieved recognition before 1923), continued their output either through ma 6 azines or book-publication. i Much of this work is recCrded in Johnson's The Book of American t l r Negro Poetry (1922, 1931); Kerlin's ~egro Poets and Their Poems (1923, 1935) and Contemporary Poetry of the_ Negro (1921), and in other sue~ coLlpilutions and periodicals. Anne Spencer was born in West Virginia and studied at the Virginia Seminary in Lynchburg where sbe has spent most of her life. She recently relocated in California; but was for a long time librarian at Dunbar Hi c~h School in Lynchburg. This poet's work hardly ever reflects racial or political concerns but she is one of the most technically-sure of all Blnck poets. Sb e writes about wor.1en, love, carnivals and the workings of the mind. In its brevity and conciseness, her poetry anti- cipates the work of' Gwendolyn B1.,ooks and is loosely akin to Angelina Gri mk~ 's ( thou gh the latter 1 s work is racially-flavored). Her poetry also bears some kinship to t he 291 11 Imagist II school of �poets writing in the early years of t be century. Elements of this particular technique and style can be seen in Hayden: ( "The Diver," "Nigbt-Bloomine Cereus, 11 and oth ers). "At The Carnival II we smell sausage and c;arlic t :1at Sent unh oly incense skyward and are told ( in an echo of the ro .nantics) that Whatever is good is God. "Dunbar" laments 11 b ow poets sine; and die! 11 and places -the eulogized Black poet in t b e same class with Ch atterton, Shelley and Keats. Niss Spencer's most mov ing poem, it seems, is "Translation" wh erein two lovers nover speak But each knew all t h e other said. Calling her the "most ori ginal of all Ne gro women poets," ,, Sterline Brown adv ised, in 1937, t h nt ~rnr "sensitive, and keenlJ .~:;. , observant" work sh ould be "collected for a wider audience." But as of sumrr.er, 1974, no one h ad undertaken Brown's Considering her span of years, Mrs •. Spe ncer (somewhat has not been prolific. Her work can b e found in se,v eral antho-. logies and periodicals of t he twenties. Critical assessments are given by Kerlin, Brown and Joh nson. James Weldon Joh nson, we noted earlier, published Fifty Years and Other Poems in 1917. Tl1e Hork included dialect as well as conventional standard English commemorative pieces. Not high ly original, t b e work was one more step in the long and fruitful development of perh aps t h e most i mportant figure in the history of Black poetry. 292 It seems Johnson was involved �in as many thinc;s as could have been hu~nanly possible. After his work on Broadway (with ligh t operas), h e worked for the re-election of Theodore Roosevelt, served as United States Consul (a reward for bis political work ) in Nicaragua and Venezuela, published (anonymously ) The Autobiography of An Ex-Colored Man in 1912, wrote editorials (for more than 10 years) for the New York Ac;,e and b ecame t h e NAACP's first s ecretary genera l- - worl:j_nc i n tb at post fo r 14 :rear s . · A deep ly psych oloc i cal wor k , Au tobi ograph~ de alt wi t h s uch a n explosive contemporary topic--th e t h eme of passing--th at Johnson would not affix h is own name to it until it was reissued during the Renaissance (1 927) with an introduction by Carl Van Vechten. The conventional poetry of Fiftv Years shows Johnson to be politically at the t hresbh old of t h e "a.wakening ." Sterling Brown stated, incorrectly, t h at Joh nson's "Broth ers II was the most "vigorous poe:'1 of protest fro r,i a ny Ne gro poet up to h is time." We know t h at Whitfield, Wbitman, DuBois, Hawkins and others were just as strong and forceful. Fifty Years was highly praised by Braithwaite ("intellectual substance"), Brander Mathews ( sbould be grouped with t be noblest American commemorative poems), and other influential critics. This first book shows a strength, "v irility " a.nd robustness t hat would mark Johnson's future wri tings--especially God's Trombones (1927). The poems are patriotic ("Fifty Yea.rs" wh j_cb commemorates the fiftieth anniversary of t he Emancipation Proclamation}, nostalgic ( 11 0 Southland!"), descriptively amorous ( "The Glory of the Day was in Her Face"), strong and verile ("Th e Young Warier"), 293 �race-proud (angry) and didactic ("Brothersn) and fundamental and reli gious ( no Blac k and Unknown Bard 11 ) . The last poem, more important for what it records t h an b ow it is assembled, is an artistic tribute of t h e makers of t h e Spirituals. Using actual words and names from Spirituals, Johnson weaves in the strength and artistry ch aracteristic of t h ese songs he loved-and to wh ich he devoted s o much research and listening time. Great are, he says, is produc ed b y These simple ch ildren of t h e sun and soil. Joh nson knew, too, t h at t ~es e makers would not be O black slave s incers , gone , for got, unfamed, if work of t h e sort be wa s doins continued in t he h ands of those to -wh om h e pass ed the torch . Alth ough Fifty Yea.rs is strong , solid wor k , it is lat e r that Jo~nson ' s c ome s into h is own as ex per imonta15.s t a nd ra ce-s e t ter. Go or 3 ia J obncon a lso wrote ra c e -c on~i cious l~rrics. J o11nson's t hemes are sn c;r_i;cs t ed 5. n h e r titles: The He art of A Woman (191 8 ), Bro nze (1922) and An Aut umn Lo ~e Cy cle. .. '· f and fluent, 11 Hrs. "Skillful h er poe try deals primaril~r witb lo neliness, sorrow, seasons , u nrequit ed lov e and is intellectual ly- b ased. The first Dlack woman after Frances Harp er to acl1 ieve reco gnition as a poet, she is explicitly r acial in Bronze alth ough allusions to Blackness s ometime appear in h er other work. Yet Mrs. Johnson seems to know something ab out the heart of all women (and men) when she says t h e singer's s ongs Are tones t h at repeat 294 • �The cry of the heart Till it ceases to beat. "The Octaroon" deals with a woman who is tainted because she is the victim of One drop of midnight in the dawn of life's pulsating stream but who finds hospitality in the Black community. 11 humble fold"--presumably the Tbis poem recalls Cotter's "The Mulatto to His Critics" which depicts t h e multi-racial predicament of one (probably Cotter himself) made up Of Red Han, Black Ma.n, Briton, Celt, and Scot, but who loves the dark-skinned, curly haired race that "puts sweet music in my soul." tension in "To Hy Son. 11 I'1rs. Johnson develops a similar She tosses and turns between advising her son that the "dusky pall or she.dews screen the highway of sky" and encouraging him to "storm the sullen fortress" founded on racism. In addition to writing such powerful and lasting poetry, Mrs. Joh nson was of service to young writers f'or several decades. A f'emale counter-part to Langston Huehes, she hosted regular and spontaneous writers meetings in her h ome in Washington, D.C., where she moved after receivine academic and musical training at Atlanta University and Oberlin College. A native of Georgia, she was employed in government service most of her adult life. For critically introduced selections of her work, see Barksdale and Kinnamon, Johnson and Kerlin. 1' 295 Brown also supplies a good �assessment. We should note, in passin~ and by way of introduction to Fenton Johnson, H. Binga Dismond (1891-1956) who did not publish a. volume of poetry until 1943 (We ·who Would Die). Dismond, like Johnson and Frank Ears~ all Davis was one of the man:r writers of t'!rn period who ·was not pbysically present in ITarlem durinc t~c Renaissance. Di smond was born in Virginia and, a track star ( as was Frank Horne), studied pb:rsical t h erapy a.t Rush He dical Collcc;e after attendinc Howard Universit:r Academy and tbe Unive rsi t:r of Ch icac;o . (The Hic1west's parti- cipation in the ~onaissance has been dramatically underplayed.) Dismond, Hbo Hrote some crisp and poi~~1ant poetr:r of love and protest, is more importa nt to us durins this period for his journalistic wor1:. :Ti t11 .To1: ns on, ~-ic edited Tlle Champion Ma r;azine 1 (startine; in 1916) for several ·,:re ars. Tl'"cey also co-edited The Favorite Na2;azino ( nThe World's Greatest 11ont1:'1 ly") where they both published poems and articles. Johnson bac: several of l1 j_s pla:rs performed 'l.n Chicago's Pekin Theatre wben 1rn ~ras ni.neteen a nd is generally seen as tbe most creati ve J_ink 1-)eh.reen t 1,e poets of Dunhar's era and the Harlem Renaissance. Born in Chicaco of economically stable parents, b e attend ed tbe city's na me sake university and taugh t school for n. :reo.r in the South. Ee privately pub- lished three volumes of poetry, o ne (A Little Dreaming, 1917) in Chicag o, anc, tuo (V:tsions of the Dusk, 1915; and Songs of the Soil, 1916) in new York uhero be liv0d for a sbort time. Harriet I·'i:onroc and ( "The Hew Poetryn group) bad established 296 �Poetry ( 1912) i n ' : is 1 '0iilO tow n o. nd .Jol,ns on 1;1ade c ont ac t wit": I n 1 92 0 , ,Jo1 , 1::i on r' 1 '-,lls 17 cd Tal e s of Dar ke s t Amer ica, b er . A part i c i pa nt in t 11e " poet r y re v ival" in sb or t storie s . Amer ica, ,Jo11 nso n '·, nd ~1is -:rnr k accepted for P oetr:r, and t:rn "'t1,._h ol o,.,. -: e,....., 0.1.L, 1,cr,., ( i l., G .-L "' J • .., 0 ~ ·- ·- , 6 ' ' n.,.L 7 , ,!.. j An Ant bolocy of An10ri c an P oetr:r: 1 0 9 n J.. , C. ·• ) , T1, e l'~ eu Poet r :r and L:rric America, 163 0 -1 9) 0 . I n sayi ns Jo 0, ns on wo.s u lt i 1:1 2t c l :r t h e p oet of "desp air 11 a nd t bat he wa s t 1rn 0 111:, po e t Hritins i n snch ~.· ein (ns Brown, Reddin c; , .Jolrnson, "'. :n ..::;ner , a :1c. oti-,e rs •, a·:c do n e ), cr iti. cs pre sent ed par t of t l·.c ,·, ia n . new i n El ac k po c t r :r r,' 1:1 · j _l 0 1;1:r :.!e did 1,orrow f ro ;:i Iin. st ers, Li nds ay e pr o-,· :i.d 5- '1,:::- a n a ':e nue for exp e r i mcn - tation t o en t er i nt o t1"Je works of }J is Bla c k c ont emp orar i es. But in poems s u ch a s "Tired, "Th e Ban j o Play er, tt 11 "The Scarlet Woman" and "Rulers II b e displays much more t ll a n "d espair." Reflecting , as Brown n ot ed , t h e "tw o ext remes of Ne gr o poetry after 1914,tr Job nson can d eal with eith er t h e b rawling urban b lues or t h e down- h ome, "we s h a l l ove rcome " motifs. Because his work doe s not contain n co nsist e nt spirit of h ope, James Weldon Joh nson s aid h i s mes s a ge mirror ed idea.s 11 forei t:; n to any ph ilosoph y of l i fe t he Ne c;r o in Ame r l ca. h a d ever preach ed or practiced. the 11 11 Joh nso n t h ou r;h t t h is wns 11 startling 11 despite birth 11 , about the same time as F enton Jol·, nson' s work, of t h e blues era--and t b e wor k of W.C. Handy (l -S 73-1958 ) wh o is sometimes called i t s 11 fat h er. 11 F ent on Jobnso n is •"Tired" of a ci v ilization wh i ch b as gi v en h i m "t oo many tr ch ildren and 297 �no ch ance for t h em to sh are i n t h e American dr e am. He proposes to his wife t h at t h ey Throw t b e cb j_ldren into t h e ri v er: and observes t h at ••• It i s be ttor to di e t h an it is to grow up and f i nd out t h at you are colored. Joh nson writes ab out roustab outs, prost i tutes, vagrarits, laborers and strong will and is, as Jay Wri gb t said of Henry Dumas, "the poet of t h e dispos s ess ed." He is also t h e poet of t h e blues; and Sam Greenlee b as noted t hat "th e bl ues are a freedo m song ." In breaking away fro m trad itional Blac k poetic diction and form, Johnson not only received influence fro m t h e wh ite experimenters of free verse; be borrowed h eav ily from t h e b lues and, at t h is level, must s h nro some of t h e accolades usually reserved almost solely for Langston Hugh es. It is now wid el y accepted t hat t h e b lues d o not simply preach resi g nation. To the contrary , t he b lues, t~lling about heart-ache and perso nal failures, carry h ope in the singing and the going on. Har garet Wal ker i s only one of t h e many poets whose work seems to reflect t h e influence of Joh nson. Do we really believe t h at Joh nson meant for t he ch ildren to be t hrown in the river? Anymore t h an we take the bl~es singer literally wh en be promises to "lay my h ead down on some railroad track"? Johnson ts "note of despa i r rr is one more brilliant and artistic distillation of t be strange phy sical web wh ich produced tbe sorrow songs, t h e Spirituals, t h e ditties, jokes, rhymes and 29 8 �blues. At the time Johnson wrote his poetry Handy was com- posing some of his most famous blues songs ("St. Louis Blues," "The Memphis Blues, 11 'Yellow Dog Blues") and arranging traditional blues pieces like "Train's A-Comin.," "Let Us C:beer t h e Weary Traveller," "Come on., Epb, 11 and 11 Juba. 11 And in this list alone is locked partial answers to much of t h e work of several Afro-American writers: Hughes, Walker, Tolson, 1-vrieht, Brown, Jayne Cortez, Gil Scott-Heron and numberless others. -It is quite possible t hnt critics loo ki ng at Johnson were not pre~ pared for his irony and poetic assimilation of t h emes and feelings wbich had been glossed over by Chr istianity and other anesthetics. In 11 Rulers II Johns on discusses a "monarch II on "Lombard Street in Philadelphia.," who "was seated on o. throne of flour bags. 11 Near the 11 r.1onarcb 11 two young boys with guitars played "ragtime tunes of the day. Black 11 11 Clearly this "monarch" ( a laborer 11 in reality) is being serennded and saluted just as any oth er 11 ruler 11 would be. of the blues ( 11 ragtime 11 )! He presides as a prince Johnson's work is in mos.t anthologies of Afro-American poetry and critical assessments of him have already been noted. For more thorou g11 discussions of the poetry-blues concept see Stephen Henderson's Understanding the New Black Poetry., 111:r bibJ. iocrap1':y and Chapter VII. At t he dawn of the Harlem Renaissan c e t h ere appeared a. slim-vol ume of poetry Seamo n Cotter, Jr. (1 395-1919 ), the precocious son of t'~e Cotter alroad:r cUscussed. YounG Cotter died an early dcat'1 Hbicl: cnt short tlie work of one of the 299 �most promising figures in Afro-American poetry. Born in Kentucky and frail fro m childhood like Dunbar, Cotter had to end his college career at Fisk University when he developed tuberculis. An innovator, as was h is father, Cotter s h ows a sharp awareness (in The Bend of Gideon, 1910) of the plight of Blacks and an even sharper ability to express that plight along with other sentiments and feelings. Black poetry's concerns in 11 He echoes much of And What Sball I Say 11 ; "Rain Misictt anticipates amny of Hughes's pieces--thin gs in The Weary Blues, "Jazzonia, 11 and so on--whe n be recalls tbe "dusty earth-drum" which hammers fallin g rain Now a wh ispered murmur, Now u louder strain. Bearing the import of mucb of the "exotic" Black literature of the renaissance, Cotter never t h eless sees in the beat of· the Slender, silvery drumsticks a rejuvenation of life as ordered b~r God, "the Great Musician." Cotter began writing poems wh ile a teenac;er. His technique, as is .Johnson's, comb ines t he best of traditional Western poetry with the ncu wave of free verse. His poe ms . are a.bout love, "Ne gro Soldiers," reliGion, Blackness, justice and his own illness. 11 Is It Because I Am Black 11 seems to have been looking forward to a 1<)60 1 s "soul" sonc of a similar title wherein t1~e sincer says Sometbinc is holding me ha ck! Lawd, is :i.t ~:ie cul'!se I'm D~.a ck ? In tbe poem Cott or o.sks 1-111:r ·whi tcs are so o.1;1azed t b a.t he can 300 �"stand II in t~ v) i r i n port ant 1,1e 0tl nc;s, Joo),: t110n1 str a i ch t ln t 11e f c.c c , a nd 11 spe a !r ti.101r Cot ters 1rnrk appe ars L1 The 'R ool~ of Ame rican lJe.::.;ro Poe try , 1Jec;ro Car n.van., ICe rli n ' s study ( 11 T11e stamp of the African mind is upo n " Cotter ), and The Poetry of Blac k Amer lc a . Al t bour;b I:c r lin su'0mi t s brief critical comments, a study of t h :i. s y oune poe t's wor k is sorely needed. He left, also seve ral plays and unpub lish ed sonnets. B. POETS AS PTI OPBJ~TS : The Har l em Renaissance A Ha ve of lonc:;i nc t h rough my bod:sr suept . -- Claud e IfoKa.y The Harlem Renai s sance (see section I of t h is c h apter) is normally see n as a decade-lengt h (1920-193 0 ) out-pouring of cultural and artistic activity in wh at Jame s Weldon Joh nson called t h e Ne gro cultural capitol. Tllere is h armless dis- agreement as to wbe n t b e renaissance act ually b e ga,n and how long it lasted. 1935. S ome say it started in 1925 and ran until Others gi ve t'.1e first ti me sp a~1 me nt i oned ab ove. Still ' others (includinc Wa gner, Black Poets of t h e United States) des i c;na te tllc period ' ,ct•·rc·cn tl'e tu o Hor1.d wars (1913-1 939). T11e poets of tbe renaissance--whi cb included dance., painting., sculpture, music., t h eater, literature, science and scholarsh ip--knew a nd read each oth er's works. Ironically , however, only one of t h e lea.din,~ f' i gures is said to have been b orn in New Yor k City : Countee Cullen (1903-1946) a.nd 301 �I I I. he w~s raised in the "conservative atmosphere of a Methodist parsonage," the adopted son of a minister. Langston Hughes (1902-1967) spent much of t h e decade of the twenties traveling: so did Claude Ifo Kay ( 1890-194 8 ) who wandered over "Europe and North Africa. 11 --in many instances, 11 a lone; way from home. 11 Jean Toomer (1 894-1967), disturbed and haunted by his complex ethnic background, was a my sterious fi gure who died the same year as Hu ghes in the anonymity of a Q.u aker . commune in Philadelphia (obscure after having years before). given up writing several Often called "minor" writers of the Renaissance, neither sterling Brown (1 901was born in New York. ) nor Arna Bontemps (1902-1973) And neither pub lish ed books during the twenties but they did have poems accepted by such magazines as The Crisis and Opportunity. McKay , lah e led the r e na i ssance ' s poe t of ancer and: rebellion, is chiefly for his famom:; sonnet ( 11 If We Must Die 11 ) which winds down (up?) to the followin g couplet: Like men we 'll face the murderous, cowardly pack, Pressed to t h e wall, dying , but fi ghting back! Found scribbled on the walls after the Attica uprising of 1972, the national American press attributed the poem to some promising inmate! McKay wrote it in 1919 sh ortly after a series of riots that took hundreds of Black lives. Many critics use the date as the beginning of the Harlem Renaissance. 302 But McKay had made �his entry into the Harlem world of letters two years earlier (1917) with the publication of two poems ("Harlem Dancer" and "Invocationn) in Seven Arts Magazine. He came to America. in 1912 from his native Jamaica, where he read much European literature and philosophy, to study agriculture. Enrolling first at Tuskegee and lat0r at Kansas state College, he finally went on to Harlem where he worked as a porter, waiter and restaurant propietor. Before leaving Jamaica, McKay had established bis reputation as a poet of dialect poetry with his Songs of .Tamaica (1912) and Cons tab Ballads (1912), the latter work reflecting his one-time e mp loyment as a policeman on the island. In New York, he gained quick entrance into literary and political circles, establishing a life-long friendship with Max Eastman (who wrote a biograpbical note for Selected Poems (1953). McKay counted amon g his friends some of the most in- fluential literary and political fi gures of tbe day: John Reed, Floyd Dell (The Masses), Waldo Frank, Frank Harris (Pearson's Magazine), ::a1'ct1 s Garvc:r (l'~sc;ro Ho:rld ) 1 and others. Fiery and forceful, McKay was the subject of much attention and discussion. Although he never joined the Communist Party, he defended its stand in most of the publications he wrote for. 11 If We Must Die" was read into the Congressional Record as an example of Black unrest and resentment. In the furry, McKay left the United States in 1919, returned for a brief period the following year, and left a gain to travel all over Europe and Northe Africa for 15 l ears. 303 He returned to America in 1934 �where ho wou ld ro r,:at n unt i l b i s d e atl.:-1 in l()L~ 2 . Hc Kay ' s o t bc r vo lLrne D of p o e tr:' i nc l ude Spr i ng i n New • e n amps l1ir , ... __ ; TT f ., " ' " ", • 1-l w 1. \ ,. 1 a pr 01r, ac e 1., y ~1~ •no f a rn ous c 1•i t i c I.A. ,.., :-;,· ;'._' of J a ma tcn wa s re i s s u e d in 1969 -~, ,_,, - -·... --- -----~ ·-- - C:l a ude rfoKay (1 97 2). and a new v olun e of prose a nd p o e try ( '.l' li e Passio n of Claude McKay) was pub lis b0d i n pu b lish ed writ in Gs , 1973 . 1<)12-194 ° . It co n t a ins p l~!, li s 11ed and unr-Ic Ka:r d ied ohs c u re and poor in Chicag o wh ere he h a d g one to t e ach in Ca t h olic Sch ools. Hi s life, like t h at of so many Blac k artis ts (D unb ar, Ch arlie 1 'Yardb ird II Par k e r , S a r.1 Co oke , Le roy (;ar r , Bli.ncl Lemon Jefferson) wa s li ved wi th cons Uli1a te spee d, f e ar a nd tr a g e dy . Th ough b e las h ed ou t at wh ites , h is c l o ses t fri ends were wb ite; wb ile he wrote def 5.ant , a ngr y a nc7 mil i t an t ver se , was i nsp ir e d b:r t h e t .ri eat mcnt of Blac k s. tradictio ns and eni::;mas in b i s lH'o. to unr av el t h e m bo re . Kc:r:J t o mu c h of 1:10 d enied t h at it Th ere are oth er con- Bu t we mako n o atte mpt Nc Ka y ' s complexit y , h owever, can he g ained by re a d i nB h is aut oh io s r aph y (A Long Home t o Uarle m (1928), Ban j o (1 929) and Ba n ana Bottom (1933), and h is many articles and s h ort storie s , Gi n g ert ow ~ entitled Harle m: (1 932). Negro Eet rop o l i s He also wr ote a study (1 9L~0 ). 'I' 1"0 ', e st source for Mc Ka y 's po e t ry is h i s Se lec ted Poems . J c Lio.n:· ways it i s iro n ic t hnt Mc Kay i s called t h e poet of ang er. lfatb an I-I n gc i n s "b lack Prm;1etheu:s , n (!Iarl em Re n a is sance) calls h i m t h e s i n e e most of h i s poe ms deal with quiet �topics such as moth er, nature, nostal gi a, loneliness, mental - -- - refle-etion, r-eli 13:i.on, world- tra vel, and descriptions - of -city - -life. Of literally do ze ns of poems he pub l ished, only 8b out ten can be called I angr:r. 11 Of c ourse t bo r e is often seeth ing unrest, And I am sh arp as steel wit h dis co nt e nt ••• , in much of t h e poetry tbat is not overt l y violent. true of everyday Black life. Such is And in this sense most Black Americans could be l a beled rrmilitant" or "viole nt "--h arb oring, as it were, polarizing tensions ("Ba ptism ") t b at make one defy all: I will come bac k to y our world of tears, A str onger soul within a finer fra me . Th ou gh one of t he create:::it influen c es on Blac k t h ou c;b t and art of h is day, Nc!Cay perb aps d id not know tllat h is writings inspired various srokesmen for African nationalism: Sedar Scngh or, Ou sman0 S oc e and Ai me Cesaire . Leopold And he is today seen as t he major lj_ nk between t b e re naissance and, t he mili ta.nt writings of th e 19 60 's. J us t a~ his clirtlect poems (such as "Two-an '-Six 11 ) h ad charned and enterta:1.ne d bi s fellow Jamaica cs, the discipline d ant:;e r of hi s popular American poems incited and inspired Blacks , and tit illated and fas cinated wh ites. For durin g t b is period , wh ites around t ho world were indicating a new interest s i n Blacks; and Blacks, inspired b:r t b e crowing nationalist f ee l lncs in sorae Euro pean countrie s , found ready fuel and propa ga nd a in their brot hers of co l or returnins h ome 3c,5 �from t he war. Yet .for all !;he anc;0r , i:'fo I(a ~r nover swervecl from .1is use of conventional Enr:;U.sh verse . Witl-. Cullen--tl10ucb not so 'l'l1c folk mater i als r o li g iously--bo a v oid8d. cxrori r;ientat5.o n . of llmerican Blac k~~ , e.xrnp le n of' Penton Jo11nson and oth ers, t ~·10 b is Englisl1 i.s cJ.c si.,s;;.-ioc1 to cac c f u r:r o.~d passion :i.n trac;ed:i..cs II a s Jame::, Weld on Johnson called t b e m. is a poet of po. ss ion, d:i.:::,trnst, an 1.:;cr end 1:rn tr cd . 11 sonnet- Ah ove all he We b a ve seen some ll atred before in Dla c 1.: poetr:· (DuBois, Gwendol:rn Bennett) bu t not q uite 1 i ke ive says 11 lt 8 00 :i..s par ex c ellence tho po,st of After ' '' 11 0 1V\·Torlr I. . - ·r.ri •re ...., ._, ' to , ur-, _..L ng, ' is not alw ays t 110 ' ~n.t c 1'.'. ~~ c 11 . . , nr~ u. i. n IIc ifo.;,r w1"1 0,n Wac;ncr l-1at0 . 11 11 Su c h feclin ,s is T>o ,.L ar~,..• t ~r ~ ~· • n Bu t i'IcKA.y e xe.n i ncs l·,nte ir tl: e 1--i ands of whitos--or as a prod~ct of ~estern sicknes s a nl decadenc e , v0 nted a 1hoit on t : e ::Jlac!'.".s . of the ear t h rr e nta'J. i s t Tl1 0 n oh :Llit~- of trrn Blac 1{ soul ( anc. t1 - 3 c ountr:n:lide) , d hd J. lu s l on':".1ent ( s Ge Du ~m.s) , 1, c c1 ic} mal~e 1:or etof or e unnoticed mod if i cations in �for i!e ol, 8or7c<.1 t}1at Luc:i.an B . Uatkins opened his rncc :,rido. ~-To,\.,r 1·'T.u<... ·~r o 11 ·. -1 i•· J. i t·t·, .I, But in no ot~cr quart e r, ~cfore or since ~ cKay, does a Black p ost perd.s t-- i nfus i n 6 blues and tra :.:;ic irony-•-wi tb t1-ie sonnet. Gwendolyn Drooler~ w-U. J. later inve nt l1c r ner:1ora ble 11 s onnet-ballad. 11 And Cn~.len's sonnets cortainl:r must 'Jo taken into account. :i:IcKay, however, endures with an ironic j_nconclusiveness that verges on the 11 dc:J;:)air ll critics see::n to se0 in Fenton Johnson. Por ~lcEa~r tlrn s onnc t is a for~ of t he rapy--allowing him to loose contro lled anccr. __,;:,,., is t~e anser of a nati v e Jamaican Ir; ( "home; 110:,.n) cau,:).: t up in t11e strait-jacket of wl~tte literary amenities. Ee Ha nts to be freed. poe try--principully t h e sonnet. seen in "The Nec;ro 's Trac;ed:;,r, and nThe Lynch in 0 • of Western poetry , 11 11 And freedo m comes t b rou 0 h This open-endedness can be 11 The I:Jcc;ro's Friend, 11 "In Bondage, As a correct a nd carefully nurtured darling tl10 sonnet l1ad been in the annals of English Contain:i.ng literature for centuries when i·IcKn:r ti.sed it. 14 lines (in various atanzaic patt erns), it is desi 5 ned to pose a probler~1 , squirm in it fo:-: n wl.1 ile, and close in a neat answer which begins with lino nine, or the sextet. Pres to! a olvins a problem in mathemati cs or calculus. :irace pro Jler1 , n b owevcr, cannot 11 is not qni te so easy. solve 11 a lynchi 11g . Just like "Solving II tho Hence HcKay But ho places it in the most awesome, 307 11 �gruesome contexts by equating t h e lynch ing to the crucifixion of Christ (see Cullen's The Black Christ and "Colors"), and failing to resolve the white-man's moral and religious cris i s. The blue-eyed women come to view tbe body, but show no sorrow And little lads, lynchers that were to be, Danced round the dreadful t h ing in fiendish glee. Clearly this is not how Petrarch, Sh akespeare., Spener, Milton., Wordsworth, Arnold or Santyana would have wanted the problem "solved." There was no answer--except for Blacks "fi ghting back" here and there--so McKay modified the concept of the sonnet in order to deal with a real "prob lem. 11 Most of the critics of Black literature and culture have discussed McKayfs work. His Selected Poems is available and he· is now being 11 represented even in white prestige" anthologies (Norto'n·; -Brooks- Lewis-Warren, The United States in Literature and others)~ most a mbitious s tudy of l'icKay to da t e is Poets). by The J"ean Wa gner _(Black Another recent study (which includes prose wr~ tings) I I i' is Arthur P. Davis's From the Dark Tower: 1900 to i 960 (1974). Afro-American Writers, Also see appendixes to most anthologies, biblio graphy section of this work., and especially the listings in Black Writers of America (Barksdale and Kinnamon). Unlike that of t h e 11 pure blooded" HcKay , .Jean Toomer's body r,ioused seven racial strains and he looked white. · Evidence , ·_ to support the fact that Toomer rejected his Black blood and "passed" cannot be found in bis major work--Cane (~923). I _; 300 �Neither is it i n "Th e Blue Meridian," written in 1936 and sadly overlooked, in which he tries to unite the disparate elements of the American personality into one person. Apparently unbe.ppy in childhood, Toomer never knew his father who abandoned the boy's mother shortly after he was born in Washington, D. C. Toomer's possible claim to name and money had been thwarted earlier when his mother, the daugh ter of P.B.S. Pinchback, an importa~t Louisiana Reconstruction politician, had to reduce her social status and re-locate in the upper-class Black area of Washington. robustness: gaiety." It was here that Toomer found spirit and "more emotion, more rhythm, more color, more After attending local public schools (including Dunbar High) he enrolled in one colle ge after another, never becoming a serious degree candidate. From this latter type of life, he went tbrou gb a series of jobs, finally gettine; into serious writing and putting poems and stories in several avant-garde little ma gazines. Toome r also formed close asso- ciations with Net·r York intellectuals: Hart Crane, Waldo Frank ( to whom he dedicated a section of Cane), Gor1rnm P. Muns.on, Alfred Stier;litz, Paul Rosenfeld, Kennetb Burke and others. Later, while working as superintendent (for four months) of a small Black school in 8parta, Geor gia, h e gained much of the material for the first and t h ird sections of Cane. After pub- lication of Cane, Toomer' s life returned to "psychological disarray" and he turned to other sources in search of a selfunifying methodology . Wi t b other intellectuals-associates, he 309 �delved into the philosoph ies of F. Mattl1ias Alexander, P.D. Ouspensky, and, most importantly, GoorGe J. Gurdjieff--whose disciple he later became. Gurdjieff, a Russian, assimilated aspects of Yoga, reli8ious mysticism and Freud, to produce what he called Unitism. won over converts. Toomer later expoused the theory and For a short while be also lived in a heterosexual experimental commune. married two white women. In quick succession Toomer After his second marriage in the thirties, he quipped: "I do not know wh ether colored blood flows through my veins. 11 Earlier, however, he bad noted in a biographical sketch accompanying work he submitted to The Liberator, t hat I have lived equall:y among the two race 3roups. Now white, now colored. From my own point of view I am naturally an American. I have strived for a spiritual fusion analagous to the fact of racial intermingling . Without denying a single element in me, with no desire to subdue one to the other, I have sought to let them live in harmony. Within the last two or three years, however, my growing need for artistic expression has pulled me deeper and deeper into the Negro group. And as powers of receptivity increased, I found myself loving it in a way that I could never love the other. Although James Weldon Johnson complained that Toomer refused 310 �(allegedly out of contempt for racial cate gorizing ) to be included in the second edition of The Book of American Negro Poetry, it was later brought out (conversation between Sterling Brown arrl Jean 1-'Jagner) t h at ill-feelings existed between the two men. At any rate, Toomer's poetry and prose appear in practically every subsequent anthology of Afro-American literature. In terms of influence, Toomer exerted more than any other renaissance fi gure on t h e Black intellectuals of the era. No other writer experimented wi tl1 literature or depicted Blacks quite the way he did. Mutual influence seems to have occured between h im and Hart Crane. And Robert Bone ( Negro Novel in America) places Cane on par with t h e writings of some of the best American contemporaries: Hemingway, Stein, Pound, Eliot. This is all surprising since Ca~~ sold less than 500 copies. As a work of art, however, it reflects Toomer's efforts to achieve unity of both self and purpose. Called variously a novel, a collection of s h ort stories/v i gnettes, a ' poetic drama, Cane defies labels. In my classrooms I often refer to it as a Blues-Epic--conceptually, similar to the great nationalistic sagas of the world: Beauwulf, Siegfried, The Song of Roland, . Chaka, a.nd others, only welded by Black spirituality and the rhythms of Afro-American ritual. Cane h as three basic movements-- Toomer had been interested in b oth music composition and painting--which involve (1) Geor gia and the .South, (2) Chicago, Washington., D.C. and the North, and (3) Georgia again where 311 �Toomer waxes autobiography. In the first part of Cane there are numerous pictures of women, many of them who, like will be ripened "too soon. 11 In the second section, Toomer views northern urban decadence and corruption and their influence on Blacks. In the third movement, a naive northern Black educator goes South (Georgia) to find his African roots. He rather clumsily passes t hrough a series of rites during which Toomer uses brilliant symbolism to heighten the man's fear and complex nature. Many of the stories are introduced by and interspersed with poetic sketches. The third, and final section, "Kabnis", is similar to a play. Karintha's skin "is like dusk on the ea.stern" horizon and immediately, at the opening of Can~, we find significant symbols in the words Hduskn and "ea.stern." Through out the book, Toomer essays the plight and joys of Blacks through tigth and sometimes enigmatic poetr:r. Word meanings are given double, triple, n.nd even more levels, as in the "Reapers" sharpening their scythes for far m chores but s.lso, perhaps, for a massacre. Black b eauty is someti mes surprising in the context of white barrenness and brutality: Flower.n TIITovember Cotton "Face" is an old, tired Black woman in Georgia. "Cotton Song" celebrates the worksonc, unity among field workers, and encodes revolutionary messaces: 11 v-le a.int a v -1ine t wait untll th Jud G;ment Day!" The "Beehive 11 is a rao tap!1or for t h e 2:bc tto, conpressed, cardoned off, i mpoveris 1 ' c d. The narrator wish es ' , e could rest 312 �"forever" in a flow er on 80!'1C farm (ac;ain rural v s cit:r life). I n t1:,o post r :r Too,·:c ::' 11r•i t::__r· about sun a nd eveninr, "songs," 11 Conversion 11 and "Portrait :tn Geor g ia," t he electricit~r of a woman's lips, needles. 11 Har vcs t Song," and t he cane scents and pine From tbe pen of t:10 poe t spill the liv es-- b roken, mended, some never 1x.l 0 ~n--of tbe severely damaged men and Homen who, "witb vesti c;es of pomp," carry t be ir Race memories of king and caravan, and go sing ing t h rough t b e "G0or g ia. Dust. n Ori esinal, awesome and sustained in craftsmanship , Cane as poetry is a classic of Afro-American literature. the book, "Son of the Son, n In t be most i mp ortant poem ln Toomer encases b oth 11 is superior techniques and the concept for Cane. T1'le son sin i:;s: Pour O pour t h at parting s oul in sonc; , because be knows the tradition is in tact. Just "pour II the song, be asks, And let t h e valley carry it a.lone; . And let the valley carry it along . The songs of "slav ery 11 will be transformed into brilliant dirges compositions and epics (like Cane). And Toomer's was a fitting observation in tbe years preceding t he b irth of big Black jazz bands (Basie, Ellincton) and followin g t h e b lues (Handy and others). The plaintive soul will soon be g one, but it will leave An everlastinc son, a sing inG tree •••• Likened by some to a series of artistic sketches, by others 313 ,. �to a symphonic composition, still by oth ers to t h e syncopation and vocal blendings of Afro-American folk mus i c, Cane--according to one critic--was at least two decades ah ead of the era in wh ich it was written. Less impressive as Black material, but brilliant as a general work of art, is 11 Th e Blue Meridian . 11 Heav ily influenced by the modernist school of poetry ( P ound, Crane, Eliot, etc.), "Heridian II was o verlooked for years and is finally anth ologized in Black Writers of America (Barksdale and ICi nnamon). Upwards of 700 lines, t h e poe m ma kes use of various r hyme schemes, 3tress formulas, linguistic and stylistic marriages. a lot to Walt vn.1itma.n in its swee p a.nd intent. 11 muted sh ades of Sand b ur g . Meridian, n It owes And there are s e ems to be Toomer's •'I! '\ ~;,Jt 'J!i' near-final effort to pur s uade t h e different elements of himseU' ;,r·. to nlive in harmony . tt T.S. Eliot b ad k nelled t h e doom. of Western civilization in 1922 (The Wasteland) and other poets had echoed him. Fenton Joh nson, of course, had preceded Elio with this proclamation. Toomer had intimated t h e •same thing in Cane (c.F. !!Nove mber r.otton Flower"). But it is in "Mer1d1 t11at he warns of t h e impending downfall of t lle West--noting tha\ ).'.· <.~ such fate might not be undeserved. Th e world is full of "cryinJJ ,1 men and hard women II and We're all ni ggers now-- get me? Black ni ggers, white ni ggers,--take y our choice. These omens of doom come in the first section of the poem. 314 �But the second section heralds t he co ming of t be new man (for Toomer, perhaps, an admixture of races and colors) wbo is spiritually and psychically elevated above race and other immaterial problems . Tb e new man is a "b lue" man, possibly a cross between a Black and a wh ite man, and even sexual crosses are suggested. For we k now all t b ese t h ings troubled Toomer. He was concerned as a teenaGer a ~out h is "nascent sexuality." And he declared t hat he was above b oth sex and race if they set up obstacles and defeat. It is a ch allenr e to t h e more curious student, however, to unravel the life and 1-rnrks of one of the most complex geniuses in American letters. i,.n1atever the outcome, Toomer' s is an achievement to be reckoned with . His work can be found in most antholoc ies of Afro-A merican literature. He also pub- lished Essentials-- 11defini tions and aph orisms n--in 1931. Toomer wrote more things but most are uncollected and remain at Fisk University. An unpublis h ed se gment of h is autob io graphy, Earth-Being , appeared in tbe January , 1971, is.sue of The Black Scb olar. tvl1ile Hae ner' s tr0at ment of ,'.f'..9.9mer does not equal his discussion of oth er poets of t h e renaissance, it is good. Brown, Redding , and numerous other critics discuss Toomer's work in various places. 11 Jean Toomer: Of special aid is John M. Reilly's An Annotated nl1ec klist of Criticis m, for American Literary Study, Vol. IV, No. I (1974). 11 Resources See also Toomer listinGs in ICinna.mon and Barksdale and my h iblior;rapl1y. Countee Cullen, anotb or brilliant-trag ic fi gure in Black 315 �poetry, spent most of his life tryinc to bridce the gap between a "Christian upbrinc;i n3; 11 and a npa c;an ur c;e. 11 How can the educated Afro-American, Cullen seems to ask, re main true to bis native instincts and fe elings wl1ile he WBars the mantle of European "Respectahilit::r"? This particular aspect of Cullen's life and work is often taken too li ::h tly by critics wbo view his highly stylized poetry as intellectual ( and he nce not .real) journeys into the aweso me world of death , reli c ion and color. Yet Cullen knew, as h e said it in 11 'J.1l~e Shroud of Color, being Black in wbi te America requires have. 11 11 11 that courage more than angels History, of course, sbows t b at so far Cullen's name has withstood heat fro m the furnace of others before and after. 11 Baptism" just like many And such fi gures as Gwendolyn Brooks, Carl Van Vech ten and Eleanor Roosevelt, lauded bis passionately searchinG and skillful effort to aroid being devoured by the dragon of racism he tried to slay . However, Cullen did not consciously seek after t he unity so desperately thirsted after by Toomer. On the one hand, Toomer felt free to explore all facets of the religious and mystical world; on the other be was committed to an intellectual and spiritual search of his African origins. Cullen embraced Christianity and developed the first major Black tragedy fi gure by reincarnating Christ into a Black ma.n. The "pure" and nobel Black becomes the new "only bee;otten son" on a several-hundred march up Calvary. Here, of course, Cullen was close to McKay; but in sustaioing such efforts, in rr..aking them alle gorical, he surpassed McKay. Cullen's already complicated personal situation was • 316 �aggravated b y b is reluctance to deal truthfully with t h e details of his early life. It is still unclear as to wh ether h e was born in Baltimore, Naryland or Louis v ille, Kentucky, though he makes references to b oth ( !!Incident" and !!Th e Ballad of A Brown Girl!!); or i f h e was raised by h is moth er or h is grandmother (up until t h e ti me of b is adoption by t h e Rev. Frederick Asbury Cullen). Joh nson (T:Je Book of American Ne gro Poetry ) says Cullen was born in New York City (as do t h e editors of The Negro Ca.ravan)--probab l y b ecau s e t h is is wh at Cullen wanted readers to t h ink . Pos s ib l y , Wa gner not es, h e was an "illegiti- mate II ch ild a.nd, out of fear of e mb arrass ment, purposely confused the .faces. Th is myst ery , coupled with Cullen 1 s "different" sexual inclinations , h is desire to nssume t h e perso na of an English romantic poet, h aunt t b is precocious poet t hrough out his lifeti me. Cullen's i nitiation into poetics came, as with Dunbar and Ilue;h es, in h i gh sch ool where h e won poetr:r contests and published pieces inn student publ i cation wb icb h e h elped edit. By the time h e h ad finis h ed New York University (Ph i Beta Kappa.) he had won several awards ( includ ing t h e Witter B~rnner award for excellence) for his poetry and recei v ed a contract from Harper's and Broth ers for public a tio n of b is first book (Color, 1925). This mar ked t b e first ti me, since Dunb ar's deatb , that a major publish er h ad brou ght out t h e work of a Black poet. It also marked t b e first time in al most 20 years that such a. book b ad b een publ ish ed for a liv e Black poet. 317 The most skillful �Black user of English verse for ms , Cullen ac hieved almost instant success. Color sold ove r 2,000 copies during the first two years of pub lication. A.nd he recei ved bi s Tl.A. from He generally sided with McKay Howard durinc; tbe same period. in not breaking away from traditional Englisl1 poetry. expecially admired t he poetry of Keats and Shelley. He Johnson, noting that "he mic;ht b e called a :rounger brotb er of Housman," said some critics arc;ued t b at Cullen was not a.n Negro poet. 11 11 autb entic And Cullen, re minis cent of Toomer's position, straddled the fence on the questio n of inspiration and t hemes for Black poets. On one occasion he acknowledged his debt to the Black tradition; but on another, compla ined that the Black poet ouc;ht to be abl e to :rchant II poetry spiritual or blues appears. 11 11 i n whi ch no IIi s esthet ics were stated more concisely in 1927, h owever, in the form of a forward to Caroline Dus k ( 1!;27 ), an anth oloc-1 of A.fr o-A mer ican poetry wl1i ch be compiled. His conm1ent was startlinc, especially at t h e bei .::;h t of the Harlem Renaissance and com.inc, as it were, fro m a. New Negro: As heretical as it may sound, t here is t h e probability t b at Hecr o poets, dependent as t b ey Rre on the Engli s h lancuace, rnay b a.·. , e rr.ore to e;a in from t h e ricb backcround of Enclish and American poetry than from any nebulous atavistic y earninc s towards a.n African inheritance. Cons equently, Cull en caJ_letl Carolins Dusk e.n a nt11 olog:7 of 31 3 11 verse �by Negro poets rather tban an antboJ.osy of lrec;ro verse. 11 But Cullen could not ahra:rs subscribe to t hi s particular est11etic; 11 for much of h is own poetry can h e labeled towards a.n African inheritance. 11 ata,: istic yearnings Examination w:i.11 s h ow t11at such poetry is fo und i ~ t is enrly volu~ e (Color) in his later works: Girl; as well as Cop per Sun (1927), Il1c Ballad of the Brown a :.1 OJ.d Ballad ;'."{9to ld ( 1927), 1I1~ 1e :Gln ck C1, rist and Other Poems (1929), Tb0 1-Iedea and S or11e Po~ns (1935) a nd J-1is selected poems, On Thes e I Stand (1947). C<'- ~_c :·1 a.lso wrote b ooks for children (Th e Lost Zo o, 194 0; nnd Hy Lives and How I Lost Them, He translated Gree k literature (The Hedea), wrote 1942). numerous lyrics for mus ic and -i-r orked on a draraatic adaptation ( 11 S aint Louis Woman 11 ) of an Arna Bontemps novel: Sunday. God Sends In 1932, s ee kinG to re new h is siminish ing creative powers, h e published his only novel, One Way to Heaven. Most of Cullen's poetry represents the vnst influence of Christianity. He wrestles with tbe Lord or nsks God wby this event or that event occurs. Especially is this seen in his poetry of racial conflict wbere t he contradictions of white 11 Christianity are expo sed over and over. For a Lady I Know 11 11 depicts a white woman in h eaven who t h inks servants) will do her "celestial chores. Is w~rth Its Song" chides 11 1 ¼merican poets, black cherubs 11 ( or 11 Scottsboro, too, 11 outraged by the plights of Sacco and Vanzetti, for not defending Black boys kangaroo'd for 11 ra.pe 11 in an Alabama Court. says, is also "dev inely spun." 319 In 11 Theri cause, Cullen Colors 11 t h e 11 swart 11 (Le., �Black) man is lJ anged on a "newer Cal v a.r::r. n Cullen's loncest po0m and treat ment of t h is tl: e me is The Black Christ (puhlished in France). It deals alle c orically with a lynch ing . A Black man, Jim, attacks and kills a wb ite man wh o insults a. wb ite woman. Jim is lynch ed, as southern law requires. His state- ments leading up to t b e lynch ing , a nd t b e action of the poem, suggest the crucifixion. mysticism of a bad dream. Redding called the poem "The ch ildish 11 Indeed, despite t h e poem'.s evasive- ness and "mysticism,1: l y nch ing is much worse t b an a. "bad dream." Finally (thouc;h t h e t h e me continues in countless other poems), there is the famous ''Yet Do I Harvel. 11 Here Cullen applies the sonnet to the riddle of the Afro-American poet, concluding, after high praise of God, that: Yet do I marvel at t h is curious t h ine -To make a poet b lack and b id h im sing . Curious, indeed, was t h e Blac k poet--curious b oth for Cullen and the whites who lavish ed praise and Gifts upon t b ese Kew and Unusual Ne groes. was also "curious.'' And Cullen's fa me (recallinc. Dunb ar's) Here was a poet makin c; wa ves witb old, outdated forms of English verse. 11 fresh beauty. 11 Joh nson said h e gave them Tb is is true hut Cullen's wb ite audience seems to have gotten special pleasure out of b is a b ility to handle Black anc;er, Black e;rief and Black path os in such amusingly antiquated poetic cloth inc . Prevalent t h emes in Cullen's poetry, then, are race pride, endurance, lynch ings, cynicism and pessimism ("can death be worse?"), 320 �a primitive or romantic v iew of A:frica ("Heritage" and many others), religious and psycbolo gical conflict, love and death, spiritual freedom, personal or racial inferiority, doubt and fear, the tensions created by bein 0 Black among whites, and Christ as a symbol of conflict and contradiction. Cullen saw the plight of the Afro-Americans a.s true tra gedy in a Christian land. This comes t ll rouc;11 in many of bi s poems, but poignantly in "Heri tae;e 11 : Fatber, Son, and Holy-Ghost, So I make a.n idle hoo.st; Jesus of the twice-turned ch eek, Lamb of God, al t h ou gh I speak Wi t b my moutb t hus, in my he art Do I play a. double part. For the Black American, trapped in Christian attire but longing deep inside for wb at Zack Gilbert calls '1t 11nt all-Black Saturday night," it is inde ed a tragedy . Cullen tried a.11 of his life to reconcile a "Chri8tian 11 education with a. Toomer wanted to to find a 11 11 unite" h is several parts. 11 pago.n ur ge." And HcKay tried bome II in tbe desolate and some times contemptuous place Elijah Huh a rimad calls "the wD.derness of Horth America." McKay went all t he way to Europe and Horth Africa. made annual treks to France for several years. Cullen Black literature abounds with t h e tragedies incurred wh en Black intellectuals relinquish their 11 dance II for a "b ook. 11 Earlier in Heri tage 11 11 Cullen admits this deep need, felt b::- Blacks cau rrh t in white · 321 �worlds everywhere, to "Strip!" and 'Doff this new exhiberance. Come and do the Lover's dance! McKay's "lynchinc ' rer.m.ins unsolved 1-.,y t he sonnet and is unable to make bis "heart and head" know that Tbey and I a!'e civil ized despite the meters. 11 unre mi ttant be at II of b is impressive iambic tetr A classic state nent on the inner-workings of the o:f a Black genius wbo must ntwist and squirmn in an a.lien ' ~ 11 Heri tac;e II h as yet to b e seen on the many psycbolocical · ·~,., world. l' dimensions that it operates. This and related t h e mes also per vade other poems by "From t h e Dark Tower a is inspired by b is column of a similar name in Opportunit:r. 1 AlthouGl1 Black artists and thinkers "wer~ -~ not made eternall:r to weep," t h ey must eitl1er face destruction of their potential or wear the mask and "tend our agonizing seeds . " Cullen also writes about timid lo ve rs and Black pro- stitutes, about man:r, many ub rown tr c;il.. ls ( anoth er ..favorite theme) and the acb e of t h e human h eart. He writes in tbe shadow of Keats and Sbelley and pens epitaphs to them. His employment of traditional Enelish verse forms is not as :startling" as McKay's. But he does bring a Black force and intellectual veracity to these devices and techniques which had long housed rrw11 i te II hopes and feelings. He took the bes of Keats and Edna. St. Vincent l'Iilla.y and made it work in a 11 marked technical skill. 11 Sterling Brown identifies his · 322 ; 1 �aD "fluency and brilliant i magery. 11 But h e is likened by many, critics to the standard En 6 lish work of Braithwaite and Dunbar. Cullen consciously developed misery --apparently in ·an effort to llsuffer II like t h e romantics, so h e could know what real inner-strife was all a b out. He b ad not seen the underside of Black life in t h e way t h at lfoKay (Banjo, Banana Bottom), Hughes (The Weary Blues), Fenton Joh nson, and oth ers had come to know and understand it. into a pristine verse. He subdued h is anger and violence Most critlcd allude to the woman-like or "prissy II nature of Cullen's work. 11 e viewed 11 lif e t h rou c;b the eyes of a woman wh o is at once shrinking and b old, sweet and b itter. or 11 Redding complained t hat 11 In Cullen's 11 atav1stio" primitive 11 pieces one feels t h at h e is not really there himself--much like one feels in reading white poet Va.c}1el Lindsay's poems on Af'rica and t b e 11 Cone;o. " · But Cullen remains one of the brilliant meteorites of Blac k poetry. His passion has yet to be surpassed, e ven among conte mporary Afro-American. poets. Thou gh h e does not conv ince t h e reader t h at he would actually !Tstrip! 11 and do tbe !!Lov er's dance! 11 b e does distill an intellectual fury wh ich ch ronicles t h e death -during-life v ortex (Davis calls it "alion-and-exile ll) that so many Africans in America struggle a gainst. Wagner's Black Poets contains t h e most up to date and incisive critical assess ment of Cullen. See., also, critic ism by Redding , Brown., Johnson, Huggins (Harlem Renaissance), Bontemps (including Harlem Renaissance Remembered), t h e listings in t h e Cullen section of Black Writer• . 323 �::any of C11.llen 's unpublis h ed of America and n ~.: m-r:1 >i 1, lio:.:;rap1°:r. works are deposited in t~e library at Atlanta Universit7 . James Weldon ,To11nso:1 , 1-11-:i. on we 1 , ave cause to menti on a c ain, ranks today as o ne of "chc n ost distin c uis 1-:i.e d men of Black American letters. ~fo h a ·Je alreac.:'" no ted 1, is work wi.tl1 li 0 l~t operas, bis service as u United States consul in Latin Ar,1erica, t be years he spent as secretar:r ceneral of tho HAACP , 1-,is first v olume of poetry ( Fift:r Years and Otber Poe:ns) and tbe 1912 publication of bis novel, '.I'he Auto'!., ioc;rapl:i:r of an Ex-Colored 1".an . Autcbiograpby was rc-isc.:ued in 1927, tl,e earli e:ir pseudonym dropped, and carried Johnson 'n na me. Durin: tho twenties Johnson continued to co :.;1::-i :t no ~, is l:co n social o> sor vat:ton s of Black America with h is poetic develop ment a n d output. Of 1(.)..r of Ay•c·•-,-i noo TT::.,-.ro Poe•l-r~~ ...... ..:..J .l. ·- en t.4 ··L1 .. d3 V ..· Tne L,..., 0 .... t he ldc;h poi nt:c; of t 1.1 e renaissance. just the poets inclt1ded, t~10 (1 \ ,,_ Cl22 ,,. , His editorship 1_ O".l]) .... .,.s 0118 of ..,, _.1 .. vva. Importa n t for more tban ant 1-: olo 0 :r represe n ted t'.1 0 first sustained effort on tbc p art of a 3lack critic to identify 11 Ifogro 11 olo:.;1ents L : roo tr:" wrl tten s inc c Dnn 1 'nr. It ·was also t1rn first antholo ;:_;:r of Af'ro-A:·1e rica n po etr:t to '-,e pu 1·1 5.sbed On e can safely sa:r t'rnt a ~:' serio us =::tt1.d~~ of Blo.ck critic ism h as to 1Je.si ~1 wit~~ ,Tanes Uoldo n J ohn so n . IIis sn>titlo (uith a nd Essay on t he JTocro rs Crcnt i vo Gen in::;) su c;_:::;este c1 t}:rn h n gh the vari ous L 1flu e ,.1 ccs ot1 t 10 c po0t s, :rnted cFs ·ci n ctions ', etween differe n t ki n{Ll or dialects, Qnd c a ~e a ss es s ~ e : ts of t he �\\That the colored poet in tl1c Uni tod States needs to do is sometl~i n:~ like what S ync.; c did for t b e I1.,lsl1; ·r: o ncods to fi nd a for r:1 t;11 a.t will express t:1e racial sp:I.ri t l)y s:nu1·) 0ls i'ro::n wi t1~in rather t!1an h:r s:,~·:'-,o:..s fro 1:1 1,-dtbout, s n c~ 1 as V -ie ';ere tautilatio n of I~n:-_;l is'-:. s p c )_li nr._; n. n d p:ro rw:1 ci- e.tion. Eo : -wed s ,'.". fo r --1 t 1.-i at is :::'r"cor a n d lar c er than d:laloc t, b n t H\ 5.c:.'J :c-J:i.~.l st i J. :. '-:i o Y.d t :.:: o racia 1 fla vor; a f o~.~1·:; ox press :t n :3 t1..,e i iiia. :::;0 r :', the idion s, t ~ e ,e culinr tur n s of t b ou~,t , a nd tll e distincti,: e bur,1 or and pa.tl10s, too, of t > e t h e deepest n nd 11i ~;}1est emotio ns and o.sp5.rations, and alloH t h e uidest range of s t~1, jects nnd the widest scop e of treat ment. It was a g igantlc cl1allonc c. it? Did an~, :Slack poet rise to meet Has any succeeded? With bis brother, J. Ilosamond, Jobnson also co-edited The Book of American 1Jecro Spirituals (1925) and The Second Book of A ri'10r> :T. c a :1. ~:'o ::_;ro <"'! :'.) 5.r 1.~; " a ~_ : ( :.. '; 26). cal arranGements b:r J. nosamnod. Botl"1 v olu mes carried musi- Jo _inson himself tried to meet • 325 �the challenge with God's Trom\:lones: Seven lJe r,-ro Sermons in Verse (1927), a rendering of t h e works of t he "old time" Black preachers. His pamph let, Native African Races and Culture, was published in 1927. A study of Harl8 m, Black i:1anhattan, ca.me out in 1930. His autohiobrap'!.-: y, Alo ne T)1is Ua:r , a ppeared 5. n 1933. And a social/political commentar::,r, Negro Americans, What Now?, was published the same year. His selected poems (St. Peter Relates an Incident of the 2esurrection Day) came out in 1930. Johnson established hinwclf o.s prol:ific and exe mpl ary 1-:-ian, a co(111, ination of formidab le talents, by t he time b e was killed in an automobile accident in 1938. Aside from their literary and social value, the sermons in God •s Trombones l1a.ve , in the years since their publication, brought delight and instruction to many from t h e various stages from which they have been s taged or oth erwise dramatically presented. In my own classes we assi r;n a sermon per-student and, allowing days for researcb and preparation, stage t h e works for a lar ger campus or community audience. Just h ow much of his own ch allenge ( see ab ove ) was ntte mpted in God's Trombones is indicated by Johns on's Preface in which h e briefly gives the history of Black preachers and explains why he chose the trombone as the central s ymb ol in t he work: He (the preac~er) strode t he pulpit up and down in what was actually a very r hyt hmic dance, and he brought into play t he full go.mut of hi s wonderful voice, n v oic e--wh a.t sba.11 I sa::,r?--not of an organ or a trumpe t, but rather of a 326 �trombone, t h e instrument possessing ab ov e all others the power to express t h o wide and varied range of emotions encompassed b~r t h e human voice-and with greater a mplitude. He intoned, h e moaned, he pleaded--h e blared, h e crash ed, h e t h undered. I sat fascinated; and more, I was, perhaps a gainst my will, deeply moved; t h e e motional effect upon me was irresistible. This scene occured at a ch urch Joh nson attended in Kansas City. While t h e preach er was struttin g and deli verin.c; , Jolmson recalled that h e n jotted II 11 down note s for The Creation. n God's Trombones contains so v e L s ermon s a:1d one pr ayer -- "Listen, Lord. 11 Th e sermons, ea.ch taken fro m a t ext in t he Bib le, include "Th e Creation., 11 rrThe Prodi gal Son.," 11 Go Down Dea.tb --A Funeral Sermon," "Noah Built the Ark," nTbe Crucifixio n," nLet Hy People Go" and nThe Judgment Day. 11 Coming as it did at t he h i gh point of t h e Renaissance-1927--God' s Tromb ones was rath er odd in t h at a les,s t h an ostensibly reli giou s v ers e was b eing written by oth er poets. There were reli r;ious t hemes in much of t h e poetry --but none of the poets dipped into t h e same reservoir in t h e same manner as Johnson. Joh nson was, bowever., a ble to fuse some of the jazz a.nd blues patterns of t h e day into h is work--th ough it is not t h at noticeab l e . Th e s ermons a.re not in Black dialect since Joh nson said t h at t he Afro-Anerican poet must transcend that for m. Tb e lo.n t;ua.ge is generally t h at of a ny wh ite 327 �American or F.nglis bman. Wh at Jo11nson does is instill racinl feeling and dram:i.tic (eth nic) touches by allowing for spontaneity, bui l dinc; i n repetition, and e mployine; free verse forms. Mar garet Wal ker, La.nzs ton Huc;h es, and Sterling Brown would place all t b cse ite ms i n a more secular context--although Brown will interpolate b latantly r eli ;:i:ious expletives and exclamations into some of b is work. Tb e double ne gativ e, wb ich Johnson makes use of, is not a n exclusivel y Blac k product. But we do find him inters per s ing Black s ay ings, usa ces and other idiomatic spices into t he t ext of t he s ermons. It was t h e first time t hat a Black poe t b ad undertaken suc h a ta sk sol ely for literary r e asons . So t h i s alone ma ke s t h e work i mportant-- not to me ntion its antbr opoli c;ical a nd sociol oc; ica.l value. The over-riding achi ever.1ent of t h e se r mons i s t h e i r graph ic, full-blown 1 images and t h eir i nf erential Toomer and oth ers). ~ lacke ni ng " of God (see Cullen, Tb e analogy is more obviou s i n "Th e Creation" where God Like a ma mmy b ending over h er b aby, Kne e led dow n in t h e dust Toiling over a lump of clay Till ~e sh aped it in h is own i ma Be. It seems only natural t h at Job nso n would pay t h is tribute to the Black mother-- most Blac k poets writing since, say , 1880, had done so. And b e b ad earlier complaine d of Joh n Wesley Holloway rs "Black Mam.mies" in dialect, say ing : for better poetry t h an t h is. u uThe b lack mammy is material From Joh nson's 328 1 'tnilk-wh i te horse," �through pbrases l ike "O-- Hary 's Baby--, long plunge, 11 11 11 sinners in t h eir bead- and "Bl ack er t han a hundred midni gb ts, of t he dramatic Black sermon can b e seen. 11 the power There are t hreats and warnings, adminishments and pl eas, fire and brimstones, force and even worse fury. 11 Th e Prodigal Son II is warned: Youn 6 man-Young man-Your arm's too short to b ox with God. The incremental lines, t h e spontaneity , t b e witty turns of phrases, t he colorful and sone ti mes b ombastic langua ge--a.11 give God's Trombones it auth enticity . Joh nson does use s ymb ols t h at express fro m "with i n " rath er t b an fro m 11 with out" t h e Black experience. For as h e noted in h is Preface "The Ne gro today is, perhaps, the mo s t priest- governed group in t h e country. 11 The old time preach er knew t b e "secretsn of ancestral oral and gestural power, Joh ns on says; t h ey knew t h e nsecret of oratory, that at b ottom of it is a pro gress ion of r hyt 11mic words more than it is any t h ing else. n The preach ers h ad inh erited an "innate grandiloquenc e of t h eir old African ton cues." the pulpit, the minist e r f used t h ese 11 Once in ton gues" and Biblical language because this "gratified a h i gb ly developed sense of sound and rhythm in hi mself and bis h earers." These were the concepts and ideas under wh ich Joh nson la.b ored in God's Trombones. Doubtlessly, the volume is one of t he most precious in the annals of Afro-American writine; . 11 There is h ardly a person wh o cannot feel 11 t h ese sermons--and yet their power and t h eir intuitive 329 ' ; •.-:~',\: . 1",,..,~ �embracing of a world of emotions and temperaments make them lasting as classical literature of whatever definition and hue. Jobnson' s Saint Peter, followine; a. tradition of Dunbar's "The Haunted Oak, Lynching, 11 11 Hu g~es' 11 S o ng for A Dark Girl, 11 i'foKa;_r' s "The and Cull e n's The Black Cl:1 rist and "Scottsboro, Too, is Worth Its Son o.; 11 , 11 atte mpts to lace t he desecrat5_on of Black humanity within its proper contradictory Christian context. In each of the poe L,s, tbe lyncll ing is connected up to a higher order--usnally t h e Ch ristian God. imagination, 11 Usine; a 11 visionar~r type of Jol"ns on a p!:)l:i.es satire to the se c re g ation of Black and white mothers of Gold S tar-Hinning soldiers. Sending the parents to visit P ' e ir so ns' g ra v es, tb e War Department put Black mothers on a foul, crm~ed boat (reniniscent of a slave ship) and wbite raotl1ors on a moder n liner. Job nson, in tJ1e poems, imag:i.nes t11at tbe Unknm-m Soldier arrives in heaven and is discovered to he Black. Various patriotic and terriorist organizations (t he G.A.n., t h e D.A.R., the Le g ion, the Klan, and others) want b i u buried a g ain. For more cri t icis li1 of Jobn son sec Dav is, Ua[;ner, Arna Bontemps (includi ng note in American Ne c;ro Poetry), Brown, Redding, Hugg ins and otlrnrs. Lan.c;ston Hughes Has at the oppos1-te end of the poetic spectrum from Cullen 1vhen ~~e wrote i n 11 Hother to Son": Well, son I'll tell you: Life for me ain't b een n o crystal stair. For while both men acbieved reco g nition oJ,out the same t:tme, 330 �Hughes was a fol k trol, 1Jador Hi th 17is f i nc;cr on tbe "pnlse of Eo was also free fro Ll ~he rostrnints of conventional Englis~ verse t~at do ~ i n atc~ practicall? all of Cullen's poetry. a dozen hoo~s of roet r~, se ve ral volumes of prose and plays, and soon bj_s oHn dra1:m s st o.. ge d all o·\ •cr the country, b:r trie time of ~18 d e at½. Of t',e q'..1c.rtct of f5.r0·c -li 11 c ~-T arlern Rennis- wbosc maternal .:.;r:incLno'chcr ' - '.J.d 1"co:~ _.:::.rr:i_ecl tc one of tl-,e Canary Io lands, t1, e ;,_zor c s a nC t1, e :fost Coast of Africa. 22nd bj_rtl1c. ay ttn r1 11G:1t Re- to rarls , a.::;ai n wor1dn ::_: odd johs, on 331 �to Italy and Genoa , and af tei-• a nu mb 0r of v aried experienc e s ( s ee The B5. 0 S e a : and I Wond e r as I Ha nd e r), ret n1" ned to. Amer i c a • . Ile then spent ti me in Washine ton, D.C., wh ere h is mother had moved, workinc i n t h e office of Dr. Ca rt er G. Woodso n , editor of the Journal of Ne gro History and later, as a b usboy (see "!?rass Spitt o o i12 " ) o.t t 1• ·:: rr~u·c1man Pa r ~: !' ot e l . At the latter place, h e had a c h anc e to s h ow some of l1is poe ms to Vachel Lindsay--thus launchi ng Hu 6b es "career II t b rou gh t h e newspapers. His v olurr.cs of p oe try include T11e 1 fo ar:r Blues (l ':12 6), l" :t ne Clot~cs Ne gro Moth er and Oth er Dramatic Re citations (1 931), Scottsboro Limited (1932), The Dream Keeper a nd Oth er P oems (1932), Shakeape in Harlem (1942), Freedom' s Plow (a long poe m, 1943), Jim Crowt ~ Last Stand (1943), Fields of Wo nder (191~7), One-Way Tic ket (1949) Hontag e of a Dream Def e rred ( 1 951), As k Your Homa: for Jazz (1961) and The Panth er and t h e La.s h : Times (1967). 12 Hoods Poe ms of Our Fu .;1.1es r,'2-so 1·r rot0 s;·_1ort sto 1 ies ancJ. n ov el s 1 ( in c ludin g collec t ed stories fro ~ t t e Jesse 3 . S i mpl e series Hl1ich h e ori gi nat e d ). Pro s e uorks a r e Not l H t1, out Laur-11t e r (1930) The Ways of Wh i te Folks (1934 ), S i mple S pe a k s His Mind (1950 ), Lau gh i ng to Keep fro m Cryi r1,z (:..952), S i mple Takes A Wife (1953), Si mple S ta kes a Clai n (1957 ), Ta mb ourine s to Gl ory (1 95 e ), S ometh i ng l n Common (1963) a nd S i mple 1 s Uncle Sam (1965). Play s by La n gs to n Eu c;;·: c:z. was pub 1 :ts~, cd in 1963. Fi ve Th e poet al s o e ith er wrot e ( or co lla~or ated with oth ers ; usu a l l y Bonte mps) many b ooks for you n 6 r eade rs a s well a s wor ks of g eneral and zpocific· inter es t o n Blac k c ult u re . 332 �In his early years, Hu~h es was i ~fluenced by Walt ~fuitman and Dunbar. In h :i. ~11 scbool, a teach er introduced 11im to the poetr:r of An1y Lm-rcll, Lindsa:r, :rasters and Se.ndbur c; . He was especially indebted to Sand1YL1rG, of wT, orn h e would speak, in The Big Sea, as 1:5_ ::; :rguldinc; star. 11 Fenton ,Johns o n bad been the only poet up until Hughes to sustaln suc h an ener g etic poetry of Blacl:: fol k life. Hu g11es i mprov ed on w11at Johnson b e g an, addinc; fros;1 portraits--t110u.::;:1 n ot the ridicule sometimes a ppearinc in Du:10ar--and actually using music to inspire bls wri ti nc; or accompan:r h is live re8.tli ncs. with Charlie ltlngus , a mon ~ other jezz Greats. He r,iade recordings And he is g iven credit for ori ginating t~e practice of readinG poetry to jazz. Interestin c;ly enou gh , t l1 is i n teri,reavin:: _; of mus:i. c and poetry (discussed in Chapter IV) be co me s a ve rtual b acW1one of Black architectonics. Baldwin, for example, speaks of listening repeatedly to t lle records of B0ssj_e Snitb to cain rhyt11m in bis prose. Certainl:.,. t~·i e sar;1e fusio n of st~rle a nd spirit can be found in Elliso n , 1frj_c;'1t, Tolson) B:iraka and Croucb . Novelist - poet Greenlee, quot ed earlier, noted in a h io c;raphical note to bis Blues for an Afri can Princess, F iat Ny chief literary influences are Ch arlie Parker, Lester Younc , Ililes Davis and Billie Il oliday . As a writer, I cons :i .dor m:rself a ja.zz musi cian whose instrument is a typewriter. Hichael S . Harper , a Black poet ·wh o ca '.i1o to mat nration in t 11e , sixties, also attri:)Utes ::1u cb of C: lS style and poetic philoso- . pby to jazz musicians w!·rn belped hi:.n u nderstand pain and make 333 �it "archetypal. rart of Hn :::;l1es 's L·,1pact on t1°is area of Black Tl poetry is documented~~ Ba nard Dell in The Folk Roots of Conter.1porar:r Afro-A merj_ can Poetr:r. Das ical 1:~ Hug1!es' s poetry falls into three stylistic cate g ories: dialect (pri marily of an urban sort), "t~:.nes and traditional-free verse. His use of dialect is seen in practica.11:: e•1er:r ' , ook 1rn 1wr1 lisl, ed. His blues and free-verso forms arc cspeciall~ evident in The Weary Blues. One of b is most fm1ons free-verse poe ms is T1T11e ITec;ro Speaks of Rivers, ir written ri c;h t after ;~e finis}1ed b igh scbool and publisbed in T1~e Criois j_n l<J21. T1,;_s for ;;1 , accordinc to J. Saunders Redd:~;1c, :Ls mu c'.J :·,wI'e eff e ctive a v e 1·dcle for !.:rug:1es than dialect or blues . :rn c:;'-ieri co me:J t 1, ro1..1..=1-, , in tbc "purer verse for ;-1s . 11 In 11 Reddlnc feels, Ri vers 11 :1:ncl,es reacb es into tbe deep deep well of Black ', istor:r and strt' cc;le , unitinc in spirit tbe global Africe.n: I' ve :rno1-1n ri vcrs : The use of worci.s :i::e ns on~. 11 ant: art 0 , crs ,i __ p', ic 1·• rnn li 1rn spines thronGb Black folkJ.orc anf J_itcrntnrc, n-:'..J.ows TT11:::;·~es to tonch · �In "vci ns, !I 11 r1CC '• ,._,., L"~ , :J TTfiQT -T • •• . ' T: !: Q" t.A.,.,,1,..,.r ,.__, Llt.. ,_, , IT ll,:, l) Cle ,_., t!I •,;.l ._ - l...i ,, .) (1 V. l. •l loging of actual p lace-names important to Blac1rn, strength and loncc v it:- :ls put :i.nto irPoe ;:.1s !I 11 t1.1e Catal 1e establishes T'··o He c ro, 11 and numerous otbors. Et1[):1 os 's dia:1..oct and ,Jlt1.es-orie n ted poe n s ·Here not "sweet" to tbe cars of some ;-!arlc;::;. Blacl: iDt0llectualc of the tuenties_. '•, Just as amny of ti-:0:1. ,-:i ad son.:;,1t to censure Ct~J.J.e ,1 for n ot writing more blatantl::r n'Jol,t nlac 1 : strti:_;c;lo (5.n Black :i.cHoms), the::r cri ticizod Hng!~es for deo.l:i_ n.; 1ri t 11 t},e "lower s tra tD. 11 or under- of Black life were hecinninc to co;ne to t1--ie fore in the works of Black::; (licKa:.· ) and 1-1'.~itc ( 1!ar, vec 1·ten) 1-- :rriters. And Hug1 1es joined tbis growt ns te:-!c.onc:r in spoa\::ln.s frankly a h out "Suicide, "Hard Dadd:r, 11 n~u'J::r Brm-rn, ir and more s~, c 1 1 experiences or svb j ects. Tho blues form ca11D for t},rcc-1.ined stanzas: the , seco i.'i d line repeats t11e first, and t}rn t' ird end-line r11:rmes 11itb the two 0 pro cedinc; ones. FuGt os 1-rorked t 1-iis mecHun for much of what it ua~ worth durinc h is life time. These vari ous forms also helped establish Hu~1es's tte mes ~nd subjects. traged~, vi ble nce or co ~passio n . Lin5uistic freedom I n many of h is poems, Hughes is able to develop a d5.o.:.o::; 1)etwecn t~.~o Black t1:1derdo c ancl tbe wbi te ruler. 11 Tbis occurc :ln 11 Brass 3pi ttoonc n ·wbere tbe busb o~r 335 �interlace:: a portro.:r_t of u. co :m~10n Blac:{ Horl:e r w:i. t 1 , dazzlj_n c: r1Jyt'h r;13 of c1·1 u rc 1: , H1 "' 5- te :;1c~ ' 3 orders, nlnc 1: part:r and n i ::;1.~t life and t h e s b i ri y sr,1.ttoons Blacks must keep polis h ed. see it tech nica11:r, t 1 1ot\~;,,., no t racj_nll~ 0 i. n , 11 He ..Tazzonia" i~ the call-a~1d-rc sr on n e pat t e r n conpl e6. ,75_t 1, car ef nll~r rearrang ed chordal structures: 011, s i l v er tre e ! rn1, s~ininc rivers of t ~e so u l! T11ree stanzas lat e r, t 1-1 e Ob ::1 1.·fn:tn ~ o a ;,10 i d ea "p pc ars i n tl·lis for m: r:i. vcrs of ti..,e s onl! And fi vc stanzas lat or, it a pp enrs tl, ns 1:,.: This b rilliant use of t 11 csa.:;1e L1trlcc.te p a tt e r n of dialo c· a.nd call-and-response co:1t:t nno s 5_n 11 ::nJ. a t t o. 11 T,.,., e 11 Bastard b o:"" ls rejected first b :- t1,e 1:b ite fat :1er n nd later ' J:r t ?-le w1.1 ite broth er, ')Otb rorrcsenti 11;_: ( t l:: ro uc;l-\ t11e inter jectipn of dtalo g ) different types a nd _::;enornt5.ons of ~-J})tte me n --o ne o}:, ject:tnc to t b e existei1ce of an 11 :i_2-l e~ it:i.mato 11 so:-1 .9. i1c1 t h e other (tbe farmer's off-spri nc;) r ef'n3i n:3 to ex t e nd a ~-1and of h rot 11erl:r concern. Hugh en tlrn mos, H~1:tc11 re ,;:a :i.n o<l wit½ 1-1hl t 1'1 rou~):: most of 11 is life are: ro.c ism, prote:n t, rac 5-a1 u n i t 2'", i-·nc c pr ide ( t l10u c1, 11e did not indul .::;c t b e pa e an Africa:1 fa :] tas-_- as muc1' as Cullen or EcKay), Black ·wo man (t11e :tr > ea.ut:r anc::. t 11eir stro nctl ~s), jazz a:1d b lues and reJ_j_ c :i.ons r.1t, s :l c, v :i_ol e nc e a c ninst T3 lacks and lnte c nation. 336 �Hughes, especially , Has t 110 spolrnsr,10.n of t11e e v cr~rday Black man. And b e oft e n relis 1 ~cd t h e coJ'.mo n profunc it:r of Blacks at dance, play, wors h ip or wor:{. J. Mord Allen f s 11 L 1 n}Te c;ro Da ncers,'! h e recalls '.:1~1e Sqnoa ':: of the Fi c:dle Tr a nu James Edwin Campb ell's TrHob i le :S u e k. 11 Allen b i n t s t b a t ·wb j_ tes cannot dance. And Campbell reproduces in poe tr:r the r 11:;th ms of contemporary dance knoun as t 1 e 11 1..,uc k . Hu [.f.1 es s b owi ng off Black i mprovi- n sation, claims t ~ at l,o a nd , . L~lS Two mo ' -:-ra:~s t o do d e C> o.r les to n ! --also a popular c ont omr,o r ar:r d ance. and 11 Eve n if w,, ites 11 lau c;11 11 prn:;:r 11 Blacks c2. n ta l:e r.: a tj_sf n c t :i.o n in tl,e k nowled c e t~1at the~r can top thei::: own re ser v oir of spo ntanei t:r a nd cren.ti v i ty when tho:~ Hant to siclc-st ep or a n n o:r t ·h e me c11a ,1 :1.cal wh ite 11 nigbt II and afrai d . 1:1:rn r e i s c:rn ic is m a nc. sai-·cas :i1 and tra ,::;edy in this poot iho o1Jsor v oc: 1-Jl s p e o pl e t :". ron 01· a deep ancl creative affectio n . Fuc: :os 1 s perso nal lif e , of cours e , wa.s }n st a.s fasci- ~r8.nts, l:i n-c was ofte n :L 1troc:u c e c?.. to c. 1.1c.:T.cnces as "tbe poet Laureate of IIarlc u . 11 I n )-, 5.s a u tob io :::;r o. p 115-es (Tl~ e Ri g Sea and ranld n3 1-rr itor s a.nr'l 5.n tc 1 l s. c t1'ul s of ' - ~s 11 __,_., '7 I a.o.~- ,.__n t r c mal n ecl :i.n �- ' C : .(:(; : t ,.. r-- -1- .:.. ' t.A L• _._, _,.... l• , "T, _C :::0:1.rce of ,, is i:.-rords. �anthologies: An African Treasury: Articles, Essays, Stories, Poems By Black Africans (1060) ; Poems from Black Africa (1963); New Negro Poets: U.S. A. (1964); and Voi ces: Poetry (Ne gro poets isstlo, winter, 1950). 339 (a) A Quarterly of �::rnems t o :)o a•J out a flDr0a:,1 Deferred. in t h at po.rtic uJ. a r ~'10C ti1 11 '::'rn dream, e.:a i n , l i ke ~-!'-ere i.., e asked , 1-.r ftho t~t nns·weri nc , th e ques tio n: 1'D.1 a t 1w.ppens to a dreRm def erred ? lrnr .f arnous pl a::,,r, 7-Iuc,~os also d ispJ_a~rs · ·is n as ter:· ov er tec11 - Or does it explode ? And l-:'. c liv ed t o s o c t 1.1 e a nd oth er places. exp1.os:i.on 5-n ~To.tts , 1';eH8.rk , De t roi t ::-ru cl ic s ' :~ Nri ti nc;s are anth oloc i er.: of Afro - Aw::ri c an l i t orat nr e . j_ n a 'J.1 2 0th c ent ur :r Detailed cri tical s tudics of l'lis wor\ : a ppe a r in Ha ener ' s Blac k P oe ts a nd Da vis's From t he Dar k TuHer . rrc :'.s aJ s o assessed in 1rnrks 1-:'y Br ow n, Kerlin, RodcUn~ , Jolmson a t:,d nm;1or ous o t 1.1 er s tudie s and com- was p"uh lis I-w d i n 11; 6 7 . Oth er i mportant source ite ms . on Hughes are Francois Dodat' s Langston Hugh es (Paris, 1964 ), Raymond Quinot's Langston Hugh es (Brussels, 196!+), Milton Meltzer's Langston Hughes: Hughes: A Bio graphy (1 968 ), Elizabe t h P. Meyers' Langston Poet of His Peopl e (1970 ) and Charle mae Rollins' Troubador: Langston Hugh es (1970). B~~£~ Of t be pleth ora of material steadily pourin g out of Hugh es, a most valuable book is Langston Hughes: Blac k Genius: Therman B. O'Dani el. A Cr itical Eva l uatio n (1 971), edited by O'Daniel includ e s a selected classified bibliography detailing Hughes's len gt hy career as writer in all genres, anthologist and critic. ,-: ,, t '', Hugh es inspired generations of ...,_, . Black Africans and Americans and also edited the followin g --;, - 0 ,j 5 I �C. Minor or Second Echelon Poets of the Renaissance Dozens -of poets helpe d to make up the varie gated atmosphere of the New Negro Eovement. And just as the New Black Poetry of the 1960•s cannot he characterized in terms of four or five individuals, so _the Renai s sance cannot b e understood unless the general poetry s cene is exami ned. Man:l of the so-cal led minor or second echelon po e t s writin g durin r; t h e peak of tr:ie Renaissance had already estab lished reputations b efore 1923. Principal amon g these were Arna Bontemp s (19 02-1973), Angelina Grimke, Gwendolyn Bennett (1902- ), Anne Spencer, Clarissa Scott Delaney (1901-1927), Frank Horne (1 899- ), Geor gia Dougla s Joh nson, Geor ge Leona.rd Allen (1905-1935), Donald Jeffrey Hay es (1904- ), Jdnathan Henderson Brooks (1904-1945), Helene Johnson (19 07- ), Waring Cuney (1906- ), Lewis Alexander (1900-1945), and Lucy Ariel Williams Holloway {1905- ). Other poets, to be mentioned at the end of this unit, can be dispersed rather widely alon g a spectrum of relative si gnificance. Many of tbem won prizes and places for t ,heir poems among the pages of Tbe Crisis and Opportunity and then disappeared from t he s c e ne . Others me t unt i mel~ dc aths --~fu il e yet others ch ose differen t c areers or le a ped i nto t :10 fre e d om fi gh t. Cullen's Caroling Dusk (1 92 7) co nta i ns t h e best re prese nt ation of AfroAmerican poetr~,. wri t t e n 1-:i etween 1910 a nd 1925 . Joh nson's The Book of American Negro Poetry (1922) pre sents poets between Dunbar and t h e time of its l as t edi t ion (1931). Ha_jor and minor poets are also to b e found i n Kerl in's Ne gro Poets and Their Poems (1923, 1935). �Hughes and Bontemps made many of thes e lyricists availabl e to u s in The Poetry of the 1-!egro ( 1949 , 19 70 ). At least hl3.lf a. dozen of the les ser know n poe ts are included in Alain Locke's The New Negro (1 925 ). Rand all (The Black Poets, 1971) displays work by Horne and Bont emps; b ut only Bont emps is included in Randall ' s Black Poetry (1969). He nd ers on does not list one of these transitional figures in Understanding the New Black Poetry (1973). And only Cuney and Bont e mps are included in Rosey Pool' s Beyond the Blues (19 62). TTere, we are simply randomly sampling t he anthologies for co ntent. detailed listin1::;s. See the hih liograph y for more The 1iest co nt emp orary anthology of 20th Century Black poetry is Ar no l d Adoff 's The Poetry of Black America , which list s mor e t han 14 0 poets and practically all of the minor one s of tbe renaissance, although the omission of Cuney and Edward Silvera hangs li ke a pall ove r the hook. Unfortunately, no Black a ntholo ey of the magnitude of the Norton series has appeared . The Necr o Cara ,ran (Sterli ng Brown, et al), a comprehensive anth olog~ puhl i shed i n 1941 and re~issucd (unrevised} in 1970, contains nearly a do zen of the mi nor v oices. In "Frank Horne and th e Second Eche lo n Poets of the Har leLl Rena is s ance" (The Harlem Re naissanc e ~emem1., ered, Bontemps, ed., 1972), Ronald Primeau launche s an i mpressi ve and i ~p ortant discussion of these lesser known f i gPrcs . W11i le 1fa 6 ne r (Black Poets of th,e United States , 1973) makes a partial effort to dis cu ss these poets, he seems generally to di s mi ss them a s clic k i s1J seekers after an African pas t. So at this wri ti ng , Sterling Brown 's "Contemporary ,. �Negro Poetr~ (:~14-1 936)," in h i s TTc;ro Poetry and Drama (1937), remain s tl-1e 11es.t critical ovcrvic,,r of t'l--icse poets . Bonto rrps 5~ OD~ of thr ee i mportant renaissance fi gures (alone; Hlth I-In c;h cs and Br own ) t o snrvtvc 1, od11:r and craativel:r up until the l !) h0 ' s . Hac~1er c all:: T? ontemp s 11 onc of t b e most brillia nt min or roots of th s TTar ~_c u Rl nc issa nc e II and Brown also ha s 11i g:1 praL::e of 'Jis poctr:- and fictio : -1 . Arthur P. Davis (From the Dark Tower) sees an "a.lien-and-exile" theme continuine; from the major trunk of renaissance poetry into the work of Bontemps. With the notable exception of Geor e ia Douglas Johnson, the important minor renaissanc e fi e urcs did not puhlish books of poetry until the 1960's. This fact alone tells us much about Bontemps' seeming poe tic obscurity hetw c on 1930 and 1960. But more important, for th e record, is the fact t h at Bontemps' efforts were direc.t ed toward fiction, drama, cl1ildren' s li ternture, history, chroniclinG the developmen t of other Black poets and ground-br e aking lihrary work. Born in Alexandria, Louisiana, Bontemps family move d to California when he was still a child. He attended Pacific Union Colle ge and the University of Chicago. His dive!'s e Hriting output, almost as prodi g ious as Hughes', includes numerous books, pamphlets and articles. His novels are God Sends Sunday (1931; dramatized as St. Louis Homan, 1946), Black Thunder (1936, about t h e Nat Turner-led revolt) and Drum·s at Dusk (1939). Bontemps also co-edited with Langston Hughes the very influential anthology The Poetry of tbe Negro (1949, 1970), and he brought out American Negro Poetry in 1963. 342 Other anthologies • I �are Golden Slippers: An Anth olo gy of Tiecro Poetry for Young ---=-------"'-- - - - ~ - - - - ~ Readers (1941), Th e I3 ook of Hec;ro Folklore (1 95f., with Hn gh es), Great Slave Narratives (1969 ), Eold Fa st to Dreams: Po~ms Old and New (1969) a nd Tbe Harlem Renaissance Rer.1em1; cred (19 72, a collection of artic les ). Additionally Bontemps publ i shed more than 20 odd works of h i bl io c raphy (usu a lly on Black heroes), juvenilia, cult ur e and his tor~. He sor¥ed as university li~rarian at Fis k for more t b a n 20 :rears and was a mem1) er of t h e faculties of t he Uni ve rsity of Illi nois a nd Yalc --whe re be was i ~ ch arg e of Afro-America n S t udios at t he ti me of h is death. 1924 and 1931 I3onto rup □ ' Between poems were r1~Jl is bed widely in v arious magazines and per i od ical s at1e1 ~e Cri s is a nd Oppo rtiini t :r . :10 Hon 1.-:ioe try pr:i.zes from b oth HLJ o nly pub lis ~1cd vol ume of poetry , Personals, did not co:,10 01:t until 1.')6~. (from t~1e Englis11 rnan Paul Bre1~1an). Perso n al s a s an idea-position suras up mu ch of Bontemps' poctr:r • . F or throuc;hout t1-:i o book th,:_,ro is the nse of A comf orta1, lencss also att ends P o ::i ten:p s' poet1,.,:·-- ·1cy':; a s nrn:~ co r,ifort , , u t a co:11.fort of 1 ye o.r n:i.nc; for L 1stant rcc o:_> l:i.t:i.o n or t 1, 0 frc:1z~.- tl-w. t .) •I!. nr •·1"' 11 ) C,J,, '-' U , t ' ·· c' Bethe s da 11 ) , t '-1 c . .; ' .L·" -.l ~. . C'"' "'l L 1 J.~ ;-<, ou t 1.., (._.J. ( 11 pr,c-• t I. l 1~1o ,.J (llrr,i.,,,., .J or . Count ee Culle n 1 s nncl Frank I'orne ' s . ',ro~•"'1 11 I 11 '-.~ ~c,'--iirt11! ,.. .,.i. l..,.:iJ. ~-,. V • -. C.A [ tl:;e anti- 111\Toc.J...U.,,.,rl"' ..._ l, .L" - V at 8 01-,tl-:: l")r~ ::ans io n 11 ) , a ~-,e d ef:ta n co a nd . 343 �s tr c ngt~7 tradition of B~.ack lahor and concludes that tho laborers' children "food on bitter fruit. 11 Billie Holiday would later witness a hanging in the S out11 and wrlte "Strange Fruit. 11 And we recall that since James Wb itfield, Black po e ts have pointed to the contradictions in American Christianity and tr,e harren versus bearing theme. Bontemps also followed the renaissance pattern of romanticizing a pagnn-likc Afro-American or African. With the taste · of slavery and the dialect tradition still bitter on their tongues, these poets leaped backwards over slaver:r to another place and another clime. 11 Bontemps does just this in The Return" ~ 1ich closely resembles Cullen's "Heritage" and some of the atavistic pieces of Langston Hughes and Claude I-IcKa.y. 11 of "remembered rain, "dance of rain, n II "the .friendly ch ost, 11 jungle sky, 11 Bontemps speaks "lost nights, "muffled drums, 11 Let us go back into the dusk again, 11 and then suggests: • 1 • • Dusk, ebony, jet, nir,bt, evenings, purple, blue, raven and other such synonyms for Blacks are frequentl:r employed to great eff'ect and power by Afro-American poets. Likewise, symbols or images of' invisibility and blindness are also prevalent in Black writing. Bontemps employs and implies such states in several poems where he achieves a surreal quality--a dream-like longing for another time and another place (a1::s ain, a pattern in the poetry of the period). If you "Close Your Eyes," Bontemps says, you can go 344 \ ,,, ., . I • \ ' ' �back to what you were, and maybe the sonc, as with Toomer, will 11 in time return to thee. 11 Closing the eyes will also allow one to "walk bravely enough. fl _A.way from the daily limelight and without the constant pressure (c.f., Cullen) to succeed and hold up the light of the race, Bontemps developed strong statements using convention poetic patterns with occasi6nal free-verse experimentation. Personal and powerful, Bontemps' poetry looks ahead to a similar stamina (this ti me in a new dialect) exclaimed by Sterlinc; Brown in Southepn Road. For even though Bontemps tells us in "Golgotha is A Mountain 11 , that One day I will crumble we know that the dust will fossilize and "make a mountain": I think it will be Golgotha. There has been very little critical assessment of Bontemps' poetry. But brief reactions to his work can be found in The·_ Harlem Renaissance Remembered ('which b e edited), Sterling Brown's study, Barksdale a.nd Ka.nnamon's anthology, Robert Kerlin's critical-anthology, Arthur P. Davis's From the Dark Tower, and The Ne gro Caravan. For a near complete listinc of Bontemps' published works see Black Horld, XX (September 1971), 78-79. Alon~ with Angelina Grim.lee, Lewis Alexander, Anne Spencer, Arna Bontemps, Geor gia Douglas Joh nso n, and Helene .Jobnson, GwendoJ:~,rn Bennett helped to .fill out t 11 e list of lesser known renaissance poets wh o appeared in _'!'_Ee New Ne gro (see 1968 edition with a preface b y Rob ert Hayden). Unfortunatel~r, bowever, Miss Bennett's best foot was not put forward in the "Song" which �Ala.in Locke accepted for pub lication i n t h e a.1.) ove nan,ed antholo gy. 11 S onr, 11 is not rcpresentati ve of :I-Iiss Bennett's generally hi gh craftmansh ip; it is flawed by imb alance e.nd an attempt to say many things in one poem. poetry of the period, 11 Characteristic of t~e Sonc " reaches back to 11 for gotten banjo songs II and Clinkine chains and minstrelsy but Miss Bennett's interpolation of dialect lines does not come of'f with the ease and power of Sterlin.c Brown's similar efforts. On the other hand, h er s h arp crisp ana precise i ma gery employed in poems which appeared in ma gazines and oth er a.nth olo c;ies show her as a poet witb many gifts and resources. Gwendolyn Be nnett was b orn in Giddine s, Texas, to professional parents. After graduation fro m t h e Girls' Hi gh School in Brooklyn, New York, s h e attended Teach ers Colle ge, ·columbia University, for two :rears and studied i n tlie Fine Arts Depa.rtment--tbereafter estab lish ing a dual career as poet and artist. She later attended Pratt Institute, tan gh t in the rine Arts Department at Howard Uni versity, and t h en recei ved t h e Thousand Dollar Foreign Sch olarsh ip of t h e Delta Sigma Th eta Sorority, which enabled ber to go to Europe w11ere she studied for a. year f , f in Paris at the Academi c Julian and t h e Ecole Panth eon. She returned to New York at t h e bei c;bt of t h e renaissance and for a while was a member of t h e editorial staff of Opportunity where several of her poems appeared . In reading her finest poems, one recalls depth of Black wot;mnlJ ood revealed in t h e poetry of . - l 346 ~ . ;· •· �Frances Harper, Geor gia Joh nson and Angelina Gri mke. "To A Dark Girl" is a meditation on the sisterh ood w11 ich retains aspects of "old for gotten queens. 11 We recall the word "for- gotten" from "Song "; but it ab ounds i n t h e poetr•y of this period. Miss Bennett's "brown girl" ( c. f., Cullen!) is "sorrow's maten but if she forgets her slave background she can still "laugh at Fate!" The yearning , t h e pleading , the thirsting for another time and anoth er place--for natural Africa--recurs t hrouchout these poems and poets. distills "dista nt laugh ter II and huming melodies." 11 Miss Bennett's S onnet--2 11 11 "Nocturne" recalls "Ne groes · Heritar;e 11 is almost ideri;.. tical, in t h eme and tone, to Countee Cullen's poem of t h e same name. Just as Cullen laments t h e d isparity b etween his "heart and head, 11 this poet sees t h e same dua.li ty in her "sad people's soul" Hidden by a minstrel-smile. Finally, "Hatred II is s h arp and stingine; Like a dart of singing steel and we are reminded of t h e poems of t h e same t h eme: DuBois' "The Riddle of t h e Sph inx," and McKay 's "To t h e White Fiends" and "The "White House. 11 For Clarissa Scott Delaney, "Joy n seems to contain the . emotional intensity t h at "Hatred II b olds for Gwendolyn Bennett. The dau ghter of Emmett J. Scott, t h e "distinguished secretary. to Booker T. Washington, 11 J\.a,s. Delaney lived a tragically short life and died at the peak of the Harlem Renaissance. 347 ,· . ~ .. ;:~;'- · "Joy" is �what she vows to "aba ndo n1t herself to j_n an effort to avoid the troubling 1tmazen of life. Her poetry is quietly power- ful and seems to compliment t h at of Arna Bontemps since it is deep and flows from tradit i on, stamina and endurance. Born in Tuske cee Institute, Alabama, s h e attended Bradford Academy in New England and t h en Wellesley Colle ge, af'ter which sl1e taught three years at t be famous Dunb ar High School in Washington, D.C. According to Robert Kerlin, Hrs. Delaney o.lso "Studied delinquency and ne c;lect a mong Ne gro chi ldren in New York City." Her poetry reflects a percepti ve and analyt ical mind. Initially, she appears detach ed and metallic--deceptively, like Gwendolyn Brooks, hut the poem usually winds down to a c;rippin g messa.e_;e on pretense, loneliness, joy or despair. is a 11 The ni gh t in "Interim" gracious cloak" used to conceal the defeat of t h e soul. "The Mask" imr.iediately brings to mind Dunbar's "We Wenr t h e Mask." Except for t b e differences in persona and drama.tic affects, the two poems are quite similar. Re -read ine "The Mask," one is ' reminded of Smoke:;r Bill Rob inson's recentl::,r popular "Tbe Tears of A ClOi·m"--wb ich carri es t b e t b eme of duality a nd scb izoph renia so often found in Black t h ougb t and wri tine; . Wh ile a.11 Black artists do not display t h is "twoness" with the intensity of a Countee Cullen or nalph Ellison, it is almost always present in t b e:i.r works. Especially is t b is true of the Black American irriter, forced to use t he · communication tools of the over-seers to speak ab out t h at wh ich is closest to him. 348 �This particular aspect of Black poetry gives rise to r.mch speculation since poems devoid of racial or eth nic flavor take on added si g nificance when we know their authors are Black. Such is t h e case with Gwendolyn Bennett's "Hatred" (where nyou" could b e whites) and W.E.B. DuBois' "The Riddle of the Sphinx" {wh ere 11 t b e m11 prob ably means wh ites). Frank Horne, who won a poetry contest in Th e Crisis in 1925 but did not publish a book (Haverstraw) until 1963, fits .into this context. Horne was born in New Yo1"k City where he attended public schools. As a. student at t 11e Colle g e of t h e City of New York, he won varsity letters in track and wrote poetry. He later graduated fro ,;1 trie Nortbern Illinois College of Ophthalmolo gy witb a. de gree of Doctor of Optometry. Horne worked in Chicac o, New York, tau r:;h t in Fort Valley Georgia and was for some time e mploy ed by t h e United State Housing ... Authority. Horne, "poss0sses the authentic gift of poetry," s.ccordi.ne to James Weld on Joh nson. "intellectual irony. n And Sterling Brown mcnttons Horne's Indeed Horne is cy nical, skeptical, re- served and almost b are i n h is s h ort lines and econon ic lan8uage. The corpus of h is early poetry re v olves around ·nLetters found near a suicide II for wh ich he won The Crisis award. !•lost of the poems are addressed to indi v i d~ally-named persons and recall some point of co ntact (co nt e ntion?) ~etwe en t he alle ged suicide victim and t be per son acldressed. 1\s not8d earlier, ma ny of . the poems b ave to he pJ.aced 5- n t h e context of "Blac k " poetry if ' 34 9 '·' j·~-, ,fi':.~\• • • I ' ;.. / If-), _: t•I, .i. �the shortness of lifG, co ntr adictio ns :i.n Ch ristinni t:r, 1"' ot r s.:. . al, endurance, love, h atred, surv 5.va:. of t1 e spir5.t over p11~rsical death, music, scientific inquir:r adapted to t b e poet's questioning , racial injustice, and victory as fact or idea. Horne's verse is sanguine but, for t h e most pa.rt, auoids t h e romantic treatment of Africa found in practically all poets of the renaissance. His "Nigger (A Chant for Children)n catalogs I3la.ck beroes: Hannibal, Othello, Crispus Attucks, Toussaint L 'Overture, and adds Jesus near tbe end. A ch oral lteration, anticipating Sterlin~ Brown and complimenting La nc;ston Hu c;hes, includes: 11 Ni c;c;er • • • ni c;c;er • • • ni c;zer II "To the Poets II recalls Cullen rs "Scottsboro, Too, Is Worth Its Song"; both poems chide other poets for sin ginc; sone s over wrong causes. Eorne "yelled h osannas" into t h e emptiness, but (Neither did yellin g move mountains yelling got h im nm.-1h ere. f'or Baldwin who, as a boy-preacb er, quickly saw the contradiction in singing ''You can have all dis world but gi v e me Jesus. 11 ) Horne's knowled ge of science is put to go6d use in' such poems as "To Henry II and 11 Q.E .D. 11 And bis skeptic ism continually surfaces as in "To You 11 wbere he examines t b e road to salvation, which is through ''Your 11 ( or Christ's) body. involved in a worldly experience wi t b 11 But later he is b er II and when he returns to the al tar to eat and drink of ''Your II splendors he can think "only of her. 11 Much of' Horne's poetry employs the symbolism and vocabu- . lary of athletic contests--principally football and track. 350 �He also uses language associated with playing music or singing. "To Caroline" and "To Cataline" merge melody, harmonies, pain and ecstasy. "Caroline" plays his "skin" as well as the piano. that the piano will give joy and hurt. "Catalina" is warned "To Chick" recalls the days of the "Terrible Two" on the football field. The "signal" in football is made analagous to the "signal" called in real life. In both instances the poet crossed the victory line, "fighting and squirming." "To one who called me 'nigger"' is a comment on the white man's ability to do everything but face America's race problems. Continuing his theme of skepticism, Horne presents a "Toast" to eyes, lips, heart and body, even though the person addressed has an "unborn" soul. His poetry is solely in free-verse and, though sparse, his language invariable operates on multiple levels. "To A Persistent Phantom" is an excellent example of Horne "complicating" the meaning of words through the use of repetition, elipses, and the strategic use of words like "tears," "tangled," "deeper," "charms" and "buried." If the language and action of athletic competition influenced Horne, it was melody that captured George Leonard Allen, a poet who lived only 30 years. Allen achieved wide recognition before his death, ho~ever, for his "To Melody" won first prize in a 1927 state-wide poetry contest sponsored by the North Carolina Chapter of the United Daughters of the Confederacy. His poems also appeared in Opportunity, American Life, The Southern Christian Advocate, The Lyric West and Caroling Dusk. "Pilate in Modern America" employs what is, by Allen's time, a traditional theme in Black poetry: equating Black suffering to the crucifixion of Christ. The "Pilate" of America pleads with God for redemption, claiming that "one man's voice" 351 , ' �Oof dissent) could not be heard in the din of the lynch mob. But God's voice (the white man's conscience) t ·e lls "Pilate" that his guilt is as great as the crowd's. "To Melody" has no racial import. It simply praises song and is imitative, in language and theme, of early 19th century English poetry. As a sonnet, it only remotely suggests the work of McKay and Cullen. "Pilate" is well handled in iambic pentameter. Allen was born in Lumberton, North Carolina where he attended public schools--later completing his studies at Johnson C. smith University. His book-learning is evident in his poetry which is competent but conventional. A certain formalism also marks the work of Donald Jeffrey Hayes. Hayes was born in Raleigh, North Carolina; his education, which was quite extensive, was gained primarily through private study where he pursued his interests in singing, directing and writing. During the twenties and thirties, Hayes appeared in several Broadway productions as a member of a singing chorus. His poetry, much of which reflects his interest in music, was published in Harper's Bazaar, Good Housekeeping and This Week. "Appoggiatura 11 --a musical term--draws sustained comparisons between a woman's movements and bodies and sounds of water. and watering flow. It is a towering poem full of surreal images and mysticism Ultimately the woman seems to become a mermaid. He heard the "indistinguishable sound of water silence" and then the woman disappeared: "Sea-Woman--slim-fingered-water-thing II ,. This theme of having lost something or someone pervades Hayes' poetry. And while he never mentions Africa or the lost Black purity lamented by other renaissance poets, it is possible that he had similar concerns. 352 "Benediction" �is for the departed rather than a prayer to end a religious service. pursues Horne's theme of life's briefness. the poet's "kiss was sweet." for time before death. "Poet" A eulogy, the poem notes that "Prescience" depicts the poet trying to stall His concern is not for his own physical and emotional well-being, but for the "you" addressed in the poem. The speaker cannot bear the thought of his loved one being alone after his death. "Haven" death haunts all of Hayes' anthologized poetry. and conventional forms. Except for He writes in free-verse "Poet" and "Prescience" make the most of' careful meter and rhyming couplets. Another poet, Jonathan Henderson Brooks, writes with allegorical elequence. His work is deeply religious; but it is not a canned religiousness. He takes Christian symbolism and makes it work for the Black cause. Like Cullen and McKay, he equates Black suffering to the sufferings of Christ. And like Phillis Wheatley, he ensconces his deep and troubled feelings in religious fervor. "The Resurrection" is a poetic narrative--employing dialog where racial concerns can only be inferred. doubt as to its intent. But "My Angel" leaves little Freighted with both hope and doubt, with "Despair and my disgrace", the poem depicts "my angel" attempting to lift the burden from the shoulders of Black Americans. But the angel, who struggled "All night," is unable to lift The heaviest load since Lucifer .••• Carefully and startlingly, Brooks weaves in the relatively new Black poetic theme of indifference towards (and distrust of) Christianity. "Black necessity" is what the angel intervenes on behalf of; but after the all night struggle, he wearily flies off "To angels' resting place. 353 t ,, j ' \ V ' .,~:it~ �Thus leaving the narrator with his despair and disgrace. It is a chilling poem, one which blatantly carries a doubt more subdued in other Brooks pieces. Alternating between iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter, and using six-lined stanzas, he presents an exciting technical achievement with an ab c b db rhyme scheme. Brooks was born in Mississippi, on a farm "twelve miles southwest of Lexington." After his parents separated, he stayed with his mother until he was 14 when he went to Jackson College for four months on money his mother had saved. At Jackson he won a prize for a short-story and later completed his high schooling at Lincoln University (Missouri). at Tougaloo, Mississippi. He then went to college Though religion is the outstanding influence on his poetry, he is nevertheless unconventional in his use of it and his poetry is always well-crafted. His over-riding achievement appears to be "She Said ••• " a poem dedicated to the memory of the first Black soldier from Alcorn County, Mississippi, to be "killed in action in the invasion of Normandy." Again using Christian symbolism and terms, he imagines the response of the soldier's mother who wonders if her son screamed when he was shot, if "unhurrying Death" was called, and if he died in sunshine, rain, or night. The mother finally equates herself to "Mary of Galilee" and notes that the two women must have felt the same emotion. This is an irresistible idea and theme in Black poetry. The searchingly skillful contemporary poet, Raymond Patterson, presented a similar situation in his elegy on the death of Mrs. Martin Luther King, Sr. ("All Things Abide," Black World, September, 1974). Patterson echoes Wheatley, DuBois, McKay, Hughes, Cullen and Dunbar when he asks who in our presence can say how Jesus' mother perished: --Jesus, crucified? 354 �The question mark aids in calling up all the gore and grief and passion and terror that engulf and interlace Black existence as it is infused by Christianity, Africanisms and the Amreican experience of slavery. there again. Was Jesus really crucified? Skepticism and cynicism are In his poem, Brooks achieves a haunting, yet immediate, requiem by tieing the soldier's death to the cosmos-anticipating Owen Dodson's "Lament"--and relating place-names of importance. He establishes other associations: the stars and stripes (of the flag) are connected to the "sun's shining," the sunlight and moonglow are associated with the "stars forever," bullet and death and days and hours and sunshine and night and rain and battleground--all set the stage for Mary and the "Garden" and the suggestion of a rising. Lastly the narration in this free-verse is set off in italics for those sections which occur in the mind. Brooks is certainly worth much more study. Helene Johnson's small output should be collected and published in bookform because she is an important poet. Born in Boston, where she attended local public schools and Boston University, Helene Johnson arrived in New York in 1926 to do additional study at the Extension Division of Columbia University and to become one of the important "younger" figures of the Harlem Renaissance. Her poems were published in Opportunity, Vanity Fair and several other periodicals and anthologies. and language. Her poetry is terse, emphatic and diverse in form, style She is at home with the sonnet, free-verse, conventional rhyme pieces, or with what James Weldon Johnson calls "colloquial style--a style which numberless poets of this new age (1910-1930) have assumed to be easy." (Johnson sounds as if he is talking to some of the poets of the current "new age" (1960-1974!). And Johnson is right about Helene Johnson when he says that she is aware that a poem written in dialect, colloquial or street language 355 �"demands as much work and workmanship as a well-wrought sonnet." Helene Johnson's dominant themes are cultural reclamation (the African heritage), the ludicrous (sometimes peacockish) dress and mannerisms of Black men, Black beauty and love. Almost always she expresses longing, either for personal love or a return to pre-slavery Africa. In "Summer Matures," "Fullfilment" and "Magalu" she invites lovers both literally and metaphorically. "Magalu", like "Sonnet to a Negro in Harlem," "The Road," "Poem," and "Bottled," suggests that the Black American is better than he thinks he is; .that examination of his African past and his innate rhythmic richness will allow him to maintain both his past glory and his present sanity. The hint that whites are crass, immobile and inhibited ( a theme recurring in Black thought and writing) also creeps through these poems. "Magalu" · is told to ignore the teachings of the man in a "white collar" who carries a Bible. Poetry, or ancestral and cultural worship, is better than Christianity, the poet says. Here, of course, she advances an answer to the riddle of Countee Cullen, who appears to have wanted to "dance" but could not throw off the cloak of Western education, sentimentality and respectability. Helene Johnson asks Magalu: Would you sell the colors of your sunset , and the fragrance Of your flowers, and the passionate wonder of your forest For a creed that will not let you dance? Continuing this theme in "Sonnet to A Negro in Harlem" (and recalling McKay's "Harlem Dancer" as well as dozens of poems in this category), she depicts the Harlem Negro as not being psychologically and religiously a part of the 356 '.' �• environment in which he or she lives. Somehow, the Black American has remained untainted by crass, Western ways and inflexible thought. All this is embodied symbolically in the Harlem Black who, in his devine barbarism, stylistic richness and refusal to imitate those "whom you despise," is "too splendid for this city street." Helene Johnson seems to direct her poetry at Cullen and others who are unable to extricate themselves from the clash of the "Christian" training and the "pagan urge." is the answer an easy one. Neither For despite all the renaissance .proposals calling for spiritual or physical return to the essences of the African self, the writers had no concrete suggestion to offer. Except for DuBois, Garvey and a few others, they simply explored romantic declarations and yearnings. This mood is evident also in Helene Johnson's "Poem" where the "Slim, dark, big-eyed" boy becomes a prince like the "monarch" laborer in Fenton Johnson's "Rulers." Yet there is important immediate social commentary in the same type of poem: 1920's. "Bottled," which ridicules a superfly-type character of the Her "Negro dressed fit to kill" refused to dance the Charleston or the Black Bottom since he is too "dignified." Instead of a cane, she says, he should be "carrying a spear with a sharp fine point." , The tip of the spear should be dipped in poison. And the rest, of course, is obvious. Finally, the poem laments the apparent internal turmoil of a Black man who is "all glass" ("plastic" in today's language). "Bottled" is typical of much of the thematic focus of Black writing in all genres of the period. It also anticipated the continuing satire that would be found in the writings of Frank Marshall Davis, George Schyler, Hughes, and others. A young con- temporary woman poet, Barbara McHone (Black World, August, 1974) assesses a character similar to Helene Johnson's in "A Sea of Brown Boys." 357 �Barbara McHone chides the boys for wearing high heel shoes, purses, and patterning their lives after Shaft, Superfly and Sweetback. After stating the urgent needs of the times and implying that Black masculinity is being undermin.ed, she asks: where did our love go? Helene Johnson seems to make her most cogent statement, however, in "The Road" where she links into a theme long-associated with Black struggle: on moving." fight. "Keep "The Road" encourages Blacks to see their beauty as well as their "Trodden beauty," is still "trodden pride." Reminiscent of Johnson's "Lift Every Voice and Sing" and Fenton Johnson's "Children of the Sun," she advises her people to Rise to one brimming golden, spilling cry! Perhaps not coincidentally, Helene Johnson's work is similar, in language and theme, to the poetry of Waring Cuney who (along with Hughes and Edward Silvera) belongs to the group sometimes called the Lincoln University poets. 1 Cuney was born one-half of twins in Washington, D.C. where he attended public schools and later studied music (after Howard and Lincoln Universities) at the Boston Conservatory of Music and in Rome. The twins had similar interests: singing and his brother's the piano. Waring's being After his poem "No Images" won an Opportunity prize, James Weldon Johnson stated that Cuney's work held "exceptional promise." However Cuney never became a prolific writer of literary poetry. Instead he divided his time between writing lyrics for songs and his other numerous chores. His protest lyrics were set to music and sung by Josh White on the album Southern Exposure. And his poetry was not published in book form until 1960 when the 1. See Four Lincoln University Poets (Hughes, 1931) and Lincoln University Poets (Cuney, . Hughes, and Bruce McM. Wright, 1954). Hughes called Lincoln University (Pennsylvania) "a place of beauty and the ideal coll ge for a poet." His ·assessment seems to have been correct. Raymond Patterson, Larry Neal and · . 358 . :-:1);·,;:~;).;;:;' ti ,:-. : i �bibliophile society in the Netherlands brought out Puzzles. free-verse and maintains "great economy of phrase." He usually writes in His poetry surveys the whole of the human experience but most of it carries either a racial or a folksy riote. There is also cynicism and skepticism of the sort found in Fenton Johnson, McKay, Cullen and Hrone. Heavily influenced , by Hughes, Cuney' s early work depicts fi.-ank pictures of Black 'and general life and often uses the plain, direct folk spee~h as a major vehicle. This trend is seen in poems like "Hard Times Blues," "Cruci.:.. fixion," "Troubled Jesus," and "Burial of the Young Love." Though his poems were published in several magazines and anthologies of the era, his "No Images"-...:which won 'the Opportunity prize--ties in with a general poetic theme of the renaissance: that Black beauty and creativity are too good to flourish in the decadence of Western civilization. The Black woman in Cuney's poem is similar to the Harlem Negro of Helene Johnson's poem, the dancer of McKay's "Harlem Dancer," the ravished and tormented narrator in Cullen's "Heritage," and the split personality in Toomer's "Kabnis" (Cane): they all seek to be whole in a world that denies and carica- tures their humanity. Cuney's woman figure -: • thinks her brown body Has no glory. But if she had an opportunity to dance as her natural self--"naked" perhaps--in her natural habitat--Africa--where her "image would be reflected by the river; · then she would "know" how beautiful she is. But civilization corrodes the idea of trees and naturalness and, consequently, deprives Blacks of their own beauty and their healthy self-image: And dishwater gives back no images. ·.•., / Dishwater is :a . kind ·of · death--a spiritual and moral death--for Cuney whose work ·.:,. Gil Scott-Heron are only three of the never poetic talents nurtured at .,,J ,, :: '. ' • Li~~.::.:·,\·:; : . . / ;•:>:✓:\> •·•r·, .~ , .: .. :.- .. · . . ~·~' ~ r .. ;, •.. ;" ,; ~ • '3 ·~~ I, I �shows him to be preoccupied with death. Several of his poems ("Threnody',-'' "The Death Bed," "Crucifixion," "Burial of the Young," "Finis" and "Dust") react to, anticipate or contemplate death. For Cuney, who seems to place a strong trust in the folkways, there is an irony in the fact that the God who protects the oppressors is also expected to protect the oppressed. This particular brand of Black cyni- cism makes it most dramatic debut with Dunbar and remains a dominant theme in Black poetry up until this very day. In "The Death Bed" the dying man sends all the praying "kin-folk" away from his bed. The praying ones, of course, think this is strange and continue praying against his will in a room accross the hall. Failing in an attempt to sing a final song, the dying man lapses back and, knowing death is iminent, wonders What it was they cound be saying. "Hard Times Blues" is a protest song-poem which talks about drought, hunger, depression and general bad times in the South. The refrain contains this paradoxical plea-assertion: Great-God-Amighty Folks feeling bad, Lost all they ever had. The indirect association of God with the misery coupled with an oblique prayer for help is different indeed--though its antecedents can clearly be seen in the coded Spirituals, blues, jokes, and oral epics of the folk. A similar paradox and irony is contained in "My Lord, What a Morning" where the speaker is ecstatic over "black" Jack Johnson's defeat of "white" Jim Jeffries. Admitting to the "Lord" that "Fighting is wrong," the speaker nevertheless exclaims: But what an uppercut. Making God a colloquial person--Black, that is--in several of his poems, Cuney 360 '' �recalls Johnson's feat in God's Trombones where God is likened to a ''mammy." Another important later achievement of Cuney's is "Charles Parker, 1925-1955." The legendary jazz musician is given credit for reshaping the blues idiom in music--and hence revitalizing the Black aesthetic. The poem is made up of lines of one-three words and includes phonetic renderings of saxophone sounds. And . throughout the piece, the reader is advised to "listen." Lewis Alexander apparently also wants us to "listen" to his "Enchantment" which embodies, again, the theme of the exotic and beautiful AfriGan. the "body smiling with black beauty" is wearing "African moonlight." divides his poem into two sections: the "Medicine Dance." This time Alexander "Part I" which is "Night" and "Part II," Part one gives the setting, moonlight in Africa, juice gushing from over-ripe fruit, palm trees, silence. In Part II the medicine dancer is placed in relief against the "grotesque hyena-faced monster" who (seeming to represent whites) is driven back into the "wilderness" by his own fear and the spell cast on him by the medicine dancer. The poem is in free-verse and features several exclamation marks and single-word lines. Typographically, the poem works well with its depiction of dancing, mystery, suspense, fright · and ,. anticipation. There is a quickening here, a stalking there, finally a resolution and the black body now dances with "delight" as Terror reigns like a new crowned queen. Alexander was born in Washington, D.C., educated in public schools, including the celebrated Dunbar High, and attended Howard University. His interests somewhat paralleled those of Cuney and Donald Jeffrey Hayes and he acted in the Ethiopian Art Theatre Company; for a while he was a member of the Playwriters' Circle and the Ira Aldridge Players. Many of the major themes and experimental techniques of the renaissance can be found in Alexander's poetry. 361 Examination of the Black �. anatomy to nature. Hughes says the faces, eyes and souls of "my people" are beautiful like the night, stars and sun. Alexander finds, on the other hand, that the heavy hanging sky, the curved scars of the moon, the twinkly of stars and the trembling earth, all parallel the Negro woman's burdensome hair, wrinkled brow, tears flowing from "an aging hurt," and eye-lids quivering and cupping tears. For Hughes nature is a partner to Black beauty; for Alexander it is a companion to agony, suffering and historical pain. possibilities of color and shade symbolism. when night falls black." Alexander also probes the "Dream Song" advises one to "dream In "Nocturne Varial" shadow (Blacks) becomes light (beautiful, aware) and the deeper the Blackness gets (spreads its influence) the more changes (the greater the impact) will occur among whites. In the deepest core of the night, "Each note is a star" but the light emitted from that darkness is not blinding. Then, after this searching contrast and overlay of what painters call chiaroscuro, we are told that: ·I came as a shadow, To dazzle your night. The idea of transfiguration and change weighs heavily upon Alexander's poetry. ' Significant changes occur in "Negro Woman," "Enchantment," "Nocturne Varial" . and "Transformation." After having arrived as a "shadow" in "Nocturne Varial" the poet (or the persona "I") decides to "return" a bitterness that has gone through the wash of tears. through the years." The bitterness becomes "loveliness" which has been "garnished Announcing that the bitterness has been worn from the taste of the past, Alexander implies here, as he does in other poems, that he is a forgiving person. Indeed he may be saying that Blacks will hold no hatred . (for whites) or desire for retribution. Alexander's poetry is concise and neat, mostly 362 ' ,, �in free-verse and conventional language. Neat also is the only anthologized poem by Lucy Ariel Williams Holloway. Found in Caroling Dusk (Cullen), The Poetry of The Negro (Hughes and Bontemps) and Johnson's The Book of American Negro Poetry, "Northboun'" garnered the coveted Opportunity poetry prize in 1926. We mention it because it shows great talent and feel in the employment of Black southern speech and it embodies not only period but historical concerns of Blacks. The world is neither flat nor round, the poet tells us: H'it's one long strip Hangin' up an' down-and there's only "Souf an' Norf." The foregoing is part of the chorus in this song-poem which comically predicts how people "all 'ud fall" if the world "wuz jes' a ball." For those who brag about the city seen by Saint John, Lucy Holloway challenges them to see Saginaw. Opportunities for Blacks are good in Saginaw (heaven) and pretty women are plentiful. The poem restates the belief (developed during slavery and abolition efforts) that the North is heaven compared to the South (hell). Lucy Holloway emotionally chronicles the feelings, anticipations and oral narratives connected with "moving north." \ Such a preoccupation can be seen throughout the literature of the period, in the stories, the poems, the plays, the novels, the articles and the songs. Finally, Miss Holloway tells us what Hughes, Ellison, Baldwin, Claude Brown and Sterling Plumpp would refute: Since Norf is up, An' Souf is down, An' Hebben is up, I'm upward boun'. 363 �Lucy Holloway's poem is interesting for another reason: coming, as it did, at the thrust of the renaissance, it represented a throwback to the dialect and minstrel traditions which most of the New Negro writers were trying to break. And although Johnson (James) and Hughes worked in dialect, their major efforts were decidedly different from those of the Dunbar school. Reading Miss Holloway's poem, however, one is immediately reminded of Dunbar, Campbell, Corrothers and Daniel Webster Davis. Yet, a final reason for using the example of Lucy Holloway is to lead into at least a partial listing of the poets who published in magazines, regional anthologies and newspapers during the Harlem Renaissance and afterwards. among the dozens of lesser and unknown poets we mention the following: From Gladys May Casely Hayford (born in West Africa), Allison Davis, Esther Popel Shaw, J. Mason Brewer (Negrito), Kenneth W. Porter, Harvey M. Williamson, Otto Leland Bohanon, Eleanor Graham Nichols, Corrinne E. Lewis, Mary Effie Lee, Edward Garnett Riley, Albert Rice (a member of Georgia Douglas Johnson's writing workshop), • Carrie W. Clifford (The Widening Light, 1922), Marcus B. Christian, Winston Allen, Mae V. Cowdery, Tilford Jones, Adeline Carter Watson, Will Sexton and Edward Silvera. Some of these occasional and newspaper poets made temporary "splashes" and moved on. Mae V. Cowdery won a Crisis poetry prize in 1927 and published a volume of her poetry in the thirties. and Silvera are the most important. Of this group of poets, however, Christian Christian (1900-) was born in Houma, Louisiana, and primarily self-educated. For a while he served as supervisor of the Dillard University Negro History Unit of the Federal Writers' Project. He later re ·c ceived a Julius Rosenwald Fellowship to complete an historical study begun on the project before going to work in the Dillard Library. His poems --1 ·.r.7•t. : . ' '- f )-, .:: !: .:: ':<' , ; 364 . 1.n~f':1!~i . �appeared in various anthologies and magazines. And his available work has both general and racial flavor and shows him to be a skilled word-handler. Craftsman" is about artistic excellence. The artist--presumably the poet--must work with "consummate care" and be "free of flaws." above everything else. ever. "The This is so because art is The poet knows that if he writes well, he "lives" for- Christian employs a form--the sonnet--that is consistent with his high calling. Another sonnet, "McDonogh Day in New Orleans," is a celebration of the beauty of Blackness. Detailing the difficulty a poor Black girl h~s in trying to get the kind of clothes she needs, Christian finally has her attired "Like some dark princess" wearing "blue larkspur" coupled with "yellow marigold." True, she looks good going to school But few would know--or even guess this fact: How dear comes beauty when a skin is black. Silvera (1906-1937) lived a productive, if tragically short, life. He was born in Jacksonville, Florida, attended local public schools and graduated from Orange High; he then went to Lincoln University in Pennsylvania where he participated in sports and wrote poetry, some of which was included in Four Lincoln Poets (1930). His poetry also appeared in magazines and anthologies. Much of Silvera's poetry is quiet and sparse--reminiscent of Cuney, his friend, Horne, and many of the introspective poets of the period. of renaissance poetry. But his work does carry the prevailing themes "Jungle Taste," for example, celebrates the Africa of old-- Africa before the appearance of the "civilization" Fenton Johnson doncemns. The "Coarseness" in the "songs of black men" does not sound "strange" to Silvera. Neither does the "beauty" in the "faces of black women" seem unusual. men alone can "see" this "dark hidden beauty." Yet Black In "Forgotten Dreams" only a "heap" of entangled thread now lies where once a beautiful dream had been spun. Here, . ii{ .· :,;,,."· ;_:,.> . ·. .',· ;·;.;( '.,: • 365 . . l . 1.-,...-,.,..-~; ·~\4·, .~- �Silvera seems to be lamenting the loss of something--maybe viewing his approaching death. Likewise, in another poem, "On the Death of A Child," he again uses the "spun" image. The child comes without a "voice" to announce its arrival. lark sings, but "shadows" have already "foretold" that death is near. had been "spun" and the end comes. Hughes and Bontemps anthologies. The The "shroud" Silvera's and Christian's works appear in the Silvera's poetry also appears in Kerlin's Negro Poets and Their Poems. The dominant themes in poetry of the Harlem Renaissance--cultural reclamation, stylistic experimentation, romantic engagement with Africa, a presentation of the rawness of Black life--can also be found in the fiction, drama, painting, music, criticism, and belles lettres of the period. is Locke's The New Negro. The best documentation of th~se items But we ought to mention some of the major names in prose (fiction and non-fiction), many of whom also wrote poetry: Jean Toomer, Eric Walrond, Jessie Redmond Fauset, Rudolph Fisher, Nella Larson, Zora Neal Hurston, McKay, Hughes, Cullen, Walter White, W.E.B. DuBois, Charles S. Johnson, Carter G. Woodson, Bruce Nugent, John Matheus, Cecil Blue, Montgomery Gregory, Arthur Huff Fauset, James Weldon Johnson, E. Franklin Frazier and Arthur A. Schomburg. D. Renaissance Fallout: Negritude Poets and Pan-African Writing Claude McKay's influence, as a novelist (Banjo), on leaders of African nationalism has already been noted. kind, nor the last. But McKay's impact was not the first of its During the 18th and 19th centuries, Africans in the Western Hemisphere had exchanged ideas and made pacts with each other and with their fellows of color in Africa. In Chapter III we noted this pervasive influence as seen in documents, the establishment of African societies and the African Methodist Episcopal 366 �Church, the founding of Liberia, and the daring and courageous example of the West African Cinque. We also noted the arrival in the United States of a number of West Indian, Caribbean and South American Blacks--a flow that has remained . I unabated up until this very day. We call immediately to mind such names as John · Russwurm, Marcus Garvey, McKay, and Stokely Carmichael. The poet John Boyd, dis- cussed in Chapter III, was a Bahamian. It was during the 1920's, however, that the Pan-African flavor was most dramatically and . thoroughly demonstrated. Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement .. r • Association which claimed thousands of followers and members, was in full swing by the time of the Harlem Renaissance. DuBois was the driving force behind four Pan-African Congresses which met successively between 1919 and 1927 (in Paris, London and New York). And the predominant themes in renaissance literature were reclamation of the African heritage and celebration of the beauties and talents of African peoples. Consistent with our study, however, is a consideration of one of the most important spin-outs from the Harlem Renaissance: the Negritude school of poets in- eluding Martinique, Capetown, Paris, Dakar and Algiers. As natives of French- controlled colonies, these young Black students and intellectuals were trained in French schools and shared dual citizenships. (This practice represents a throwback to the Creole poets, many of whom were educated in France.) the Negritude poets' activities here. But we only summarize Chief among them are Aim~ C~saire (1913-) I • I I of Martinique, Leon Damas (1912-) of French Guiana, and Leopold Sedar Senghor (1906-) of Senegal. More information, including examples of Negritude poetry, can be found in Jean-Paul Sarte's "Orphee Nair" ("Black Orpheus") which prefaced I I Leopold Sedar Senghor's anthology of African and West Indian poets: I I Anthologie de la nouvelle poesie negre et malgache de lingue francais (Paris, 1948). I . Although , • ;11 ~· .-. · .>:, ·;. :· . '. . ~;.. . u.,~"4i.11~J<r ., ." : ... · . ' • 367 ,l··:, . -....... ,.,;,:: ; . . , ,'· ; • , ;· .,. . +i, ;}(~/::·,)': :,;st•".~ �the important preface has appeared in various hard~to-get translations, it appeared in book form for the first time in C.W.E. Bigsby's The ·-Black American Writer, Volume II: Poetry and Drama (1971). For further study see the works ' ' of Franz Fanon, writings of Senghor (see also, Leopold Sedar Senghor and the.. Politics of Negritude, Irving L. Markovitz, 1969), and the numerous anthologies of African poetry by Langston Hughes, Keorapetse Kgositsile, Wilfred Cartey, Rainer Schulte and Quincy Troupe, and Mercer Cook and Stephen Henderson's The Militant Black Writer in Africa and the United States (1969). Negritude has been eloquently and illustratively defined by Satre, Senghor, Cook, Paul Vesey (Samuel Allen) and others. The term (roughly corresponding to • Black American Soul) refers to the mystique of Blackness which pervades the thought, actions, creativity and general life-style of some Africans. Senghor calls it a philosophy of humanism; Vesey finds elements of it in the Afro-American church and in the works of artists such as Baldwin and Ellison; Sartre notes that "From Haiti to Cayenne, there is a single idea: is evangelic, it announces good news: reveal the black soul~ Black poetry Blackness has been rediscovered." The . first creative work to emerge from this French-speaking sector of renaissance influence was L~on Damas' Pigments (1937). Like the other works , that followed~ Pigments extolled Black beauty and lamented Black suffering. The influence of . Langston Hughes is more evident in Damas than in other Negritude poets. Damas, freely admits in conversation that he (and his compatriots) owes much to Hughes who offered prizes to African writers and helped expose African literature to the world. Pigments heralded the arrival of Negritude. Its style, reminiscent of Hughes, is "sharp, slangy, tense and fast-moving" and was revolutionary to French poetry when it appeared. ' ' published Cahier d'un retour au pays natal Cesaire (Return to My Native Land) in 1938. Senghor has published Chants d'ombres (Song ;i:•--:-·, • 368 . ·:}\:;?.;,: {: ' ; :,f) ~-:;_ :r /;/ ':i. '' ' >,.\ -1~·.•· ~~'"·..-·,,it <,·; ,·. . 1,-~ : .:.,~j' \~-~:.:,~fr-~:•' .·. .,,. .J ;t,·t:•~ 1,lt.it~- ·, , ·£1~f;i; •C �of Shadows, 1949), Hosties Noires (Black Victims, 1948), Chants pour Naett (Songs ' Both Cesaire and for Naett, 1949), Ethiopiques (1959) and Nocturnes (1961). Senghor have been heavily influenced by jazz, blues and poetry of Harlem. Ex- posed to these forms in the salons of Madamoiselle Nardal between 1929 and 1934, they found Afro-American expression liberating and "fertilizing." Rene' Maran afforded them similar exposure after 1935.) (The salons of Also contributing to this convergence were the efforts of Mercer Cook who, as statesman and scholar, played an important part in bringing the works of Black Americans to their African and Caribbean contemporaries. Senghor's great poem about New York has immediate ties to both the renaissance and the impact of Harlem on him. As in many of his poems, For "New York" Senghor designates the instrument(s) to accompany the piece. he chooses "Jazz Orchestra: solo trumpet." New York's beauty at first "confused" Senghor, but after a couple of weeks in that city one grows accustomed to buying "artificial hearts." He is ecstatic about Harlem Harlem! I have seen Harlem Harlem! ••• Senghor writes of the African landscape, warriors, love and his admiration for Black women. As president of Senegal, he presided over the First World Festival of Negro ARts, held in Dakar in 1966. Damas deals with problems of color and ·class in his poetry and defines Negritude in a series of rolling, vigorous stanzas in free-verse. I t His other collections of poems include Poemes negres sur des airs africains (1948), Graffiti (1952), Black-Label (1956) and Nevralgies (1965?). Like other Negritude poets, Damas read the poetry of the Harlem Renaissance. Critics seem to agree, however, that the Africans and Caribbean poets surpassed their American brothers and sisters. in the following titles: "Almost White." "Enough," Damas' cynicism and irony can be detected "s.o.s.," "Position," "Good Breeding," and Damas satirizes the Black middle-class and the Black habit of 369 �straightening hair and using bleaching creams. Similar themes can be found in . ' . who also employs free-verse and makes great use of irony. the poetry of Cesaire Return to My Native Land catalogs all the scientific things that Blacks have not invented, but later gives them credit for being the backbone of human existence. ' Cesaire has served as mayor of Fort de France and a deputy to the French National Assembly, representing the independent revolutionary party of Martinique. He quit the French Communist Party in the 1950's and has since been active in African nationalism. His other collections of poetry are Les Armes miraculeuses (1946), I Soleil cou coupe (1948), Corps perdu (1950) and Ferrements (1960). I I Cesaire, Damas and Senghor have also written drama (mostly about Black historical figures) and essays on Negritude and Pan-African liberation. I Damas is currently living in Washington, D.C. where he teaches literature at Howard University and Federal City College. The Negritude Movement in poetry--best recorded in Satre's articles and in Norman S. Shapiro's Negritude: Black Poetry from Africa and The Caribbean (1970)--encompassed several other important Black areas and figures: Ernest Alima (Cameroon), Joseph Miezan Bognini and Bernard Dadi~ (Ivory Coast), Jean-Fernand I Brierre and Rene Depestre (Haiti), Siriman Cissoko (Mali), David Diop (Senegal, a ~ I ' great poet killed in an airplane crash in 1956), Jocelyne Etienne and Guy Tirolien (Guadeloupe), Camara Laye (Guinea) and Emile-Desire Ologoudou (Dahomey), to name just a few. The Harlem Renaissance and the subsequent concept of Negritude influenced these poets in various ways and to greater or lesser degrees. But the influence is there. Thematically, emotionally and politically the poets bear greater resemblance to Afro-Americans than in their styles and techniques. This interchange among writers and thinkers of the Black world has continued to its current rich and important tide (more on this in Chapter VI). 370 � 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_06 Title A name given to the resource Copy of Drumvoices: The Mission of Afro-American Poetry: A Critical History, Section III. The Poets and Their Totem, p. 281-370 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. https://digitallis.isg.siue.edu/files/original/d5462ee88da269a24a71e1b65dd3d1e2.pdf 351fed69aa89941320442c915cd1527a PDF Text Text 9ENtTAHI N CLARK WHAT I S A SLA 'JE ? A slave is- - vrha t ? Nothing , anc that alone ! Hi s ti me--his wif e -- And e ' en his life , . O't·Jn. He dare not call ,ti lS A sla ve is - -what ? Ah ! dead.ful lot I s his that ' s d oomed to toil Hi th out rec;ard , Or just re1:ard , U~on n~othcr ' s soil . A slave is - -wl-rnt ? Ah ! cr~ol t~ OUJ~ t, In con ~tnn t strife , A s lave is--w~at ? .A pe r f0ct nau:;1,t, Shor n of bL: lecal r t c;bt; And the~ co~pelled To work, h0 1 a held The, rciwant of h i.s 1 :i.fe . �HF.AT IS A 8L'\ 1 7F? (c on t'd) Or stolen f rom ~i mself, B:r Chr i s ti ans , rho T1,ls trad e rursne For s ordid , raltr~ pe lf. A s lave i s- -Hh at ? Throuc;h out tl i;; Hide doma i.n; 1 Tbrou gh '1,o rr a nd c len, For lucre-- cPrs ec. c;a ln! A slave is--w½at? I pra:' do no t I nsist; I cannot know, Or, paint er ' s art , Describe a slave -- ah , no ! A slave is--uhat? Tell I can not,-The ta 3k I wou ld not cr ave~ If you would know, 247 �BENJAMI N CLARK 1 ,THAT IS A SLA1JI:? ... (cont ' d) And he your se lf a slave! ,JOSEPH SEAHAN COTT:CR ANSWE R TO DWTBAR I S "A:7':r':J:::!1 A VIS IT 11 S o , yon be ' n t o o 1 e Ke n tu c k:r , An ' you want to g o ag ' in? Well, Kentucky ' ll doff her kerchief An ' politcl! ask you i n . An ' she 1 ll loosen fro m her g irdle Key s that fit t~e othe r c uph oar~s Of her hospitality. Not th at she ' s incllned tD t old ba ck With th e good , and g i ve the worst; But, you know, in all fair dealin 1 'W hat ' s first must he tbe first. So , when s1':i c t akes ke~r the se co nd An ' gives it a twist or two , Ofa~rl)e I ousht not say it) It ' l l 1,1ost ni gh startle :rou. �JOSE PH SEAHAN COTTr,R ANSW.JR .. TO DTHIBAJ. 11 S 11 APTF.n A VIS I T II ( cont I cJ) An ' tlrnn ke:rs t1,e tl1ird a :1d fourth , sir , (Hot to spea. 1-: of a l l tl-Je rest ) Wouldn ' t stop at crncJ.dri' , ntto ns , 1 And your happiness wou ld find , sir, A momentum then and t~ere , 'T.11,at rnt1.lc1 c o.rr:r 1 j t a-sueer,in ' Througb tlrn stro;11}1olc1 cf despair . Now, the gripp i n ' o ' t he ~and, sir , . .'\.n 1 the 1.1 el c o111e that :,.ou say Wa s so f irm and tru e an ' all that En s a ~: i.nd o ' curious ua:r . At the f i r c t it ' s s orter slow like , Ti 11 :i. t f orrn.s a leagne wi t11 :rot1 , Then i. t rnalrns a kind of circuit Tbat But jest thr:i.11s :,ron tl,.,ro ' and thro 1 • 7a~1 8 I had bettor Not d i s c uss this a f ter ma th , For it mig½t stir up your fe e l i ngs To th e ri c;h teous point of wratl1 , As you 1)rood o ' er wbat :rou lost , sir, �,JCSEPH SEAI'1AN COTTER ANStn::::R TO DUNBAR 1 S "AFTER A VISIT" (co nt ' d ) B:r not s tayin I wi tl1 ns longer . Ah, we ll, come to see us often, Ole Ken t ucky 1 11 make you str onger. So, :rou be 1 n to ole Kentucl¼.r , An t you want to go ac 1 i n ? Nell , Kentucky 's □ tandin ' wa iti n 1 ,Test to take yon 1-1h oll:r i_n , An 1 s1- 1 0 1 11 loosen her vast ; lrclle So that you can fully see All the roots, frults, leaves an 1 br anches JAHES EDWIN CANPB:2:LL DE CUNJAB ?IAN 0 cl.., i llcn ru n , de Cunjah n:an, Hi m nio uf ez 1,eec; o z fr:ri :1 ' pnn , P.ha :rur s a r.1 s mall , 11 i. L1 eye s a n1 rai d , Hi m 11a:) 110 toof een 11im ol ' ha id, H:i.m 11a'I-) ,~i r-1 roots , 'r\ L n 1:n ' k b lm trick, TTi 8 roll hin eye, him Llok yon si c k-- Do Cun:an man , de Cun,jah man , O c'!.1:i"2..le n ru n , de Cnn .~a11 r::,an ! �D"C CUN.TAT-I ~T.l'-;. }T (cont'd) Him hid it un ' de kitc~en sta 'r Mam ,Jude huh !)2,rs urlon g dat way, An ' now hu1.1 hah nr sna i k , de s ay. Hi rn -wrop ur roun ' '!,uh riudd:r t i gh t, Fu11 e:res p op out , ur orful s i g~ t-- De Cunjal-, r.1an , de C1 :ija1" Him r~ut nr root tir. ' "L i j2_lo f s ::an, 1 ~aicl, An ' Him stamp him foot urpon de groun'; De snaiks come cra:wlin', one by one, Me h y uh um hiss, me break an' run. �JAMES EDWIN CAMPBELL DE CUNJAH MA.N (cont'd) De Cunjah man, de Cunjah man, O chillen run, de Cunjah man! W.E.B. DU BOIS THE SONG OF THE SMOKE I am the smoke king, I am black. I am swinging in the sky. I am ringing worlds on high: I am the thought of the throbbing mills, I am the soul toil kills, I am the ripple of trading rills, Up I'm curling from the sod, I am whirling home to God. I am the smoke king, I am black. I am the smoke king, I am black. I am wreathing broken hearts, I am sheathing devils' darts; Dark inspiration of iron times, 252 �• .E.D. DU BOIS THE SONG OF THE SMOKE Wedding the toil of toiling climes Shedding tre blood of bloodless crimes. Down I lower in the blue, Up I tower toward the true, I am the smoke king, I am black. I am the smoke king, I am black. I am darkening with song, I am hearkening to wrong; I will be black as blackness can, The blacker the mantle the mightier the man, My purpl' ing midnights no day dawn may ban. I am carving God in night, I am painting hell in white. I am the smoke king, I am black. I am the smoke king, I am black. I am cursing ruddy morn, 253 �'11 .E.B. DU BOIS THE SONG OF THE SMOKE (cont'd) I am nursing hearts unborn; Souls, unto me are as mists in the night, I whiten my blackmen, I beckon my white, What's the hue of a hide to a man in his ~1ght1 Sweet Christ, pity toiling lands! Hail to the smoke k_ing , Hail to the black! PAUL LAWRENCE DUNBAR SYMPATHY I know what the caged bird feels, alas! When the sun is bright on the upland slopes; When the wind stirs soft through the springi~g grass, And the rivers flows like a stream of glass; When the first bird sings and the first bud opens. And the faint perfume from its chalice stealsI know what the caged bird feels! I know why the caged bird beats his wing Till its blood is red on the cruel bars; For he must fly back to his perch and cling When he fain would be on the bough a-swing; 254 �PAUL LAWRENCE DUNBAR SYMPATHY (cont'd} And a pain still throbs in the old, old scars And they pulse again with a keener stingI know why he beats his wing! I know why the caged bird sings, ah me, When his wing is bruised and his bosom sore,When he beats his bars and he would be free; It is not a carol of joy or glee, But a prayer that he sends from his heart's deep core, But a plea, that upward to Heaven he flingsI know why the caged bird sings! A NEGRO LOVE SONG Seen my lady home las' night, Jump back, honey, jump back. Hel' huh ban' an' sque'z it ti ght, Jump back, honey, jump back. Hyeahd huh sigh a little sigh. Seen a light gleam f 'om huh eye, An' a smile go flittin' byJump back, honey, jump back. 255 �PAUL LAWRENCE DUNBAR A NEGRO LOVE SONG (cont'd) Heyabd de win' blow thoo de pine, Jump back, honey, jump back. Mockin'-bird was singin' fine, Jump back, honey, jump back. An' my hea't was beatin' so, When I reached my lady's do', Dat I couldn't ba' to goJump back, honey, jump back. Put my ahm aroun• huh wais', Jump back, honey, jump back. Raised huh lips an' took a tase, Jump back, honey, jump back. Love, honey, love true? Love me well ez I love you? An' she a.nswe 'd, "cos e I do"Jump back, honey, jump back. 256 �mIAPTER V A LONG WAYS FROM HOME Sometimes I feel like a motberless cbild, A long ways from bome; A long ways from home. --Afro-American Spiritual I OVERVIEW Tbo di 3rnpt i on of ch r o ncl o~r Hi.11 1--,c :no:,·,e. e vide n t chapter than in preceding ones. l n tr is This is so because poets of the same age do not always achieve recognition at the same time. We have looked at James Weldon Johnson, for example, but we mention him again in this chapter. In fact--for reasons to be shown--Johnson overshadows almost the whole of Black poetry. Melvin B. Tolson, born before Hughes and Cullen, will be viewed after them in the so-called post-renaissance period. Since the primary aim of this study is to "cite" the most significant names and events in the development of Black poetry, our approach to this ch~pter will follow the others in that criticism will remain minimal. From this point on, Black poets--and Black artists of all sorts-- begin being viewed alongside all other writers of the world. Appraisals of Black poetry, then, become a bit more dii'ficult since up until the second decade of the 20th 257 �!- ' century, the Black poet was seen as somewhat of a novelty. He was a subject for "curious" whites or of a few dedicated Black historians and critics. The Black writers, until the 1960's, had very little armament with which to fight critical or literary "lynchings." Their models were essentially white (some con- temporary Black poets continue this practice) and so were their critics. In the 1920's they became one of many "exotic" escape routes used by bored and thrill-seeking whites who w~nted to "engage their new Freudian awareness and forget the horrors of the war." In the post-Renaissance their skills were often directed towards integration and various other social programs. Their approaches were often scientific and fact-finding. The most incisive and continual blow to the Black poet is a disrespect and rejection that parallel the general treatment of Blacks. Criticism of Black poetry is invariably political and racial in concern--just as most of the poetry is forced to be. Some poets lament this because it implies that protest and anger are reserved for them. It also says that the whole • range of human behavior is somehow placed off-limits to the Afro-American poet, criticized by whites for not being "universaln and by some Blacks for not being "Blackn enough. Needless to say, it is a dilemma of some magnitude and no amount of words or lamentations will answer or solve it here. We do comment on these matters, though, because they begin to appear as serious--unavoidable--plagues to the Black poet from this period on in our study. 258 �In this chapter we will go up to 1960. Many poets (Mari Evans, Lance Jeffers, James Emanuel, Ray Durem, Dudley Randall, Zack Gilbert, Bob Kaufman, Russell Atkins, Frank Horne, and others) were publishing in periodicals before poets who had been publishing books during the years before 1960 (Hayden, Gwendolyn Brooks, Conrad Kent Rivers, Hughes, and others) brought out new works sometimes reflecting different themes and attitudes. Poets who had been publishing substantially in periodicals or anthologiei before 1960 will be noted in pa.sing. There will be no attempt to give individual attention to the scores of Black poets writing and publishing in the 1960•s and '70's. II Literary and Social Landscape Night is a curious child, wandering •••• --Frank J\18.rshall Davis A. To 1930: In 1910 the population of Black America was 9,827,763; Langston Hughes was a boy of ten and the NAACP was one year old. By 1930, however, the Black population would have increased to 11,891,143 (or 9-7~); a major migration of Blacks to northern industrial centers would have taken place; racial riots would have scorched more than half a dozen American cities; the country would have engaged in and ended its first national war, 259 �and lynchings would continue to be among the most fearful prospects for Black men. Booker T. Washington had chronicled the hardships and bitter disappointments of Blacks in his Up From Slavery. The new "freedom" was short lived and illusive, Washington observed, because the ex-slave had no skill, no land and no place to go. "Emancipated II Blacks were not faring much better than their fore-parents. DuBois had begun to raise some of the broader, global issues of Black oppression and place the Black Experience in its proper perspective in The Souls of Black Folks. Durinc; the second and third decades of the 20th century, Black scholars, activists and writers continued to record tbe Black Experience with telling accuracy and drama. Addi tiona.lly, a number of chane;es and de~relopments in Black cor1muni ties Sf,t off a chn.in reaction of cross-examinations, intense debates, calls for c":an c;es and V1e ch arting of r.iew directions. Accordingly, the student ~ust understand the mod of the times in terms of: L The decline of Dunbar's influence amonc poets. 2. Failing support of Booker T. Washington's "accomadationist" philosopb:,r. 3. The continued disillusiomIBnt of survivors and heirs of tbe 4. 11 Reconstruction. 11 The development of white bate and intimidation groups (Ku Klux Klan, etc.) 260 �5. The continued presentation of "stereotypes" of Blacks in the mass media and creative literature of the period. 6. The "Jim Crow" laws of the south; job discrimination and general segre gation in the north. 7. The splits and confusion in the Black community due to the "new" middle-class; the appearance of West Indians in America and class alienment according to color stratification (i.e., lightskin, dark-skin, near-white, etc.). Much of the literature of the period deals with the theme of passing or miscegenation. 8. Race riots in various parts of the country between 1905 and 1917. On the general American scene, science and industry were developing rapidly. Indications of this were the radio, wireless, technological warfare and the automobile. The "new Psychology" was taking bold and tbe realism of the previous literature was bowing out to naturalism. This new mode is seen in the works of such writers as Theodore Drieser, Evelyn Scott and William Faul:kner. Interest in local color and dialect, which had dominated the later portion of the 19th century, was also dying and the Black American was "re-discovered" by white writers as a subject f'or r .e alistic fiction, drama and poetry. White writers who published popular accounts of Black life included DeBose Hayward, Sherwood 261 �Anderson and Carl Van Vechten. characterized American society. Revolts in interests and manners Black critic James A. Emanuel points out (Nesro Dlg0st/Black World, Aug., 1969) that during the 20's, many whites went to Harlem to 11 .forget the war and engage their new Freudian awareness by escaping into exotic black cabaret li.fe." l Hughes records this exotic indulgence in his autobiography, The Big Sea (1940). Numerous other Black writers recorded these white "diversions": McKay in A Lop_g Way .from Home and Johnson in Along This Way (autobiographies). Johnson also notes it in his novel The Autobioeraphy of An F..x-Coloured Man. Drame of the period was dominated by Eugene O'neill who won Pulitzer and Nobel prizes. Two of O'neill's plays (The Emperor Jones and The Hairy Ape} symbolically dealt with the psychological involvement of Blacks and whites and suggested a transracial mixture of fear, hatred and admiration. The Emperor Jones and All God's Chillun Got Wings .featured major Black characters. Before O'neill, America had not pro- duced a first-rate dramatist. Ironically, _though, ,one of the vehicles .for O'neill's theones was a Black actor, Charles Gilpin, who starred in The Emperor Jones. Th e reviews and general interests in Gilpin' s per.formances ( "naked body ••• dark lyric of the flesh") atain typi.fied preoccupation with the exotic savage--a trend that had continued from Jack London (The Call of the Wild, The Sea-Wol.f) and the white writers of local color: Page, Harris, Cable and others. However, many of the writers, like O'neill and Dreiser, had begun to shake 262 �off the mystique of tbe American Dream and deal instead with "illusion." Such was Dreiser's theme in bis novel, An American Tragedy ( 1925). The founding of Poetry: A Mae;azine of Verse, by Harriet Monroe (1912) signaled the birth of the New Poetry movement in America. Most of the new work, including that of the Imagist poets, was showcased in Poetry. In 1915, the anthology, Some Imagist Poets, appeared to rival dissident factions which wanted to dispense with traditional forms. Ima.gism was in- fluenced by Ezra Pound's theories and French Symbolism as well as Oriental and ancient Greek poetry. Chief spokesman for the Imagist poets was Amy Lowell who was joined by John Gould Fletcher and Hilda Doolittle, among others. During the next two decades the group waged a successful battle against the dissidents; but they also re-worked traditional forms and cornered a new reading market for poetry in America and England. Poet Vachael Lindsay, an advocate of using rhythm and the reading aloud of poetry, is credited with baving "discovered" Langston Hughes. Black poets who participated in this "revival" of American poetry were the innovator Fenton Johnson and the anthologist William Stanley Braithwaite. The most significant development of the period, however, was the Black cultural flowering, principally in Harlem, which has become known as the Harlem Renaissance, the Negro Awakening and the Negro Renaissance. Central to the "renaissance" (critics differ over whether it should be called such) was the 263 �migration of' soutbern Blacks to northern urban centers. With the working-class Blacks also came (and grew) the Black intelligentsia, artists and activists. Current Black creativity or scholarship cannot be understood unless the Harlem Renaissance is placed in proper perspective because the Harlem period is the most important bridge existing between slavery and the modern and/or contemporary eras. Hence, it is necessary that we sketch out the important political and artistic developments which led up to (or happened during ) the Renaissance. A partial listing of' these developments must include: 1. Founding of' the Boston Guardian by Monroe Trotter (1901). 2. Founding of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (1909) and establishment of The Crisis. 3. Founding of the Urban League (1911). 4. Founding of the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History 5. by Carter G. Woodson (1915). Establishment of The .Journal of Ne gro History by Woodson ( 1916) • 6. Black troops involvement in World War I. 7. Great Migration of Blacks to northern urban centers (1916-1919; but the trend continued through the middle of the century). 8. The recording of Black achievements in all areas; Black scholarship is brilliant and sustained 264 �throughout the entire period. 9. The writings, especially, of W.E.B. DuBois, Charles s. Johnson, Alain Locke and James Weldon Johnson. 10. The high point in the influence of Marcus Garvey's Universal Negro Improvement Association (Garvey, who came to the U.S. from Jamaica in 1916, preached a back-to-Africa movement. He was imprisoned in 1925 for mail fraud.) 11. Founding of Opportunity, A Journal of Negro Life (1923; Opportunity and The Crisis published much of the new work of the Renaissance poets and prose writers and offered annual prizes). 12. The flourishing of Black Music and musical dramas (Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake do Shuffle Along, I •i .,. 1921; Louis Armstrong, with his own band, opens I at the Sunset Club, Ch icago, 1927; Duke Ellington opens at the Cotton Club, Harlem, the same year). 13. The post-war Pan-African Congresses (Paris, 1919; London, 1921, 1923; New York, 1927; DuBois wa,13 primary organizer.) James Weldon Johnson edited the first ..., anthology of Black poetry, The Book of American Negro Poetry 1rf ,. , 1922. Johnson's work was followed in quick succession by five other poetry anthologies: Negro Poets and Their Poems (Robert Thomas Kerlin, 1923) 265 �..., An Anthology of American Ne gro Verse (Newman Ivey White and Walter Clinton Jackson, 1924) An Anthology (Clement Wood, 1924) Negro Songs: Caroling Dusk (Countee Cullen, 1927) Four Negro Poets (Alaine Locke, 1927) Of' note also was F.F. Calverton's An Anthology of American Negro Literature (1929) which contained 60 pages of poetry. Cn l l e n J.110 L oc ke u crG t wo of t 1-rn ;,: a5or f:! ~·ur e s of t 'he Farl e m Jean Toomer. Locke edited the anthology which heralded and chronicled the new Black mood and achievements: The New Negro: An Interpretation (1925), :-:l1 5. c 1 ' r emains a classic today. He also wrote the equally important A Decade or Ne gro Self Expression (1928). A Rhodes Scholar from Pennsylvania, Locke received a Ph.D. in 1918 from Harvard and is still considered as the foremost interpreter of Black creativity of the Renaissance. Cullen published Color, his first book of poetry, when he was 22 and instantly reco gnized as one of the b est young poe~s in America. Like Claude Nclfo~r, Cullen urote in t h e n ore formal tra.di tion of English poetry. Considered t h e be s t "formal" writer of the Renaissance period, Cullen was meticulous and careful in his poetic workmansh ip. 20 's who went to 11 IIe was a mons t h os e Black writers of tbe S:'he De.rk Tower'' to 1Trood over be in c; called "Negron !:)oets. In addition to Cul l en, other key poets of t h e Harle~Awakening also published i mportant v olu~e s or antholoGies and 266 �added to the creative and critical flutter. Joh nson and his brother, J. Rosamond, edited The Book of American Negro Spirituals (1925) and The Second Book of American Negro Spirituals ( 1926). America. JlticKa~r published poetry in England and Johnson said lfoKa.y belonged "to the post-war group and was its most powerful voice. poet of rebellion. n He was pre-eminently the Hughes and Cullen won national (and poetry awards) at about the same time. the comparison ends. There, however, Hughes was one of the widest traveled of all the renaissance writers. He was also the most prodig1oua and multi-talented, writint; successfully in all genres. Hughes. who when he died in 1967 was the widest translated American author, is known as the international poet laureate o.f Black people. Johnson recorded much of this creative outpouring in various ways. As a scholar, he is known for his anthologies and his seminal interpretations of Black cul ture--music and the Spirituals in particular. Of great importnnc~ was his 1922 anthology- wherein an illuminating Preface, he cited the four major Black artistic contributions to America: l. The Uncle Remus stories, collected by Joel Chandler Harris. 2. The Spirituals ("to which the Fisk Jubilee Singers made the public and the musicians of both the United States and Euroep listen 11 ) . 3. The Cakewalk (a dance which Paris called the "poetry of motion"). �4. The Ragtime ( 11 American music II for which the U.S. is known all over the world). Johnson is also noted for his work with the U.S. diplomatic corps, his pioneering work with the NAACP and his brilliant employement of Black idioms and psycholog,J in his poetry and discussions. "Lift Every Voice and Sing, 11 called the Black national anthem, was written by him in 1900. One of the most unique voices of the Harlem Repaissa.nce, however, was Jean Toomer, who along with HU[shes, Cullen and McKay make up Lock's Four Negro Poets. A complex of person- alities, talents and racial mixtures, Toomer was a constant enigma to critics and fellow writers. Although he admitted that he was of seven racial strands, he acknowledged that 11 my growing need for artistic expression has pulled me deeper and deeper into the Negro group. was published. 11 In 1924, Toomer's Cane Set primarily in the deep south--in Georgia-- it also deals with the urban impact on migratine; Blacks. Love, racial conflict, sex, violence, relie;ion, nature ~nd agrarian themes are all explored directly and allegorically. Race pride, the lower side of Black life, and a romantic engagement with Africa were the main thrusts of the renaissance literature. activists. So too with the painters, musicians, scholars and Garvey had set up a reeal court reminiscent of ancient Af'rican Kine;doms and had infused his followers with visions of returning to the 11 homeland. 11 His "court" was resplendent with hierarchical titles and lavish regalia for 268 �I for parades. ships. Black Star Line was t h e name of l1is fleet of The prevailing spirit of the day was one of Black indulgence and many whites sought for, and · got their share of, it. The Black Awakening was not t h e exclusive property of Harlem. For as Kerlin points out ( Preface, Negro Poe_!;a a Their Poems), the mood of change spread to other sections ot the country. Some of the re g ional or community anthologies published were: The Q.uil~ in Boston, Black Opals in · Phila- delphia and The Stylus in Washington, D.C. Important, too, were the collections and studies of folk songs. "Noteworthy. collections for tre period included: Negro Folk Rhymes (Thomas W. Talley, 1922) Tbe Ne gro and His S onc;s (Howard W. Odum, 1 925) Ne gro Workaday Song s (Howard W. Odum, 1926) Rainbow Round My Sh oulder (Howard w. Odum, 1928) Wings on Hy Feet (Howard W. Odum, 1929) American Ne gro Folk Songs (Newman Ivey Wh ite, 1929) Other brilliant and exciting poets and writers shared the Renaissance scene--though they are normally over-shadowed by Hughes, Toomer, McKay , Joh nson and Cullen. Some of these writers--most of wh om did not publish volumes until the later period--were: Arna Bontemps, Geor g ia Doug las Johnson, Waring Cuney, Robert Hay den, Gwendolyn Bennett, Sterling Brown, Owen Dodson and Melvin Tolson. Prose writers of the period included Eric Walrond and Rudolph Fisher as well as Hu gh es and Toomer. Bontemps, antholog ist, critic, lib rarian, poet and novelist, 269 , �published in leading magazines of t he period and won numerous awards for poetry . Brown pursued tbe fold tradition wh ile cultivating an ear and technique that rivaled some of the best · modern poetry. His debt to fol k idioms and characters is ob- vious in such po ems as 11 ody s s ey of Bib Bo~r, n "Memphis Blues," and "Long Gone." 11 S outh ern Road," Brown contributed to peri- odicals of the period, wrote a re gulnr column for Opportunity, and later pub lish ed i mportant critical studies. Dodson wrote verse plays and collab orated with Cullen on at least one writing project. and poetry. He too won numerous awards for h is plays Hayden and Tolson, b oth s i e nificant modern poets, were to be heard from in succeeding dec ades as critics and outstanding teach ers. B. 1930 - 1960 1:l ben t h e stoc k mar ket era.sh ed in 1929, white patronization of Blac k artists ended. Blac k creativity and scholarship, · however, bad grown up during the frist t hree decades of the r.t '4 l ,;,. century, and i mportant writing and mus i cal de velopment continued. , i'<;J; • Migration of Blac ks to north ern urb an centers was stepped up before and after World War II--wi t h many Blacks being attracted by shipbuilding and oth er war manufacturing industries. Afro- Americans have participated in every U.S. military conflict 1. t \. The wri tj_ nc of :"" oetr~~ c o·1t :t nued but pub lishing slowed down • .James o. was Young, in Blac k Writers of t h e Thirties (1973), notes t h at "Black writers produced less t h an one 270 �since Colonial days. During World War II and Korea, however, they were used almost exclusively a.s f'ighting troops (between 1943-45 Jim Crow as abolished in the Armed Forces). Nevertheless, Black soldiers, returning home fro m European and Pacific war theaters, still faced unemployment and lynching; and in some southern cities were f'orbidden to appear on the streets in military uniforms. Baldwin is one of many perceptive American writers to note that Black men, seeking the f'ruits aqd the realization of the American Dream, tried throughout history to adjust a.nd "fit" into American society. So, in face of official American contempt for his humanity and his welfare, the Black soldier marched also with an "equality" of' death into the Korean War. 2 James Weldon Johnson had opened the dismal period of the Depression with Black Manhattan, a social history of Harlem. Black Manhattan was one of the dozens of' studies on urban Black communities which had been begun by works such as DuBois' Philadelphia Negro: A Social Study (1899). Like .Johnson, many of the poets and artists turned their writing skills toward the recording of Black social problems and artistic achievements (e.g., Johnson's Black Americans, What Now? and Charles S. Johnson's The Shadow of the Plantation, bot'!:1 in 1934). Some volume of poetry per year hetween 1929 and 1942." 2. This turned out to be not so true in the Viet Nam war of the sixties when a dead Black veteran was refused burial in a white cemetary near his home in Georgia. 271 �o:f the writers were subsidized by WPA grants wbile others managed to obtain jobs as teachers and journalists. like the common folk, walked the soup lines. Others, It was during the period of 1930-60 that white schools o:f higher learning started accepting more Blacks, as students and teachers. Generally, America witnessed rapid advancements • in science and industry. Radio drama became a cultural mainstay and the motion picture industry provided a new and exciting diversion. Baseball continued as tbe 11 national pasttime" {for Blacks, it was the era of Jackie Robinson). Jack Johnson had already {in tbe previous era) dazzled America with his pugilistic skills. {the But it was the prize fighter Joe Louis 11 Brown Bomber"), however, who captured sports-minded America with one of the greatest records in the boxing history. Louis's defeat of German Hax Schmeling (193 8 ) came at a crucial time in U.S. history--when America's rising might among the world of nations wo.s being challenr-;e d on the battlefield by Hitler. Two yes.rs earlier, a racist Hitler had refused to acknowledge the feats of America's Black Olympic track star Jessee Owens. In prose and drama, white American writers continued to straddle a thematic pathbetween realism and the American Dream. A distinctl~r 11 post-wa.r II sroup of writers emerged. Domina.ting the period were Dreiser, Sberwood Anderson, Sinclair Lewis, Willa Cath er, Thomas Wolfe, 0'ncill, William Faulkner, Ernest Hc nin gway, Tennessee Williams, Jo11n Dos Po.ssos, Katherine Anne Porter, Erskine Caldwell and Co.rson HcCullers. 272 Using �syniliolism and alle gory to attack war, de cadence and the atomic bomh, A.merican wr5_t or s o.ftc n took as n:od. e ls such Russ inn writers as Chekov , Dostoevski and Tolstoi, r:tr e ::-,:;1 ;__,f Me ny employed t h e co n::::c: -..J P ;--·c :-:::i t e cbnique --a st:;"!. e i n.fluenced 1):r t be "new psycholo s··y 11 a nd Irj_sh writer James Jo:rce--wh ich al lowed for uninterrupted explorations on t h e t li on 0b ts of characters who "streamed II their referG nces. A si rnila.r r.:iood pre vailed in the poetry--much of wh icb dealt witll s ocial dect\dence, war a.nd the mechanization of uan. E .E. Cumminc;s, known for h is typo- graphical trickery and general linguistic a.nd s y ntactical experiments, was one of t h e most relentless critics of bureaucracy and war. Such t h emes h ad nlso concerned T.S. Eliot, considered one of the greatest modern poets, in such poems as "The Love Song of J. Alfred Pro.frock II a.nd Th e Waste Land. The Ima.gist poets persued t h eir development via such voices as "H.D., 11 Ezra Pound and Harianne Moore. Oth er modern poets were Conrad Aiken, William Carlos Williams, Wallace Stevens, .A rchibald HcLeish, Hart Crane, Joh n Crowe Ransom, Allan Tate, Richard Eberhart, Randall Jarrell, Rob ert Frost and Carl Sandburg. Crane, Eliot, Pound, W. H. Auden and Stevens h ave been called the amjor voices of t he modern American Poetry . Historically, Black Music had been marked by white imitation and exploitation. 11 Th ere always exists the need to create a wbite" musical face t hat can be di gested by Americans at large. From the minstrelsy of plantation day s to t h e sophisticated operettas and musicals of th e twenties, t h is pattern ran un- 273 �i broken. During the modern period, Be Bop became the musical heir to Ragtime, early Jazz and Tin Pan Alley. ·w11ile tbe big band and Black composers--Basie, Ellington, Fletcher Henderson, w.c. Handy, Eubie Blake, Noble Sissle, etc.--continued their important work, different kinds of experiments were going on among other musicians. From these new for mations and probings came some of' the giants of modern Black Music: Miles Davis, Charlie ''Yard Bird II Parker, Lester "Prez'.' Young , Sonny Rollins, Gene Ammons, Art Blakey (wh o studied drums in Africa), Ornette Coleman {see Four Lives in t h e Be Bob Business), Chane Pozo {Af'ro-Cuban), Dizzy Gillespie and Bab s Gonzales (Bop poet and singer: I Paid My Dues, 1967). From t h e musicians and their supporters emerged an underc;round 11 h ip" language. This tradition, of' talking in metaph ors and encoded cultural neologisms, had be gun during t he renais s ance. vocalists were featured with t h e musicians. Often, too, Black Some of these song stylists were Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaugh n, Billie Holliday and Bessie Smitb --wh o died in 1937. The migration to cities also sa~ the continued rise of urban or bi g city Blues. By 1960, h owever, t h e Blues h ad gone t hrou gh several important periods of de velopment. Some names associated with the modern period were Louis Armstrong , Fats Waller, Cab Calloway, Bill Broonzy, Pops Foster, Eddie "Son" House, Robert Johnson, Johnny Temple, Roosevelt Sykes, Elmo James, B.B. King, Leadbelly, Jimmy Reed, Muddy Waters, Josh Wh ite, Sonny Boy Williams, Howlin' Wolf, Joh n Lee Hooker, Li gthnin' Hopkins and Big Joe Turner. These men inh erited t h e flames be gun by 274 �Leroy Carr, Blind Lemon Jefferson and W.C. Handy. Several notable Black literary explosions occured during the period between 1930-60. Important were: the publication of Native Son (Richard Wri ght, 191tO); the publication of For My People (Margaret Walker, 1942); the appearance of Invisible Man (Ralph Ellison, 1952) and the winning of the Pulitzer Prize for poetry (Gwendolyn Brooks, 1950 for Annie Allen}. Nati ve Son , a novel, featured a Black protagonist named Bigger Thomas who symoblized (and in many ways contained) the anger, ra ge ind pressures felt b y urban Blacks. Th e b ook was the first by a Black author to make t h e best seller list and was also a book of the month club choice. DurinG t h e same period Wright, who died an expatriate in France in 1960, published several other novels, short stories, books of essays and miscellaneous prose. appeared. In 1945 Black Boy, his autob iography Wri ght is si gnificant for many reasons, fore most among them being t hat he was the first Black writer to deal, ' accurately and on par with the be s t fiction writers of the ~ day, with the philosophical and psy ch ological complexity of the Black urbanite. In doing t h is, h e opened a new ran ge of possibilities and ehlped free Blac k fiction in many ways. There were other excellent fiction writers durin g this period: Rudolph Fisher, 7ora Neale Hurston, Claude McKay, Hu ghes, Arna Bontemps, Ann Petry, DuBois, Frank Yerby , Eric Walrond, Chester Himes and Sterling Brown. Wri gb t, h o·wever, was the first to for ge and sustain a major Black art piece out of mythical and racial materials in a. wsy that no other writer bad. 275 �Baldwin, whose reigh succeeded Wright's, made his entry in 1953 with the publication of Go Tell It On the Mountain. His other brilliant work includes Notes of a Native Son (1955) and Giovanni's Room (1956). Miss Walker, a Mississippi housewife who teaches literature at Jackson State College, was 22 years old when she wrote "For My People"--one of the most famous Black poems. Her book by the same name won the Yale Series of Younger Poets- award in 1942. Rich in cultural folk references, Black phonology and social history, the slim book brilliantly traces the hope, humor, pathos, rage, stamina and iron dignity of the race. The winning of the Pulitzer Prize by Gwendolyn Brooks (and Ellison's accolades) told the world that Black writers bad mastered the "ultimate" English literary crafts of poetry and fiction to a degree which no longer called their abilities into question. Many Black critics feel, however, that there were excellent volumes, before Annie Allen, which should have received the Pulitzer Prize. These critics say Black artists, like the Black Experience, come periodically into fashion (e.g., Harlem Renaissance)--to be tolerated at the whims of white literary bastions, despite their proven abilities. The citation of Miss Brooks (who published A Street in Bronzeville, 1945) was a citation of the Black Experience, however--despite the fact that the prize was not a major announcement in the Black community. Blacks, caught up in the post-war mood, job- searching and a quest for social equality, were not reading 276 �much poetry. Ellison, who bas not published a novel since Invisible Man (1952) remains one of t h e most controversial figures in American Literature; much of the controversy arising from what he says outside of fiction (see Introduction). Communist-oriented papers generally condemned Invisible Man when it first appeared. They held t hat it was a "dirt throwing" ritual for Ellison--who comb ines naturalism and complex symbolism in the book. Black novelist John Oli ver Killens also gave it a ne gative re v iew. Generally , h owever, t he work is considered, by Blac k and wh ite critics, to b e a great novel-perhaps the greatest American novel. It won t h e National Book Award in 1952 and in a subsequent poll of 200 journalists and critics, it was judged the most distin guis h ed single work of fiction since World War II. Enflamed by t he sp i rit and example of t h e Harlem Renaissance, Black poets of the pre- and post-war y ears continued exciting experiments. Miss Brooks r e calls t b at a brief encouragement from the "great 11 James Weldon Joh nso n wh en s h e was · a ch ild spurred her on her way . Some of t he poets of t h e renaissance, however, quit writing alto i:;eth er or be gan writing in anoth er genres. J ollns on reported in 1931 t ha t Fenton Johnson h ad been 11 silent 11 for ten years. Poet Bontemps also wrote novels--the most famous of them being Black Thunder (1939), an adaptation of the 1 831 Nat Turner-led slave re v olt. He edited and wrote, and sometimes collab orated wit h oth ers on anth ologies and biographies for youn g readers. 277 With IIue;h es, he edited The �Poetry of The Negro: 1.764-1-949, c nn ~d-t:.e red a break through in modern Black literary activity. One of the handful of Renais- sance Black writers to survive into the Seventies, Bontemps died in 1973. Sone have called the period 1-')etween 1930-54 the age of Lanr,s ton Hughes 5-n Black letters. Indeed, Huc;bes remained prominent and productive t!u•o u 0h out tl1e t!1ree periods-Renaissance, 19J 0-5L~, o:na. the Contempora.ry era. Dur inc; the pre- and post-ws.r periods, Huc;hes continued to turn out everything fro m newspaper fictio n columns (Jesse B. Simple) to juvenilia to plays. Hughes in poetry, like Wri e;ht, Ellison and Baldwin in ½rose, faithfully recorded the Black mood. Like the others, h e also predicted t h e social violence of the sixties. Poets and other volurr..es of the period include: Sterling Brown, Southe~n Road (1932); Cullen, The Medea and Some Poems (1935); Hayden, Heart-Shape in the Dust (1940}; Naomi Long l'-18.dgett, Songs to a Pha1,tom Nightingale (1941}; H. Bings Diamond, We 1rJho Would Die ( 1943); Tolson, Rendezvous With America (1944); Dodson, Powerful Long La.E§e~ , (1946); Cullen, On Tbese I Stand (posthumously, 1947); Hayden, with Myrom 0' Higgins, The Lion and the Archer (1948); Tolson, Libretto for the Republic of Liberia (1953); Selected Poems of Claude McKay (posthumously, 1953); Ariel W. Holloway, Shape Them into Dreams (1955); John C. Morris, Cleopatra and Other Poems (1955); Alfred Q. Jarette, Black Man Speaks (1956}; Beatrice Wright, Color Scheme (1957); 1-fary Miller, Into the Clearing (1959); Percy E. Johnston, Concerto for Girl and 278 �Convertible (1960); Oliver Pitcher, Dust of Silence (1960), Gwendol"'rn Brooks, T:1e Bean Eater (1960 ); and Dodson, Th e --------- ~ Conf es::: ion Stone (1 960 ). -- Also writing and/or translating during this period were Dudley Randall, Samuel Allen (Paul Vesey), Margaret Danner, Richard Wrigbt (who also wrote poetry), and many others. Black and white poets exchanged ideas and socialized, as Black and white intellectuals had done throughout mos·t of the history of America. Many of the Black poets of the period, consequently, were introduced to publishers and the reading public by well-known white poets or critics. Such a practice was to come under fire, during the late 6o•s and 70's, by some Black poets and critics who felt that whites could not judge on Black writing. Reviews of the period were generally favorable to the Black writers who showed great finish in their work. Hayden, Walker, Brooks, Tolson and Dodson were among the poets who received high praise for their technical virtuosity. Stephen Vincent BenJt wrote tbe forward to ·Miss Walker's For My People, Allen Tate to Tolson's Lihretto For the Republic of Liberia and Hayden won Hopwood Awards twice and accolades for Poetry: A Magazine of Verse--regarded as the white American olympus of poetry. One of the most important anthologies of the post-renaissance period was The Negro Caravan, (1941) edited by Brown, Arthur P. Davis and Ulysses Lee. Tbe best inclusive anthology of Black literature, it remains today one of the outstanding textbooks. 279 �Brown also published two important wor ks of criticism, The Negro in American Fiction and Ne gro Poetry and Drama, b oth in 1937. And J. Saunders Reddin g published his critical work, To Make a Poet Black, in 1939. Anotr er item of i mportance was the establishment in 1940 of Phy lon with the venerable W.E.B. DuBois as editor. In 1954, as American soldiers prepared to return from Korea and television glared to consume the world, the Supreme Court decision of May 15 closed the book on one era of Black American history and opened up Pandora's box on another. Wright's Black Power (1954), a commentary on his experiences in Africa's Gold Coast, may have b een more than just a hint at the wh at was to come. Wright would witness some, but not all, of the ingredients of Pandora's box, as b is death would occur in 1960. But when a Black woman in Montgomery refused to c ive her seat on a public but to a white man, a new era of Black struggle was born. A successful boycott of buses was led by Martin Luther King , Jr., founder (in 1957) of the Southern ' Christian Leadership Conference. Like flesh-fla mes, hordes of young Blacks (and some wh ites) be gan sit-ins and various other "in's" as the Freedom cry reached a new pitch . This was the ges- tation period for t he Congress of Racial Equality and the Students Nonviolent Coordinating Committee. White youth took to television and swayed to the rhythms of Chubby Checker, the Chantells and the Five Satins. But as America "twisted the night away" another and different mood, expressed through a 2 80 � 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_05 Title A name given to the resource Copy of Drumvoices: The Mission of Afro-American Poetry: A Critical History, Chapter V. A Long Ways from Home, p. 246-280 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. https://digitallis.isg.siue.edu/files/original/c7aa89703897aac52f662ddfe28d797d.pdf fcba2bfcc30757be082aaf7071d5638b PDF Text Text CHAPTER IV JUBILEES, JUJUS AND ,JUSTICES 1865 - 1910 We have fashioned laughter Out of tears and pain, But the moment after-Pain and tears again. --Charles Bertram Johnson I Overview This "transitional" period is normally viewed by critics as the gestation of pre-revolutionary Black writing. We have seen, however, that some of the most politically-conscious activists., thinkers and poets wrote before the Civil War. Frantz Fanon (1924-1961)., the Hartinique-born psychiatrist., for established three phases the/literature of oppressed peoples: (1) assimilationist, (2) pre-revolutionary and (3) Critics generally agree with Fanon. revolutionary. So., following his reasoning., the period of 1865-1910 (and the previous era) would fall under number one. Number two coincides roughly w1 th the Harlem Ren.a is- sance (1920-1930). number three. And the 1960's (Black Arts era) comes under One should exercise caution, however, in placing categories and labels on any artists--especially ones so diverse and complex as Black poets. For while it is true that there are general trends in the evolution of the poetry, little said 168 �by the so-called "armageddon" writers of the l960•s and 1970's can be anymore "revolutionary" than Walker, \!Jhitfield or Alberry Whitman who favored the murder of Black traitors ("Uncle Toms" and "Topsies") to the cause of freedom. On the other hand, as in the past, some contemporary Black writers avoid politics like the plague (see Introduction). Also the alternatives and options facing Blacks nowadays--resignation, emigration, assimilation, despair, segregation, desecration and so on--have always been there. During the 17th and 18th centuries, Black poets and activists vigorously pursued these choices, sometimes participating (1.fuitfield-Douglass) in fiery debates. A major aim of the preceding chapters was to lay a foundation for the kind of Black poetry that, only recently, has become popular and accessible. Therefore, critical comments and background materials will be less extensive from this point on. Certainly, as Robinson suggests, more careful study of the poets of the Harlem Renaissance is needed. His observation that "Afro-American 'Soul' has never received the elaborate philosophical, poetic, and even political explication that Negritude has" (Nornmo, introduction) is also well taken (although there is some attempt to access "soul" in The Militant Black Writer in Africa and the United States, Cook and He.n derson). Understandable, too is a comment by Sterling Stuckey (Ideological Origins of Black Nationalism) that "Rad a nationalist of antebellum America realized t~e enormous i mp ortance of black �culture ••• that awareness., articulated into theory, would have been as revolutionary a development as calling for a massive slave-uprising." Of course we know, looking back at the last hundred years, that Stuckey's assess me nt does not take in all the facts. Early Black Americans identified with their cul- tural roots more blatantly t h an do even some Blacks of today. But the undermining influences of lynchings and the practice of stereotyping corroded much initial race pride and self-interest. Again we note that chronological boundaries are arbitrary and that we could just as well have studied Hrs. Harper in the 1865-1910 period (since her Sketches of Southern Life was published in 1873 and her Poems ran through several editions until 1874) just as we could have placed Benjamin Clark ( ''What is A Slave?") and James Madison Bell in the last chapter. It is not always easy to determine where a poet who writes early or late in life fits in the chronology; but if pursuit of the poetry becomes a labor of love, boundarles and categories cease to exist. II Forgive thine erring people, Lord, Who lynch at home and love abroad Charles R. Dinkins Literary and Social Landscape Between 1865 and 1961 America played out a drarne of contradictions, swelling and receding expectations, continued progress and experimentation in science and the arts, and 170 �----- -~------- ---------. . . . ..... important beginnings. It 1-ms a period of painful adjustment that has continued to echo throughout the history of the country. On the white literary scene Whitman (the "American poet"), I-1.ark Twain, Hilliam Dean Howells, ..Tames Russell Lowell, Henry ..Tames, Stephen Crane, ..Tack London, Emily Dickinson, J"oel Chaldler Harris and Irwim Russel were the writers of importance. Harris gained popularity for h imself and Black folklore when he published the Uncle Remus tales in 1879. Although .roman- ticism and local color dominated the last two decades of the 19th century, both began to fade with the approach of the new century--whose early years saw experimentation, especially in verse, and the beginnings of naturalistic writings. On the political and economic fronts the efforts at solidifying gains, and retrieving losses, were stepped up among Blacks. The NAACP was founded in 1909; but major vehicles for protest and change were those used during tbe earlier years: the church, self-help societies, free schools, scholarly research and writing on the Blacks, and debates over courses and choices. Important new names in literature, art, science and politics came to the forefront. However, many of the writers, activists and educators from the previous period continued their various programs. Of the new arrivals, several should be noted: Booker T. Washington (Up From Slavery, 1900), W.E.B. DuBois (The Suppression of the African Slave Trade, 1896; The Philadelphia Negro, 1099; The Souls of Black Folk, 1903), Charles Chestnutt (1vri ter of fiction), Dunbar, ..Tames Weldon Johnson, 171 �Fenton ,Tohnson, .Tar.1eo D. Corrothers, William Grant Still (The Underground Railroad, 1072), Alcxamder Crummell (founder of American Negro Acade my), Alb e rry Wlii tma.n, Benjamin Brawley (The Negro in Literatu re and Art i n the United S tates, 1910), Kelley Hiller (::.1 ac e Adjustr,10 ~1t, 1909 ), ~-J illiam Stanley Braithwaite and Alice Dunbar-1'Te lson (Viole t s and other Tales, 1895). Black America witnessed a major step in t·h e developn ent of its stage productions (rilan~r d es i gned to de s tr c::r "st ereotypes II fostered by white minstre l s and dial e ct ~-r rit ers) 1-1itb Bob Cole's A Trip to Coont01-m , the first musical produced a nd managed by Blacks. Will :Harion Cook and Dunbar followed with Clorindy in 1898; and Cole return0d t his time u i th James 1,feldon ,Tohnson, to write and play in Red Noon. Th e ma t uration of essays, journalism and autobiography also continued. E lizabeth Keckley, friend to presidents and statesmen, 1-rrote Behind the S cenes in 1868; Douglass founded the NeH national Era (1 869-1 872) and published his Life and Times in 1881. S outher n 1 ,Jorkmen was established at Hampton Institute in 1872. T. Thomas Fortune founded The ' Rumor in 1879 and edited the Nei-r York Age in 1887. year The Washington Bee came i nto being . In the same Others included Penn's The Afro-American Press (1891), John H. Isrurphy's Baltimo1•e A.fro-American ( 1892), The Chicago Def ender ( 1900) and Monroe Trotter's Boston Guardian (1901). Important Black literary names for the period included some new as well as ones from the prev ious era: Booker T. Washington, Dunbar, DuBoi s , Ch arles Chestnutt, James Weldon Johnson, Fenton Johnson, James D. Corrothers, Alexander 172 �Crumwell, Alberry Whitman, Benjamin Bra-wley, William Stanley Braithwaite, and Alain Locke. Of the names listed above, Dunbar, Whitman, Fenton Johnson, Corrothers and Braithwaite, are the poets of interests during this period. James Weldon Johnson wrote "Lift Every Voice and Sing" in 1900 but is usually identif'ied with the Harlem Renaissance writers. And Locke, intellectual and scholar, was one of' the important chroniclers and interpreters of the era·. DuBois., sociologist and editor, is chiefly known as a poet f'or his "Song of' the Smoke" and "Litany at Atlanta," written af'ter the 1906 race riot. f'iction. Chestnutt was the first i mportant Black writer of Both he and Dunbar were endorsed by Howells, who presided as A sort of A czar over American literary criticism during the last quarter of the 19th century. Howells also helped launcd the careers of Henry James (sometimes called America's greatest novelist) and Walt 'Whitman. Generally, with the exception of Braithwaite, Fenton Johnson, Alberry Whitman and a few others, Black poets followed the, dialect tradition of the day. Robinson (Early Black American Poets) notes that The vogue was established among white southern writers (who failed to appreciate their own amusing dialects) with Irwin Russell (1853- 79) whose popular pieces were collected and published posthumously as Poems by Irwin Russell (1888) with a loving preface by Joel 173 �Chandler Harris, also popular for his Uncle Remus and Brer Rabbit prose tales in Negro dialect. The major Black dialect poets are Dunhar, Daniel Webster Davis, James Edwin Campbell, Elliot B. Henderson and J. Mord Allen; although James Weldon Johnson wrote some poetry in that idiom. In the dialect mode, Dunbar surpassed all writers--Black and white, including Russell after whom he patterned his -efforts. His ability to empathize rather than simply "report" on parody., along with his "perfect" oar for Black speech, make him more authentic. Dunbar also 11rote to be remer.1bered. However (ironically), it was his dialect poetry ("a jingle in a broken tongue") that gained him notoriety. The biggest contradiction of the era was that "Reconstruction" occurr ed in name only. The growth of white hate and intimidation groups (2,500 Blacks were lynched between 1885 and 1900), the development of a neo-slavery, the paradoxical plight of the "freedman 11 ( see Wash inGton' s Up From Slavery), the general di sappo intments in social "paper" programs and the disillusionment on the parts of Blacks who fought in the Civil War--all influenced and helped direct the contemporary Black mo od. Coupled with this was the 'beginnings of the Great Migration of southern Blacl::s to northern urban centers. 1Jbi le dialect po0try emerged as the mo st popular form in poetry and pros e , ,James T·Tcld. on ,Tobns on later observed (American Negro Pootry)t~at it would not encase the manifold 174 �nature of the Black }:i;xperience; white writers had initiated it . and Blacks could only "caricature the caricatures." Caught up for a while int} o pot entials of the Emancipatfon Proclamation and 11 ::1econ:.: t rt~ction r: , 1;:any Black po ets also couched their lines in patrtotis m. and ~entir:1entalit:,r (see .Johnson's "Fifty Years"). Others sought to captur e th e ricb pace ~f Black idiom, the spice of resional color, folklore and the solidness of Black everyday whereuithal. Durine; this period, tho first of a series of Black manual arts colleges ·was es tab lishecl. Hampton Institute, Fisk Uni- versity., Ho-:-m:d Uni,rnrslty, Horehouse College and Johnson Smith College were among the early ones. c. In 1871, the year of James 1foldon Johnson's birth, the Fisk Jubilee Singers made their first concert tour with Spirituals. The tour was epoch- making for it marked the f:lrst time a Black indigenous American art form bad been given such worldwide exposure. The period was crucial, too, for all Black folk art because the burgeoning new Black Intelligent3ia, an..·,dous to remove the bitter taste of slavery, were anxious to disrobe themselves of all relics of their ante-bellum past. The Spirituals, the rich cadences of folk speech and the freedom ln de.nee, among other aspects, were given back seat in an attempt to Westernize or "civilize" newly emancipated Blacks. The Civil Wai•, Emancipation Proclamation and the stationing o:f occupation troops in the south, had also left a bitter taste on tbe tongues of southern (revenge-bent) whites. The attempt to "colonize" the south, as some saw it, was dramatized by the a 175 �arrival of "carpetbaggers"--white northerners preaching Black freedom or exploiting southern industry. The results were the elaborate and ruthless rise of white secret societies and the ridicule of Blacks in newspapers and magazines. Many Black poets unwittingly participated in this riducule through their own dialect and sentimental verse. Others went to the extreme to prove their "goodness" and "Godliness", thus becoming hyperbolical. In the shadows af all these paradoxes, Black minstrels and musicians gained prominence. "Ragtime" heralded an era ultimately to be called the Jazz Age. Meanwhile more serious debate over the fate of Blacks was taking place among men such as Douglass, Washington and DuBois. In 1895, at the International Atlanta Exposition, Washington delivered his famous "Compromise" speech which encouraged Blacks and whites to work as close as the fingers of the hand in matters needing mutual concern; but advised that, in all social respects, the fingers of the hand should be separate. , This was seen as a conciliatory and unprogressive posture by many integration-minded leaders. Washington, who founded Tuskegee Institute in 1881, played down civil concerns and integration, and urged Blacks to seek practical skills. DuBois encouraged Blacks to seek knowledge of the arts and sciences and predicted that a "Talented Tenth" would emerge to lead them. In The Souls of Black Folks, DuBois critiqued Washington's pos 5. tion. The controversy between the two men is now famous as is Dudley Randall ts poem ''Booker T. and W.E.B." in which the ideologies of both men are placed against 176 �the mood of the times. In rich use of dialogue in iambic tetrameter meter, Randall opens with: "It seems to me," said Booker T., "It shows a mighty lot of cheek To study chemistry and Greek When Mis ter Charlie needs a hand To hoe the cotton on his land, And when Niss Ann looks for a cook, ,fuy stick your nose inside a book?" DuBois replies: "I don't agr0e, 11 said W.. E.B., "If I should have the drive to seek Knowledge of chemistry or Greek, I'll do it. Charles and Hiss can look Another place for hand or cook. Some men rejoice in skill of hand, And some in cnltivating land, But there are others who maintain The rig!'lt to cultivate t h e bra.in." Obviously, an imaginary conversation, the poem ends thusly: "It seems to me ," said Booker T.-- "I don't agree," Said U.E.B. The DuBois-Washington controversy created reverberations that are still being heard around the Black world. DuBois was to rise as the towering and defiant fic;nre of the period while 177 �Washington ·Has reduced to a dignityless and sometimes obscene symbol (for more on this, see the rece ntly published Booker T!s Child by Roy L. Hill). Despite the v igorous debates a nd prose writings, however, the social coming-of-age in t he poetry (tech nically and thematically) was not t o s ee its apex until t b e second decade of the 20th century. III De Cunjah man, de Cunjah man, 0 chillen, run, de Cun j ah man! --.James Edwin Campbell The Poets and Their Toter;1 Although poets of t he previous period placed their verses and polemics in various po l i tical and nm1s organs, it was during the 1856-1910 era tha t such a practice reached new levels of importance. Poets b ad acc ess to numerous re gional and national publications, conte s ts, political platforms and educational programs through wh ich t hey could either read or publish their poems. Robert Thomas Kerlin, f or example (Negro Poets and Their Poems, 1923), collected literally dozens of poems from newspapers, church bulletins, private ly printed pamphlets and magazines--many of them no longer availab le. Some indication of the political nature of both t he pe ople and the poetry of the post-Civil ·w ar era is seen in this stanza from "The Song of the Black Republicans tr (which appeared in The Black Republican of New Orleans, April 29, 1856): 178 �I Now rally, Black R0pnhlicans, 1rJherever :rou may he, Brave soldier's on the battlefield, And sailors on the sea. Now rally, Black Republicans-Aye , rally! we are freeJ We've waited long long To sing the song-The song of liberty. Continuing i'or six stanzas., this poem is obviously aimed at a public listening and reading audience. It praises "color" which comes "from the Lord" and reminds Black voters that Abraham Lincoln ( "beneath the Flag of all") "flung us Freedom through its s to.rs. " Somewhat of a different vein is the work of Benjamin Cutler Clark (1825? - ?) of whom we know very little. A fugitive slave, he attended the 1835 Annual Convention of Free People of Color (held in Pbiladelphia) from his adopted hometown of York, Pennsylvania, where he had moved after leaving tbe slave state in which be was born. Nostly self-taught, Clark married in York and raiscc1 a. large fo.mily--writing poetry and prose in his spare moments. He was politically active and opposed colonization of Blacks, believing that it was "individuals" who emigrated and "not nations." His The Past, The Present and the Future (Toronto, 1867) includes prose reflections on the state of race relations and 179 65 poems. He is primarily �. concerned, in poetry and prose, with the issues of slavery and racial injustice, although much of his work deals with domestic life. In sentiment, language, style and influence, Clark bears resemblance to t he poets af the period just covered. And although his work was not published until 1867, he wrote poems earlier as indicated, f'or example, in his '~,f uat Is a Slave" and nRequiescat in Pace," an elegy on the 1857 death of' a woman associate. Clark is quite effective as a poet and, sometimes, even gripping in his ability to make t h e poem assume the dimen- sions of the event it relates. in detailing details of slavery. Like Virs. Harper, he is graphic And, like Frederick Douglass, (see Narrative) he is tragic-comic in suggesting that those nat home 11 (in slavery, that is) may "miss me. n Me? nno They Miss A Parody" opens each of its four-lined stanzas with Do they miss me at homo--do they miss me? and alternates an iambic pentameter and iambic tetrameter meter (with an ab c b rhyme scheme). Clark describes an unusual kind of' "home": "Do t h ey miss me at home--do they miss me? By li ght, as the horn echoes loud, And t he slaves are marched off to the corn field, I'm missed from the half-naked crowd. Using a break (or caesura) reminiscent of the blues, at the third foot (the b]ues breaks at the second), Clark dramatizes slavery and pokes fun at those men who run the "peculiar 180 ,, I �institution. 11 He makes similar use of the dash in "t·Jha t Is a Slave" where he achieves incremental power through repetition and syntactical variance: A slave is--what? A thing that's got Nothine, and that aloneJ His time--bj_s wife-- And e'en his life, He dare not call his own. Employing expletives, spontaneity and suspense, Clark shows himself to be a skilled crafts man (a.11 things considered) for his time and traininc. His rhyme scb cme is a ah cc h with an off-rhyme in the first couplet of each six-line stanza. Under the persistent question '~.J'h at Is a Slave?" we feel not only the indictment againGt slave-ouners and racist policies-but some key to the earl:r realizations of Black thinkers tbat the race ·Has beine disro~ea. ph~rsically and psychologically. As ·with Vassa, Reason ancl others, tbe hurt is bidden o.nd defies both defi nition and visunl co~tact: I pra:r do not Insi:::: t; I ca nnot kno~r, ~To :-rnrds i r,1part, Or, pai nt er 's art, 'I'bough trapped i n t he for,·,1s of :;:urop ea n model-builders, Clark shows 'hin own ingenui ty and or i;ina li t:r . 181 B:r ~:o.rying bis rhyme �schemes a nd meter, n ~d u sing dash es a nd expletiv es, he b rings e motional p ower i n t e r l ac ed wi t ri a.n i ron icall:,. d etach ed i n tc llectna.l a.sses sr,:on t of the slave's pl i gh t. powerfu l i n a pocn1 l i ko "The ~,c:):i'::: noJ. o •r ~-:rl"lGl"e He is sirailarly h e (co nti nuing a long-1 :t no of BJ.a.c k s a lutary ver se ) prais e s Oc e ola, S eminole ch ief arrl hero of Semino le wa rs i n rlor i d a in t h e early 1 9t h centur~r. In t h i s , h e a l s o a ntici pa t e s Ub i tma n 's work (Rape of' F: orida). F or sele cti ons of Clark 's u orl::s a ml brief' criti- cis m s ee Ti o'l:- ins on ' s a ntl1olo2,;r. Invisible Poets: See a lso cToa n R. Sherma n 's Afro-Americans of th e 1 9t h Century (1974). If Clark' s s tr ength la.y i n h i s a ss au lt a c ainst racial injustic e s, Jam.cs Eadis on Boll'~ (1 826-1902) lay in his "pleas" and "hop e ." "Fortunate" enough to wlt ness t 1.~e Civil War, Emancipation and Re constructio n , Bell railed a gainst injustices but primarily ex pr e s s ed ho p e in h is Black strug gle. 40 :rears of ob serving the Bell s pe nt most of h is adult life delivering eloquent o.nd He l gh ty· poet ic elocutio ns on freedo m, hope and liberty. He was b orn in Gallipolis, Ohio, wh ich he left at age 16 to pursue t h e trade of plasterer and the avocation of orator-poet. A wanderer, Bell _pla:red his part in the over- throw of slaver:r--soliciting funds and recruiting Blacks for J'ohn Brm,m' s ab orted 185 9 raid at Harper's Ferry. Before the raid, Bell had moved to Canada where h e continued his friendship with Brown and fat h ered a larg e family. He later traveled to California, bac k to Canada, to various cities in Ohio and Michigan, and, . finall:r, sp e nt ti me in Toledo. 182 During this �odyssey Bell appeared at concert halls, churches and various public gatherings to read his poetry in some political or commemorative event. He also took advantage of books and gained considerable understanding of history and literature. His major themes are devotion, inspiration, love, unity, collective strength and political change. Achieving "something of' Byronic power in the roll of his verse," (Kerlin) Bell's poems are often too long, too tedius and lacking in interest. Robinson notes that Not to mitigate his obvious technical flaws, it is helpful to remember that Bell is best appreciated as something of an actor, his poems regarded as scripts. Unashamedly chronicling his journeys, Bell included the following as a full title of Trlumph of Liberty ( 1870): A Poem,/ Entitled the/ Triumph of Liberty./ Delivered April 7, 1870,/ Detroit Opera House,/ On the Occasion of/ The Grand Celebration of the final Ratification/ of the Pifteentb Amendment to the Con-/ stitution of the United States. Consisting of 902 lines, the poem erupts through the use of all the "flourishes and vocal modulations at his experienced command. 11 According to Redding (To Make A Poet Black), Bell ''unblushingly" claimed the titles of "Bard of Maumee" and ttPoet of Hope." Typical of' Bell's style 1s his tribute to his friend John Brown (from The Triumph of Liberty): Although like Sa.ms on he was ta' en, 183 �And by the bane Philistines slain, Yet he in death accomplished more Than 6'er he had in life b efore. His nob le heart, which ne'er had failed, Proved fir m, a nd e'en in death prevailed; And many a teardrop dimmed the eye Of e'en his foes who saw him die-And none who witnessed tbat foul act Will e'er in life forget t he fact. ' Approaching something of the stature of Vashon' s "Vincent Oge" and Whitfield's "Cinque, 11 Bell's tribute has all the ring of indebtedness to Scott, Byron, Pope, Tennyson and other English popular masters witb wbom he was familiar. However imitative and derivative, though, Bell seemed never to be at a loss for exalting, exhortatory poetical flourishes. In "Song for the first of August" b e sings a song for "proud Freedom's day": Of ever:r clime, of every bue, Of every tongue, of every race, ' Neath heaven's broad ethereal blue; Ohl let thy radiant s miles embrace, Till neither slave nor one oppressed Remain through out creation's span, By thee unpitied and unh lest, Of all th e progeny of man. Ono of Bell's most amb itious works is h is ":Modern Moses, or 'Hy Policy' Man" in wh ich - - in scalli nc so.tire--he assesses the 184 �adr.1ini : : tration of pr e sh1e nt Andr cH .To1. , ns on . ,Tor. nson (1C'05- 1075), who succ0 odec1 the a~rn assinat od Li ncol n in 1 1"3 65, was horn poor and lear ned to wri t e a nd fi.c ure from his wife. His prcsidenc~r peake d in a showdown 'betwe e n a procr essive Tiepubllcan Congress and .Johns on, a r e actionary Democrat. 0~1ce in office ,Tobnson began r ever sing h i s b a r s b critic is ms of t b e S outh, giving former rebels a rather free h a nd at t h ings and vetoing several bills aimed at giving Blacks a b ett er s h are of thin gs. Upset by the who le t h ing , Bell ·wrote a b l istering satire--which often collapses a s such--in 1iliich, with couplet-fury, he observes that: And cr01-m s t h er e are, a nd not o. feu, And royal robes and sceptres, too, That h ave, in every a g e a nd land, Been at the option and c omma nd Of men as much unfi t to r u l e , A:J a p es and monkeys arc for school. Following poets like Clar k and 1TT1 itfield, and anticipating "signifying" poets of t be 1960fs and 7 0 's (such as Baraka, Crouch , Toure, Echols: '~ astern Sy ph illizatio n ," and oth ers) Bell com- pares .Johnson to all rae. nner of evils. ,Tobnson is also contrasted to "good" or liberal whites s u ch as Conc ress me n Charles Sumner and Thaddeus Stevens and a b olitionist Wendell Phillips. ically calling .Johnson "Modern Hoses derisive 11 11 , Cyn- Bell also uses the l1ose 11 --wh :i.ch ap pe ar s to b e a "ra:r of reducing h im to the level of t h e st er e otyp e wh i t es r eserv e for Blacks (see, for example, such statement s as the one b~,r Don Lee: "styron/ �& his momma too"). One must chuckle somewhat at Bell's claim that Johnson cursed in the whi tehouse: But choose we rather to discant, On one wbose swa.ggisb hoast and rant, And vulgar jest, and pot-house slang, Has grown the pest of every gang or debauchees wherever round, From Barfin's Bay to Puget Sound. Only recently have we heard echoes of Bell rrom journalists, congressmen and old ladies astonished at whitehouse tapes showing that ex-president Richard Nixon cursed in the oval room. We have observed, then, that Bell, though a tedius and haraguing poet, is important as a continuing chronicle of the mind and creative development of the A:f'ro-American poet. Bell's works also include The Day and The ·war (1864), dedicated to the memory or Brown; The Progress of Liberty (1870), a recollection of the war, praise for Lincoln and Black troops, and a jubilant greeting of enf'ranchisement; and The Poetical Works or ..Tames :Madison Bell (1901), including a preface by his personal friend, Bishop B.W. Arnett. Even though Bishop Arnott claimed that Bell's "logic was irresistible, like a legion of cavalry led by Sheridan,tt the poet recognized his own limitations wben he said (Progress of Liberty): "The poet laments the discord of his harp, and its disuse, until answering Freedom's call he again essays it harmony." 186 �For other samples and appraisals of Bell's work see Robinson, Brawley, Kerlin, Rodding, Brown and :nays (The Megro 's God, 1938). Anticipating Helvin B. Tolson of the 20th century (who wrote a book-length ans·wer--Harlem Gallery, 1965-- to Gertrude Stein's statement t hat "Th e Negro suff ers from noth ingness), Francis A. Boyd (1844-?) penned bis only volume in partial response to Rev. He nry Ward Beecher's concern for "the injured and oppressed sons arrl daughters of Africa." Boyd's volume, published in 1870, is entitled Columb iana;/or,/The North Star,/ Complete in one Volume. Boyd explains in the preface that be was born free to Samuel and Nancy Boyd in Lexington, Kentucky, and met hardships trying to acquire an education. Colunmiana, the author notes in the preface, comes from "I, a scion of that ancient racen who takes "pleasure in dedicating the following lines" to the Rev . Be ecb er. Hade up of five cantos (major breaks in a long po e1.1 ), Columb iana is a poetic narrative on the pli gh t of t ~e Blac k man in slave-founded America. The cantos contain various structure and r hyme scb emes-:--most of which reflect Boyd 's knoi-rledge of t h e classics, ne oclassical and romantic traditions i n p oe try , a.nd t'he h istory of events leading up to t h e Civ il Har. I n t b e poem, Freedora (personified) travels, like some classical deity , on a winged chariot from Egypt, across Israel, Gr eece and America. In America, Freedom meets all sorts of ev ils , l i ke t h e protagonist in John Boyd's "vision," among t h em Se ccss ia, t h e arch -enemy of Blacks and freedom. S ccess la., S outb erners who sec eeded fro m the u nion, 187 �is assessed frora all sides durin; Bo~d's iat~t c tetrametric meter as sault. 11 In "dcflr_:;cc 11ade to Union la1-rn," tbe S outh Ignored 11 truth o.nd ri.:;btnc:Js But the sons a nd clang~~tc;rs o.f Africa, :·r1Jo ow~ a pa.rt of Secessia, Blacks lluvc tb c ir e:ro on t 11c JTc.~rtb Star (als o 1ar.1e of Doug':ass' 1 paper) sn 6 t;oct::: ·: 1 , Bcf or J J 1 n a rra.tor :i.n "To e ;)rean'-" from Canto V" and ':JO q 1.~.o nch the ballm-.red fL"c, Once 1,10re ue stri lea the s o.cred l:rre. 0tm, r:oon n.l:".cl. s-:;o.rs confonncl.ed lie, The Y'Tort'::1 8tc.r ontsh i '.1 0s a11 a.hove, Forcvei· ruling evcr:r-:-rboro . The Horth Sto.r 1:ac rer.i.a :l neu until t 1.1:i.o ver:r da:r i mportant in Black li tcratur e . I'cooe1"'-:; Ha:yden is on-:1..:,- (see "Runagatc ::1.lrr,a 0 at o 11 ) l,: ak :i.ng use of 0110 it. co ntemporary poet Confusing both his meter and bis rllyr,:o pattern witbout h ints that h e is in- tentional or exp erimenting , Boyd sometines loses the reader in his lab:trinthino deluge. But, co n:J :i.dering h is station in 188 �life and the obstacles he uorked against, his work is one more notable step i n tho devel opment of Afro-American poetry. For selections from and assess ments of Boyd, see Robinson. Henrietta Cordelia Ray (1850-1916) uas among the handfull of Black poets of t he 19t h ce ntury (t ncluding Daniel Payne and Ann Plato) ·wh o avoided racial themes. Hiss Ray, however, seems to be one of the first to try n Hide variety of forms. In sonnets such as "To 1'-'Iy Fath er," "Robert G. Sh aw," •"Milton" and others, she sh ows skill at 'Hriting t h is difficult form. And in works like "Antigone and Oedipus," "The Dawn of Love.," nNoontide" and "The lionth s II she proves her linguistic de:xteri ty and poetic virtuosity. Even t h ough Niss Ray avoided outright racial t h emes,in her poetry she i mplicitly commits herself in a poem like "Robert G. Shaw" dedicated to the white Colonel Shaw (1837-1863) of Bosto n wh o led the 54th Massachusetts volunteers (all Black) into the Civil War. Killed leading bis troops on an assault on Fort Wagner., South Carolina, Shaw is eulogized: 0 Fri end! O heroJ thou who yielded breath That other s mi ght share Freedom's priceless gains, In rev'rent love we guard thy memory. Dunbar, a younger contemporary of :Hiss Ray's, would also prai.se Shaw who, like Lincoln, became one of the important white heroes to post war Black Americans. Miss Ray , however, was not un- aware of the pligh t of her brothers and sisters of color in her everyday life. Born one of t wo daughters to the Rev. 189 �Charles B. Ray (of Falmouth, Massachusetts) distinguished minister and "tireless abolitionist," Cordelia was very early made aware of slavery and racial injustices. After a rather protected upbringing, which 1.nclnded good traditional training, she went on to New York University where she finished in Pedagogy and to Sauveuer School of Languages where she mastered Greek, Latin, French, German and the English classics. For a while she taught school, bnt, finding it boring, preferred to attend her invalid sister Florence (witb whom she maintained a life-long friendship), traveling throughout New England and giving moral support to the antislavery work of her father. Her poems deal primarily with love, scholarship, intellectual the~es/praise of great literary and political figures and seasons. She loved to do settings, descriptions, impressions and cycles in her poetry. For example there is a cycle ("Idyl") which goes through "Sunrise, 11 "Noontide," "Sunset," and 11 .i1idnight." Another cycle, "The Months," consists of 12 poems, five of them in eight-lined stanzas, five in six-lined stanzas an~ two in seven-lined stanzas. She generally varies her meter and rhyme schemes; but the ballad form predominates in "The !-1onths 11 while a two-stanza, six-lined form (rhyme scheme: a ab cc b) heralds the .four major segments of the day in nidyl. 11 Hiss Ray, as we have noted, is not an original or innovative poet. But her work does mark a new level of sophistication--despite her imitation of the models follO'wed her time. by most Black poets o.f Her published poems included Sonnets (New York, 1893), and Poems (Ne1v York, 1387). She also published Commemoration 190 �Ode or Lincoln/ 't·! ri tten for tbe occasion of tbe/ unveiling of the Freedman's monur,1ent/ in Hornory of Abraham Lincoln/ April 14, 1876. She co-authored, 1-1itI1 her sister, Sketch of the of the Rev. Charles B. Ra.:sr (He1·.r York, 1887). Life For selections of Miss Ray's work soc TI.obinson 's ~arly Black American Poets and and Kerlin' s Negro Poets and Tbeir Poer:is. critical con~ents. Robinson includes Sec also Sh0rman ' s Invisible Poets. Declarine that "I was born in hondage,--I 1ms never a slave,--" Alberry Allson ".·f uitnmn (1051-1902) thus introduced himself and h is pc otr:r to t h e 1vorld . A complex and brilliant poet (WaGner refers to him as a "brilliant" lmitator), he must have been anticipated by bis co ntemporary Cord 0lia Ray in the experiments with varlous verse forms. 1:Jbitman was born a slave in or near J\Iunfordsville, Hart County, Kentucky (in Green River country). As He noted earlier Whitman, a Hulatto, never acknow- ledged bi::; slavcr :sr situation. He was oi-•phaned at an early age and received only bits and pieces of for mal training--a glaring irony against his achiev ement, the most important until Dunbar. Though it is Hidely believed that Hhitman wrote the longest poem (over 5,000 lines) by a Black American, we now know that at least two other Black poet s wrote longer poems: the Rev. Robert E. Ford's Brown Chapel , a Story in Verse (n.d., n.p. Pre~ace dated 1903) contained at least 8,600 lines in 307 pages; Maurice Corbett's Harp of Ethiopia (Hashville, 1914) contained over 7,500 lines in 273 pages. Rev. Ford's work is broken up into cantos utilizing ten-lined stanzas while Corbett's 191 �epic is divided up into e i gh t-lined stanzas. Whitman utilized a ha l f dozen or so metrical and stanzaic forms and numerous other rhyme schemes. His forms include the ottava rima, dialect verse , th e Spe nserian stanza, blan~ verse, iambic trochaic and anape s t li.nes in t hree to five feet, (including stress unrhymed lines), and the various stanzaic and metrical fusions h e developed from i mitating such writers as Byron, Pope, 11n1it t i cr, Lo ngfellow, Hilton and Scott • . The poet developed his tech nical f acilities ·w·hile he worked, primarily as a pastor of an African Methodist Ep iscopal Church in Springfield, Ohio, and flnancial agent for Wilberforce University (where he h ad studied under Daniel Payne), to support himself and promote race progress. A fiery speaker, lecturer and reader of his poetry, Whitman was known not to bit his tongue. In declaring that h e "was never a slave" he went on to say--at 40 years of age--"The time bas come when all 'Uncle Torus' and 'Topsies' ought to die." The tiele of Whit man's first work , Not a Han and Yet a Man (1877) is important b oth literally and i mplicitly. For one only has to go a fet-1 more steps to place it alongside similar contemporary titles: Soul on Ice, Nobody Knows My Name, I Know 1·Jhy the Caged Bird Sings, :Manchild in the Promise Land, Invisible :nan, and scores of other volumes of essays, novels, poems and autobiographies. The titles are slightly different but the cry a nd t h e passion and aim are the same. Not a Man and Yet a Man, for Whitman, e nsconces the dilemma 192 �of the Black man. A mulatto slave, Rodney , saves the life of the daughter of his mast er during an Indian raid, and afterwards falls in love with her. Going agalnst bis promise to offer his daug'hter in marriage to the man who saves her, the master instead sells Rodney to a Deep South planter. In his new habitat., Rodney falls in love Hith a slave girl., Leona and., after being separated from her for a while, spends a beautiful life with her in Canada. The over-simplified theme of the "tragic mulatto" comes t hr ough in much of Whitman's work which never features the problems or lives of dark-skinned Blacks. 1·J11itman pos3essos a brilliant gift of descriptive prosaic poetry as i n these lines from n ot a Man: The tall forests swim in a crimson sea, Out of 1-rhose bright depths rising silently, Great g olde n spires shoot into the skies, Among the isles of cloudland h igh, that rise, Float, scatter, burst, drift off, and slowly fa.de, Deep 1.n the tuilight , shade succeeding shade. Somewhat re1-::i iniscc nt of the br1.lliant ancl anonymous John Boyd, Whitman is competent and rele ntless ·ween placed a gainst any other romantics of h is da3r. Echoing Poe and Lop 0fellow, else- wbere in '.Not a i:an, 1Tbitrnnn reacts to tbe tempora.r~r separation of Rodney and Leeona: A true heroine of the cypress gloom, 193 �lToH there to lie, the Creole so.H her doom-In The Rape of Fl orida (St. Louis, 1884), revised and repub- lished the folloTTing year as Twasinta's Seminoles, or Rape of Florida), 1.vhi t man onga 6 e s his reade r z i n another romantic tale. Under truce, 8eminole Ir~dians, who h a v e fougr.t bravely, are fired on, capturcc1, and taken off to Texas whore they are re-located. Hore, in a noth er anticipa t ion, we see presages of "relocation" (see Et h eridge Knight ts Bell:r Song) that will come in the works of contc:·,:p or•ar~r ·H r it er s like Baraka, 11111.iams (The Han Hho Cri ed I Ari1), Ralc.1-rin ( Nohod:r T-Cn o;•TE r:y Na.1;10), Greenlee (The s r ook 1-!h o Sat hy· t b e Door), Crou cl1 (A.in' t ?To A .~bula.ncen for 1,:, JTi ·,.P1.1 .s T on{ ·ce ), t "-1 0 Last Poets, Gi 1 Scot1 1 Heron (:i:"rce 1:-JilJ. , SmaJ..l Tall:: e.t 125t:1 Street and Lenox) and numerou::; ot}.1cr ~. of the Indio.ns ~·Il ii t u an, i:117 :::, at any r ate, J.a,~1e nts the treatment cxt cc.:c: ca. a 1>roth c r>r 0and to slaves. In a note to the 1-!ork, 'i17:iitr,1a n .icnttons Pw.t 1':i c n et relatives of one Scrninole cb:i. 0f. Atlassa, 11 Pape contains 257 Spenserian , stanzas. an emi ne nt Sem.inoJ.0 chicftan ," was "h ero-born" Fr ee o.s t l1 e air 1-r itlli n ~!is pa.lr.1y sl-ia.de, T11 0 nobler trai.ts t b at d o the man adorn, In bim uere na.tivo: Not t~1e music made I n ta1apa 's forests or t11c cverglatle Was fi.tter than in t11ls yonns Seminole r.1a.s t h e proud spirit wb ich dld life pervade, And glow and t~enili lc in his ardent soul--- 194 �Which, lit bi.s inmost-self, and spurned all raean control. Whitman's last voltui!e was An Idyl of the South, An Epic Poem in Two Parts (NeH York, 1901). Again ( 11The Octoroon" and "The Sontbland's Cbo.n1 and 7reedom's Ifagnitude"), Whitman explores the problems of mulattoes. Here, in chronology and subject matter, he parallels Charles Chestnutt, the Black fiction writer who al3o exploited the ther:ie of the mulatto and "passing. 11 Drifted Leaves. A ne·w edition of Rape (1890) also included 'Whitman's World's Fair Poem: The Freedman's Triumphant Song, along wi tl1 "The Veteran 11 (Atlanta, 1893), ·were read hy h imself and Mr s. 'Whitman respectively at the Chicago World's Fair, attended by Dunbar and the venerable Douglass. Like Dunbar, W11itman became addicted to alcohol, but he managed to maintain his popularity as a hard churchworker, freedom-fighter an:l poet. in Drifted Leaves. He also published sermons An ed.ition of °li'Thitman's complete works, long overdue, is currently being prepared. For selections of his writings see Negro Caravan, Robinson's anthology, Kerlin's book and other anthologies. Sometimes grouped with Phillis Wheatley in the "mockine;-bird school of poets, 11 Whitman is assessed by Hagner, Brm,m, Brawley, Robinson, Kerlin, J"ahn (Nee-African Literature, 1968), Loggins and Sherman. !-'.fa.king only oblique references to racial pressures, George Narion :McClellan (1860-1934) is reminiscent of Francis Boyd, and calls to mind Tolson, in his effort to prove Blacks 195 �capable of intellectual and literary competence. However, McClellan still does not deserve the abrupt dis missal given him by Sterling Brown. HcClellan writes barmlessly of flowers, trees, birds and love (things Baraka and others have, of late, claimed a Black poet shoul d not waste his time on). But be is competent and technically dexterous so as not to bore. Happily, some of the longer p5.eces are interpolated with shorter ones and this makes McClellan more readable. After his birth in Belfast, Tennessee, McClellan lived in an economically stable family and later bad a good, solid education at Fisk (B.A., 1885, and H.A., 1890) and the Hartford (Connecticut) Theological Seminary (B.D., 1886). Con- stantly on the go, like Bell, and a fund-raiser, like Whitman, for Fisk University, he spent much of his time on the eastern seaboard executing his i mportant duties. and taught in several cit:tes: McClellan pastored Normal (Alabama.), Memphis, Louisville (Kentucky) and Los Angeles, where he finally went in hopes of finding a cure for his tubercular son., His last years were devoted to soliciting funds for an anti-tubercular sani tori um for Blacks. Among :McClellan's published works are Poems (Nashville, 1895), Book of Poems and Short Stories (Nashville, 1895), Old Greenbottom Inn (1896), Songs of a Southerner (Boston, 1896) and Path of Dreams (Louisville, 1916). As a poet, McClellan is sharp, crisp a.nd musical in his use of language and i mages. 11 The Color Bane" pulls us somewhat forward to Fenton Johnso n 's 11 Th e Scarlet Woman" since the 196 �"problem" of hav:tng a beautiful h ut Black face in the theme of both. Even thougb l icCl e llan' s woma n possesses "inex- pressible grace" For a.11 h er wea.lt~1 and gifts of grace Could not a pp eas e t he s h a m Of jus tice t h at discriminates Agai nst t b e b lood of Ham. And there is more than a b. int in t h e title of his final volume, Path of Dreams; for, as many ob serv er s of Black writing have noted, the "dream" is a. central t h eme (see Hugh es, Hayden, Nat Turner, Corr others, Dunbar, a nd nm,1erous others). surface, ::'f oClella n is de l icate and un offensi v e. Yet on the He writes sonnets, sing-song quasi- b allads, formal verse reminiscent of B~rron, Scott a nd Hilt on , and for mal b allad s and h ymn-inspired praises as in "The ::_;ie et of ,Tn cl as. 11 Vn.r:r i ng :.- ; iet er, stanza and rhyme sch eme, EcClo l la n neve r the less r ef us ed to write i n dialect--the v ogu e of h is d ay . l ia k i ng it analag ous to "rag- time," h e cor.1pla inod t h a t it uas "co ns i de red qtd. t e · tbe proper dressing for Tfogro d i sti nc t :! 0 ,1 i n t he p oetic art." F or ample se lection::; of 1:c c:.cl:a n ' s writi ngs s ee Kerlin' s critical antholo 6y. , Robinson' s book a nd J o!1ns on 's American Negro Poetry. Robinson, Kerli n a nd Broun a l so g ive c r itical v 1.ows of I-IcClellan's work. See also Sherman's Invisible Poets. "Ra g- p icker , tobacc o stea mer, br ic1~rard hand, whiskey distiller, tea11:st c1· and pr ize-fi gh te r ," Joseph S e amon Cotter (1861-1949) was a ls o one of th e most g if t ed a nd prolific 197 �writers of his era. Cotter was born to a Black ri1other and ·white father in Nelson County, Kentucky. The kinds of work cited above characterized his li:f'e ·when he was forced, at an early age, to interrupt his 8chooling. Re-enterlng night school at age 24, be studied to b ecome a teacher and administrator, chores which he eventually assumed at the Colored Ward School in Louisville. Cotter also taught English lit- erature and composition and contributed poems, stories and articles to local newspapers including the Courier-Journal (one of America's outstanding newspapers). In bis life and work., Cotter looks forward to Blacks like DuBois., .James Weldon tTohnson, Nary licLeod Bethune and Langston Hughes. In his writings, he anticipates the variety and virtuosity of a Dunbar. For, in the words of one critic of the period, "he makes poems and invents and discovers stories, and bardlike, recites them to whatever audience may ca.11 for them-in schools, in churches, at firesides. 11 Brilliant, precocious and enduring, Cotter pursued the complex side of life, daring to examine the often over-simplified phenomenon of' race relations in Amer:tca. Kerlin said of h is work: "Some are tragedies and some are comedies and sorae are tragi-comedies of everyday life among the Negroes." Cotter (BroHn says he has "both point and pi th"), it must be said, was among the first Black poets to represent, without shame and minstrelsy, authentic Black folk life. He wrote in formal--a.cademic, bookish--forms; but be also wrote 198 �explicitly in dialect and standard English, of common life and common problems. He achieves "1-.ushing rhythms and ingenious rhymes II when he is at his best; and a quiet, reflective perserverence, when he writes introspectively. A disciple of Dunbar, Cotter is able to capture vividly tbe tbeme of traveling and weariness that pervades so much Black literature and song (see "The Way-Side 1foll 11 and the repetition of lines that establish the drudgery and the momentun; to carry on).. He can be satirical and admonishing in dialect as in "Tbe Don't-Care Negro": Neber min' your manbood's risin' So you babe a way to stay it. Heber min' folks' good opinion So you have In 11 a way to slay it. The :Negro Child II Cotter tells the youth to let "lessons of stern yesterdays" ••• be your food, your drink your rest, and in the same poem be strikes a. pose similar to that of Booker T. Washington's when he advises the child to Go train your bead and hands to do, Your bead and heart to dare. Cotter's verses also exalt Black and liberal white heroes ( "Frederick Douglass, 11 ''Emerson, 11 "The Race Welcomes Dr. W.E.B. DuBois as its Leader," "Oliver Wendell Holmes") and relish such experiences as reading or listening to Dunbar ("Answer to Dunbar's 'After a Visit" and "Answer to Dunbar's 'A Choice'") and Riley ( "On Rearing .James Hhi tcomb Rile~r Read ll). 199 He vigorously searches �the human heart--and tbe intangibles of lying, hating, and self-denyine--in poerns like "Contradiction" and !'The Poet. 11 "My Poverty and Ueo.lth II recalls Corrothers' "Compensation" since the richness and strength of commoness, charity and honesty triumph ov er money and a higb social station. A proli:fic writer, Cotter published several volumes including: A Rhyming (1895); Links of Friendship (1898, with a preface Courier-Journal editor Thomas 'Hatkins); Ne 0ro Tales (1902); a four-act play in blank verse, Ca.leh, t he De generate (1903); by and A 1fuite Song and A Black One (190 9). critical study of Cott er is long overdue. A good biographical- For selections and critical appraisals see Robinson and Kerlin. Se e also Countee Cullen's Caroling Dust (1927) and Sherman. Jude;ing from much of t h e critical reception of Daniel Webster Davis (1062-1913) the pre vailing feeling is that he should just disappear. Of all t he cri t ics assessing him (Wagner, Bro~n Redding, Rrm1ley, Sh er man, Johnson and others), only two, Reddi.n[.s and 2h or i;ian, seem to feel t hat Davis ba.s any 11 sinccri t::r" i_n b is efforts to portra~r Blacks 5.n dialect. Reddin;;'s position is ir oni c, i ndeed, since, in To Hake a Poet Black, h e does not discu s s tll e folk trad:ttion i n Black literaturc. Davj_s (1-1'h c O>J. e1•at od on tbe t 11eor~r t:1at the most effective ~ ·writer "fs the one tn demand") is d eri ·ni. ti ve of the white writers of dialect, as 11o re most of t h e Bl ack dia 1.ect 1-rriters, and seems only to transc end t he n t n t; w fact of b i.s b ei D6 e. Black r,1a.n and a pr cac~·10r--~ r1~ o cou ~.d C:o l i ver t b.c -i::erses Hi tb t'he v irtuoso 20 0 �i mp act impossible of Th o;iw..s 1To l s o,-, Pa c.;o , I :cHi n T:ussell and 11 s chola.r of dia1-ect 11 ·Hb o ~Jro t o f ro;,,. 11 ts mm first h and ex- pcri e nce s and Blacks . I n i ntrodu c t i ons to ~ is h ooks h e draws cor:1pari s ons and c ontJ:,as t s 1J c t1-1 0 0n B::.. nc k and ,;.rh i te s outbern speech. Rodd'lng praise:::i :Ja v is fo r t b c sarrie reas ons t h at other cri tlcs dis n iss h i :r.1--f or h i s exasc;cratod 1m.ff on i nc of Blacks and h is s ugg e stion t h at pla nt a t io n 11 da r lri os " wer e content to live out their liv e s oati ns '~ og me at," '~ adermillums" and stealing . Roddins b o l i ovos t hat Da v i s 's p oetry "represents t he bi ghest i me.gi na.t l v c p ower of t h e p l a n ts.ti on Hegro, the prodigal richness of h is i mager:r, o. nd h i s ½np p7 po·Her to resolve all difficultio 8 and r.1ysterie s with the reasoning of a child." Tiedding' s c omme nt, n ot so h a.rs!1 as it mi ght seem, is neverthele s s only partinlly--if t h at 1;:;.ucl:: --tru e . For how does one account for t b e ingenuity of t !': 0 u ork songs, the Spirituals, the dittie s and jingles a nc1 the ea.rl:r b lues? Did not the same "child II CI'c o.tc tr. e r.1 a.ls o? BroHn, on tbe other 11a nd, refers t o Da v is as t h e "Negro Thomas Nelson Pa.g e 11 --quite a nasty "put-d own", to u se contemp orary parlance. An cl Davi s does s e em t o b e maki ng fun of Blacks in giving h is poems s uch titles as: Down Souf," 11 Bakin an' Greens., and "De Bigges 1 Piec e ub Pie .. " 11 "Hog Tieat., 11 "'Web "Is Dar Wa.dermi lluns on High?" But h e is bent on meeting the needs of people ·who uant to be "i nstruc t ed and entertained. 11 .' ; And it will be observed that in some parts of the S outh, the dipthong th is dropped from its ending position in favor off 201 �and one certainly find cvicle ;1ce of Blacks speakinG like the characters in Hebstcr 's poctr:r. But another a nswer might he in a comparison hotHeen Flip Hilson (Tiev. LeRoy) and Rev. Daniel Webster Davis who achieved great popularity when he turned his pulpit :tnto a st age from Hhich to unload his own brand of "saving souls" and making tbc "word" come a.live. As Rev. Davis, t h e dialect p oet was not unlike such men as John ~To.sper (very popular), Black Billy Sunday, Brother Easter, and "other Negro preachers II of bis dn:r ·wh o "were so well known. 11 Davis's ~,o collections, primarily in dialect, are Idle Moments (1895) and 'Heb Dm-m Souf (139? ). lished prose. He also left much unpub- i:i:ost of his work deals with joviality., gluttony, flamboyant sermons, happiness, the "contented II slave and mischieviousness--tbe stereotypical behavior which white minstrelsy has fostered on tho Black personality. Davis is derivative, as we noticed, to the point of copyi n 6 wl-.ole lines and phrases as in "Hog Heat" s;.:bcro be talrns tbe words 11 1,n1en the frost is on the Punkin" fror,1 James l·! l1itcomb IUle~r and changes them thusly: Tfuen de fros' is on de pun' kin an' de sno'-flakes in de a'r, ••• The poem also closely resembles Dunbar's "Wben De Co'n Pone's Hot. 11 (Al thougb Hag ner and o t.ber critics c la.im that Davis did not borrow from Dnnbar hut worked 11 directl:r from the models provided by the minstrel s and the southern poets.") Davis had had first-hand experience of the Black folk predicament, 202 �first as a chlld in North Carolina and, after the Civi.l Har, in Richmond, Virginia, where he attended s·ch ool. Finishing high school with good marks, he began to teach in the Black schools of Richmond. His popularity wa.s wide among "the less literate of his own race," according t o .Ta.mes Heldon Johnson, which ma.y be a partto.l r eason for Do.vis's continual production of his particular brand of "poetry. 11 Known for reading his .. verses with "comical unctuousness before convulsed audiences," his work, when placed beside Dunb ar's, is unfinished. In style and workmanship, however, it s110uld be noted that Davis is not unlike some of the bombastic Black poets of ta.day. For when the complete story is told, many "popular" contemporary poets--speaking and writing a "dialect" and titillating "convulsed" audiences--may very well meet the fate reserved for Davis. (Instead of becoming a "prelude> to a kiss n they may end up a footnote to a joke.) In his few standard English pieces, Davis also preache s a co nciliatory att itude, as in "Emancipation" wh ere he claims t he African "roamed the savage wild 11 Untamed his pasaions; h alf a man and h alf a. savage child, until God "sa"t-7 fit II to teac'h tb e Black man of "Hirn and .Jesus Christ." It could he t h at t h er e i s more to Davis than bas met the eye; at any rate, a complete s tudy of b is life and works await some serious student of Black poetry. For assess- ments of' and selections fro m Davis's writings see Brown, Sherman, Wagner, Robinson, Rodding and ~ohnson. 203 �.,. Our stnd2r makes no clai m that every poet hriefly considered is any sort of giant. In fact, except ~-Jben such a title or label is ohviousl:r :·mrrantod, there is an effort to steer clear of such qualitativ e ova!uattons . stated goal: This is true in view of our to place i nto tho hands of students and lay per- sons a handy refere nce to a nd overview of Black poetry. 11 J'ean Haener' 3 c lair that So i t would have required a great deal of indulgence to welcome II the poetry of ,Tohn Wesley Holloway (1865-1935) into "the literary domain" can not find credence or reinforcement i n thi.s 'hook . }agner also includes Cotter, 1 .Tames David Carrothers and William Stanlye Braithwaite in his list of p oe t s n on cr~ta. Holloway, lil:e h i s c ontemporaries Davis and Corrothers, was a "prcachcr --Doet. 11 His p oetry 5- s in hoth st andard English form and dia le c t , ':-~rich , acc ordi.ng t o tTohnson, is his "hest Hork. 11 I n The 1rc ;ro ' s God, Benjami n r•a~rs classes Holloway with tb e ·writ e rs and thinkers Hho take a c o n ci li atory and c ompen- aatory arrro ach to the d~1ty- -dcsp it e oppression, slavery or whatever. In one roem , Holl01-ray is ''1:faitins 0:1 t he Lord"; and even Thou gh ho3ts of sin ma.y bed[;e me round, Ana thunders sh ake the so!.id ground, he will neverthclc r;s wait 11 pat:tently" for help from God. .Tames Baldwin, and other Black urite rs of the 20th century (getting a first start from :)unbar), call such advice "dishonest." Baldwin, a child-preacher, saw a contradiction in the preacher's 20L~ �resignation and the rat-infested tenement buildings against wbose owners the preach0rs refused to lead a rent strike. Yet, as a preach0r, Holloway exhibits a classic devotion and tbe ability (see Preface to Johnson's God's Trombones) to aid in the welding of the disparate Black mas~rns--which has never been an easy task. A disciple of Dunbar, Holloway was born in Merriweather County, Georgia.. Hi.s father, one of the first Black teachers in the state, bad learned to read and write as a slave and sent his son to Clark (Atlanta) and Fisk Universities. For a period, young Holloway was a member of the famous Fisk .Jubilee singers. As a poet of dialect, Hollowa;r is both musi- cal and humorous as in "l'iiss r'l:erlerlee" who has Sof' brown cheek, an' smilin' face and Perly teef, an' sbinin' hair An' silky arm so plump an' ha.rel Reflecting a gro-wlng practice of the transitional poets, Holloway makes an honest effort to portray deep Black emotions and feelings. His descriptions of Black women (especially) and men signal a new and vibrant aspect of Black poetry--the merger of the sexual/sensual levels with the racial flavor of post-bellum 'Black America. Linguistically, Holloway approaches the sounds and idioms of the Gullah which will be seen more definitively in James Edwin Campbell. Since the Gullah dialect is spoken in the areas off the shores of Georgia and the Carolinas, it is possible that Holloway picked up accents and expressions as 205 �---------- - - - - - ----- a child. (1919). His books include Bandannas (n.d.) and From the Desert Especially humorous is his "Calling tbe Doctor" which is an important cataloging of folk medicinal remedies including Blue-mass, laud-nnm, liver pills, "Sixty-st.x, fo' fever an' chills, Ready Relief, an' A. B. 11 c. , An' half a bottle of X. Y. z. Holloway (dialect poetry) joined Dunbar, Corrotbers, . J. Mord Allen and Ray Dandridge, in being published for the first time (during the first two decades of the 20th century) in previously "off-limits" white periodicals. For selections from and criticism of Holloway's work see Johnson's American Negro Poetry and Mays' The Negro's God. See also, fo1., criticism, Brown's Negro Poetry and Drama. Yet another dialect writer, Elliot Baine Henderson, on whom we have little information, was anotber disciple of Dunbar. A "prolific writer, all in dialect. 11 he published some eight volumes of' verse, In much of his writings, as with .Holloway and Campbell, he utilizes the phonetics and idioms of' the Gullah--akin to the West I ndian brand of folk English. Henderson is sometimes concerned with folk beliefs and the supernatural and Black religious tbemes and songs ("Git on Board, Chillen~'). His dialect is inconsistent, a problem with most dialect writers (including Dunbar), and wbile he trtes to achieve a phonetic transcription of what he hears, he spells (in the same title) "Board" in a standard Enslish way and attempts to place words 206 �like "Git" and "Chillun" in dialect. His volumes include Plantation Echoes (Colnmbu 8, Ohio, 1904), Darlz:r Hed:ttations (Springfield, Ohi.o, 1910), Hned<J:jrkatcd Folks (Autbor, 1911) and Darky Ditties (Columbus, 1<)1,5). James Edwin Campbell (1867-1805), unlike hls contemporary Dunber, "oi:•1 es almos t nothing to the plantati.on poets." Campbell seems to have listened careful~y to and applied tbe Black folk speech around btn T,rhcrea ::, Dunbar t ook 1, is initial cues from the plantation school, c 1, ief pr opone nt of which was !ruin Russell. Born in Por,wro:sr , Ohio, Car,1p'l:oll graduated from the Pomeroy Acadcm7 and for a while taught sch ool ne ar Gallipolis. He gained more teacb 'inc e.ncJ. adr,i:tnistrativ-e experience at the Langston School in Virginia and th e ~est Virginia Colored Ins ti tu.to (now 1:fost Virginia State Col L:::ge ) "f,rlrn r e oppos ltion to his adeiini strat t vc :;'OJ.ici l~S :forced }~i rn to leave for C':1icago . Herald for t be r -:; nt. of 'J ic :.if0. Cotter anC:', Dtmr ar ( o.nd () ..I ..L 'l,.,.,- .,(:1 , V ~. . \ _ _j_ 1.:) ) , Lil~•) 1:is c(n-::t01:1p ora.ries, Cacpt-cll's car~:y ver ses ~rcre of and Else1here. :Cc!1008 fro1,1 the Cabin A ;_; :L,1pl8 c ora:x3.rln6 of titles of dialect volumes of tbc perlod ': rcnld prove i ~1 strnct1,,,;e . Car.P)b0ll is quite c ompete nt in 1Jotb standard English and dialect; and '>r,,1110 so;110 of b1.3 senthii ents are well-handled in the standard Encli s~ po crm, it is i n the dialect pieces that 207 �ho sbows ~1is rower, complcxit:r a nd orti:;j_ nal_:tt:r. Among his important themes are j_nt crrncia l love ( one of ti: e first Black wri tcrs--s oo '1:'TT-li tn:an and otl1ers--to deal with th:ls "touch~r" subject), the mulatto, satire (s e e, cspocia'll:,, 11 01' Doc' Hyar") Black pride ( thongb r,mffled), and realtst ic pres entations of Black "social realities, religious formalism, and folk values." It is i mportant to mention his brand of dialect, although a more in-dept'!--! study is still to be clone. Unlike Dunbar, who seemed to strive for a universal anglicized phonetic, Campbell (tr a ces are also in Hollm-ray and Henderson) recorded tho spe och patterns closely related to Gullah--somewhat akin to West Indian folk speech. Such usage is seen in em- ploying the subjective a.rd objective pronouns in the nominative position (''He sec, ~ n "Him ha1,, '' etc). 11 as in ''Uncle Eph's Banjo Song": the er (as in 11 ba.wnjer") for .the There is use of the broad 1Ja1;rnjer" and .£• 11 dawnce 11 and The verbal copula to be is usually omitted (assurr:cd ?) and there is a normal lengthing of an e or i sound ln Hords like 11 Reeg", 11 jeeg", "Laigs. The -r.r often becomes band t sometimes becomes k. of course, other great differences. 11 There are, For more on such lin- guistic aspects see works hy Lorenzo Dow Turner, Herman Blake, Robert D. Twiggs am others. Campbell has a more autbentic ring than Dunbar and one gets the impression that he is seriously involved in feeling as well as representing what Hughes called "the pulse of the , people." But Campbell and Dunbar are also similar in many ways. 208 �Ih "Negro Serenade" (compare to Dunbar's "A Negro Love Song") Campbell captures a sharp hum.an-social need. In "De Cnnjah Man" he achieves a strong r.msical ring (witb t11e help of a ring-a-round-th~-circle sort of chant) and dabbles in tbe supernatural--suggosting, us Chestnutt idd, that perhaps the Black folk tradition holds keys to the "nltlmate mysteries of the universe. 11 The recurring refrain of De Cunja.b man, de Cunjah man , 0 chillcn run, de Cunja'!-1 manJ will be ramified and made more dexterous by Hughes, Toomer and Hayden, as they experiment with these exciting oral folk forms. Campbell attempted to capture the cade nces and gestural complexities of a contemporary de.nee, the "buck", in his poem "Mobile Buck." He stated that he sought the "shuffling, jerky rhythm of the famous Hegre dance" w11ich he had seen performed by Black longshorer:1en on the Obio or the Hissi ssippi. This type of 1vord-movement marriage (see Chapter VII) ls not unusual in Black poetry. today. Numerous examples of sncb pairings abound Lastly, we 3hould note that Car.1.pbcll's near-Gullah dialect would later be revived (in the thirties and forties) hy writers like Ambrose Gonzales and Julia Peterkin. HcKay , we have said, employed a similar dlalect in his Jamaican poems. Actor-singer Belafonte, son of Hest Indians, ·would popularize this same dialect in the 195'0's and 6ors (''Dayligbt come and me want to go home"). Tlore salient contemp orary examples of this idiom (and its cadences) can ho found in t he lyrics of West Indian1mp.orted music known as the "Reggae)--an island version of 209 �Afro-American rrsoul" music. One of the first Black poets to wrj_te in dialect, Campbell deserves much 11iore attention than he has thus far received. At this writing, tbe most ex~austive studies of him appear in Wagner's Black Po ets and Shcrr.1an' s Invisible Poets. Though he was a close friend of Dunbar's, bis major works in dialect preceded Dunbar's books. In additio n to h1s poetry he was also a member of a group that edited the Four O'Clock Haga.zine which was published for several years in Cbicago. 0~1<:l one occasion, Campbell is knoHn to have spent time talking to BJlack men, pleading with t hem to spend their time more wisely tban in drinking and gamhling. For selections of bis work see Johnson, Robinson and Negro Caravan. For critical evaluations see Brown, Johnson, Redding ( "Car1:_:ihell 's e ar a.lone dictated his language.") and Carter G. ·wo ods on rs rrJ .E. Campbell: Letter, 11 A Forgotten nan of Wegro I-Iistor~r Bul:etin, l'T ovem1,er, 1938, p. 11. In 1937, St0:r1.inc; Dro·wn 8aid t1:sloquent and militant" were the tr.words most descrj_ptive" of the poetry of 1-Vi.11,iam Edward Burghardt DuBois ( 186C-1S63). Broun, il10 also termed DuBois "the leading intcll0ctual lnflnence of bis generation," was only t1ro years ahe ad of a s 1.mi lar accolade fror:1 J. Saunders Redding: !!They (poems) represent the e;;reatness of Dr. DuBois as an inspirationa 1. force." In the history of Black poetry, however, DuBols docs not deserve as larGo a portion of the limelight as is norua.lJ;:r accorded his Hork as historian, social critic, journalist, novelist, Africanist, organizer of important 210 �Pan-African Congresses in tl-:c J.920's, editor of the Crisis, pathfindcr-schola1" of tbc Black Experie nce, precurser of militancy and tl1e "lTc~-r :Tcgro." In 1923, Robert T. Kerlin (Negro Poets) sa5.d Du.Bois nar.: "celebrated 5.n tbe Five Continents and the Seven Seas. 11 As a poet, houevcr, DuBois is i m!)ortant for his work in the prose-poem ( s or.:c say "pro em") forms and f'or asserting a militance, a defiance and an exclaiming, a hatred of racism and oppression that had not been beard since ,To.mes Whitfield. Like molten lava, the dis gust o.nd nager spill from DuBois's pen as in "Hymn of Hate": I hate them, Ohl I hate them well, I bate them, ChristJ As I bate hellJ Ironicall~r, though, in his hatred DuBo1s always managed to re-establish his faith and trust in some bigher ordor--in God. Most of his poems had been published in various periodicals ( the Independent, Atlant1c Honthly and Crisis) before several of them were inte1•spcrsed among the essays in Da.rkwater (1919). DuBois bad, by that time, already gained recognition for bis individualized use of poetic prose--whicb fused Biblical language and tma.gery with his classical education and the expressions from the Souls of Black Folks (1903). But in !TA Litany of Atlanta," written after the racial bolacaust that took several Black lives, he assails all fundamentals--including the existence of God. But if God does ex:i.st, in f'ace of such violence and savagery, 211 �Surely Thou too art not white, O Lord, a pale, bloodless, heartless thing? DuBois also takes the occasion to cite his arch-enemy (Booker T. Washington): Tbey told him: Hork and P.i..se. A seeker ai'ter universal suf'frage and 'brotherhood, DuBois employed ::nu.ch of his poetry in the service of tbe political ideologies that be expouscd. Thus in "A Hymn to the.Peoples" he unites socialise and the Christian God urder one banner, viewing "the primal meet1 ng of t h e Sons of Han II as ForeshadoHing tbe union of the worldJ Other poems in Darkwater include nThe Riddle of the Sphinx" and "The Prayers of God." His "S orig of the Smoke" (written in 1899) makes the American Black the "Smoke King." Listing achievements and misuses of Blacks (a favorite habit of Black poets), DuBois at one point asks for acceptance of the Black man on equal terms ·with the uh:i. te: Souls unto me o.re as mists 1n the night, I 1-rhite n my blackmen, I 1)eckon my wbite, Hhat 's the hue of a hide to a man in his mightl But, DuBois does not silence his pen without some appeal to God: Sweet Christ, pity toiling landsl Hail to the smoke king, Hail to the blackJ For selections from and comment on Dubois's poetry see Kerlin, 212 �Brown, Redding, Frecdomways (Hinter, 1965), Johnson (American Negro Poetry). :ror assessments se Jahn, Barksdale and Kannamon, Wagner, Hays and Cba.pman (Black Voices, 1968) who rightly calls DuBois "the . intellectual father of modern Negro scholarship, modern Uegro militancy and self-consc:i.ousness, and modern lTegro cultural development ." DuB ois Selected Poems h ave just been published (1973) by Ghana Universities Press and is available in the United States from Panther House, Ltd. James David Corrotbcrs (1869-1919 ) acknowledged his debts to Shelley, Keats ( "Drea m and the Song") o.nd Dunbar ( "Paul Laurence Dunbar") after wh om mucb of hls dialect poetry is modeled. But Corrothers, a minister , disple.:7s neither the range (in subject matter) nor the skill of Dunbar. His mother died at his birth in Cass Count:r, rii chigan, and his :father apparently gave him little care. In IIi chigan, be worked o.s a youth in the sa.1-nnills and lnmher camps , o.s a sailor on the Grcat Lakes , and later ceked out a 11.ving as janitor, coachman and bootblack i.n a ba.rbersbop. ~n cournged hy associates to continu0 b is education, he studied for tl:e minstr:r and remained in t h at profession (pastoring in Methodist , Baptist and Presbyterian churches) a.11 his life. His flrst puhlisbing oppor- tunity car,1e through Century mo.Go.zine; this landed him a wide reading au.c1ienc c 'because of tho resorn½lcnce of bis 1-rork to that of Dunbar's. Corrot:10rs' f:i.rst vo lume (Selected Poems) was published in 1907 a nC: 1-..,is nocond collection (Th e Dream and the Song) ca.me out i:1 1914. He 1-ras i n C11 ica eso clnrlng the same 213 �period that Car.1pboll li ve d th e re a nd b o also worked for various daily neuspap ei-•s. Dunbar. Ifa r;-:t0 t a n d so cial i.z c d ui t 1~ Ca mpbe ll a nd F1 on r..e1-1spapcr articles a n d nnpuh li shed poe1;1s b e put 1 of Hand ic ar , ~ es pub li s ~ ~d i n 1916. has bo on mis-road by a nm:b or of c 1,:ttics (Jorr.s on i ncluded ) as advising resi gnati on and c onc5- l i at l o~~ . Corrotbers was a 1,iinist cr , sbou ld s b c d and i mp lica~io ns. r:101·0 1lnt , lrn oulod 6 e t h at li£;l~t on b is usac os E ach oco of t~o rour s t a ~zas (except for the fourth ·wh ic'!.-1 ends •.: ~a rol:r a Ne c.;r d- -i :-1 a d a.:r liko thisJ ") begins and ends :.·!l t h : I • To b e a lTe~r·o l n a day l i l::e this. As a sermon on t he; sDrfac o , t bo po oL a ppear s to tell Blacks to have "patience 11 and 11 fo rgiv0 ness," and so on. But a closer reading will reveal a s tro :.1.g a d 5c c ti vc :.oa d l r.:.c 1 nto almost every virtue. So t he c;ron p i ng.s l ook li ke t b is: "rare patience, 11 "strange loyal t:r" and "utt e r clarkno ss 11 - -all of wh ich s uggest that, in the cocle of t h e prcac!1er, it just mi gbt b e too "rare" or "strange II or "utter¥ " Duri nc t bc deli very of a. sermon, or similar verbal eloque n ce, Ble.cks arc accustou ed to searching i'or mea.ning--shifts and leve ls based on to n al variety and other vocal modulations. So, wo seo y e t one mor e oxau~le of a possible "encoding" of 1~os3ages (s co Chapter II) in w~at 11 s eems" to be., at best, harmless deliveries arrl, at ·w orst, co nciliatory. "Paul Laurence Dunbar" anticipates t b e Harlem Renaissance 214 �and tho "Now Negr o II in b aving t he ''Dark melodist" venture to . . the citadels of Western culture--using "Ap ollo's Fire" and visit "Helicon", t h e h m;1e of the muses. Even more blatant, however, is Corr ot h er s' brllliant so nnet "The Negro Singer," in which h e carries out a major theme of the Harlem Renaissance-reclamation of Black cultural values and the Black pa.st. The "Singer, 11 tired and frust r ated f r om try ing to write (and a.ct) white, finally decides that But I shall dig me deeper to the gold; and Fetch water dripping, over desert miles, so that at least some of his original virtue and ancestr~l strength can be exploited in the Western world. Such a course is the only way for the Black poet, Carrothers says, tbe only way for "men II to: • • • know, and remember long , Nor m:.r dark face dishonor any song. The sar,1e theme .( sligl1tly altered) is picked up in ''The Road to the Bow" where the singer again knows tbat I hold my head as proudly bi gh As any man. Tension develops between the Black and white men "In the Matter of' Two Hen" and "An Indignation Dinner" features a dialect presentation of the popular plantation/minstrelsy theme about Blacks stealing ch:tckesn and turkeys. A social lesson occurs in the poem, however, for "old Pappy Simmons ris" and explained 215 �to those facing a food-less Cbristma.s t h at nothing but "wintry wind 11 (bot ah"') is "a.-n ighing th' ough/de street." He tells the persons at tho meeting that he has seen plenty food on a "certain gemmun's/fahrn" and tbat "All He nee<l is a corr.mi ttce fob to tote the goodies here." Earlier in tbe pocru, Blacks protest tbelr treatment at the hands of' whites; and in a 17-part series called "Sweete n 'Tatahs," one annoyed Black complains that 11 Evah tha.ing is 'dulterated By cle white folks, nowadays-- Even cblme ½ones , when :you buys 'em De ain't wo'f de cash you pays. In one poem, Blacks comp lain of small Hages; in another they protest high prices--familinr stories in the Afro-American communities. They dispel ignorant statements (like Wagner's) that Carrothers is "lacking in personality " and that his works do not belong in "the literary domain. 11 And, thoy ·cancel in part, Brown's allegation that Corrothers follo1-1s a "typical dialect pattern." For selections of Corr othe1•s ' works see Johnson, Hughes and Bontemps, and Ro"rinson. For critical appraisals see Brown, Johnson and Brawley. James Weldon Johnson (1871-193 8 ), important in bis own right as a poet and h is i mmens e "service to other Negro poets," is looked at in passing hero. He will be seen a gain in Chapter Vin connection uith tbe Harlem Rena.issa.nce--wh ere be is normally placed even though he 1-:as in l1is f if tios ·when the leading lights 216 �of the Renaissancc--Cullen, Hughes, ~foKay, Toomer and others-first start!')d to pub lish t b eir ~,rnrks. Jo'hnson, considered here as a writer of dialect poetr:r, was horn in Jacksonville, Florida, to middle-class ~lack parents, and attended Stanton Central Grammar !'cl1ool (all Black) w11ere bis ri10th er taught. He entered a preparatory program at Atlanta University, later graduating and returning to assume principalship of Stanton where-during an oight year period--he ti.p&,--raded the school to secondary status. Considered a "n.enai.ssance" man (in the European sense, this tir,1e), Johnson founded a. local newspaper (The Daily American, 1894), studied for the Florida. bar (was admitted in 1B97), wrote dialect poems (modeled after Dunbar's), and .finally made his ·Hay to Broadwa-:;r in New York where he collaho1.., ated 1.Ji t h his brother, cor,1pos0r J. Rosamond, and Bob Cole in light operas. Sterling Brown said Job nson recognized the "triteness" of his earl:.r d:!.alect poems ( many puhlish ed in Fifty Years and Ot ber Poems, 1917), b ut several of them--put to music by 11i s ,_11..,ot~1er and Cole--hecamc popular ;('avorites. Tho Century accerted "S e :-ice :rou Hent Awa:y" for pu'b lj_cation. And tbc brothP✓ rs c ot.:poscd "Lift Evo,.: :" Voice a.ml S ing" (lyrics by James) for the ~<'cbr no.:..":r 12, 1900, a nniversary of Lincoln's birth. 'T.his poem is gcnerall~r regarded as tbc "National Anthem" of Black America. Hardly an Afro-American bas not board or snng tl-i is sonc. Johnson's dialect poems, listed in his hook under "Jingles and Croons, " leave nuc:-1 to be des ired in t h o area of originality. 217 �Perhaps his mm experir.1onts in that forri1 are idhat led him to state so c1,;.:11~aticall:· tba.t dialect has 'hnt "two stops"--"humor and pathos." Johnson Has n ot tota:.l~r right, as we shall see la tor (Broun tal{es ur this issue in The :!'Togro in Poetry and Dre.ma). However, Kerlln (1-rhom Hagner sa:rs sbol,rs a "deficiency in critic al sense") called Jo11nson's i:-rnrk 11 so1,1e of t~e best dialect writing in the uhole range of 1Tegro litero.turc. cellence is here. 11 Every quality of ex- Technically, Jobnson was quite capahle in handling dialect (as he is in o.11 matters). But his dialect brings nothing new to Black poetry (unlike Sterling Brown's) and his tl1cr,1es have been prett~r much played out by tbe time he reaches print. 11 l:y Lady's Lips Am Like de Honey" recalls Dunbar's "A 1'Tegro Love Song," Carrothers' "Negro Serenade," and other such pieces. of Dunbar's "Song." Johnson poem carries none of the power And bis subtitle ("Negro Love Songn) shows that be is working in the stock trade for the period. The lover finall~r gets to t h 0 point where be Pelt ber k:i.ndo:.." squeeze mah han', 'Huff to make r;1e undcrstan'. 11 Sence ~rou Went A1:1ay 11 is one of the real touching statements in 11 J'inGles and Croons II and 3hows Johnson 'hridginc; between the blues and Spiritual styles. It h as an authentic (though quietly turbulent) ring in its sin plicity--ffioving and lingering in its spell wrought by seeing t h e loss of a lover as a cause for disorder in the cosr.1os. Glimp8cs of bnmor come through in a few of the poems but generally the di.alect is used for ridicule--albei t 218 �um1i ttingly--and deals with tbe "easy" life of the plantation, the stealing of turl;:eys and • • • entin' watermelon, an' a layin' in de sbade. We will meet Johnson agaln, a critic, different poet, user of a different ndialect." The towering figure of Black American literature until the Renaissance of the 1920's, Paul Laurence ])unbar (1872-1906) lived a complex, tragic, ar.1biguous and s1'10rt life. Born in Dayton, Ohio, to former slaves, Dunbar corilpleted his f'ormal training at that city's onl:r high schoo1--graduating with good marks and as the onl:r Black student in his class. He was sickly at an early age but became the man of the house,af'ter his father ts death, when he nas 12 years old. Completing high school, but being financially uno.ble to pursue his interests in law and journalism, Dunhar began 1-rni-•k as an elevator boy, maintaining bis voracious rec.ding habits. He was fond of Tennyson, Shelley (whom be took as o. model for his , poems in standard Englis!1), James Bussell Lowell ( whose work, along with Rile:r, Eugene Field a.nd Ella Hheeler 1-.Jilcox, he found in The Century), and others. Huch of Dunbar rs poetry bears striking resemblence to the 1-1orks of poets he admired, especially Shelley, Tennyson and Riley 1-1bose "devices" Dunbar "industriously" set out to "dismantle" and master . His volumes of verse include Oak and Ivy (1893), privately printed; Eajors and Hinors (1895), also privately printed, with 219 �the aid of patrons; Lyrics of Lowly Life (1896, witb a preface · by 'Hilliarn Dean Hm·J ells) wh ich , representing a major break- through for a Black auth or, was puh lish ed b y Dod, Mead and Company. This t h i r d v olune included t h e best poems from the two prev ious v olur;1e s a nd s ome t h at h a d not b ee n published before. Dunbar, now almost i nstantly famous, continued to write and pub lish b oth v e rse and fiction. His later books of' poems included Lyrics of t h e Hearth sidc (1899), Lyrics of Love a.nd Laughter ( 1903) o..nd Lyrics of Sunsh ine and Shadow (1905), the year b efore h i s d ea th . in 1913. Compl ete Poems was pub lished Intersp er s e d a mo ng t he s e bo ok s of poetry were volumes of short st orie s a nd four nov els. 'Hovels wer Th e Uncal led (1898), The Love of Landry (1900)., Th e Fina.tics (1901) and The Sport of t h e Gods ( 1902). His sh or t s tori e s included Folks fro n Dixie (1 898 ), Tb e Str ength of Gideon (1900)., In Old Plantation Days (~_903) a nd The He a rt of Hnpp:,r Ho llow (19 04). Dunb ar wa s pro l ifi c a lmost r i gh t up unt i ::. th e t i me of h is deatb-w'hich be k new u a s 12.ppr oacl: i ng .. E e h ad i~:arri e cl Al1,ce Ruth HoDe., a pr 01:1isi ng autl::ior f rou 1::"ew Orlo a ns , '.i.n 1e98 ; a.n d his last ~ears wor e a n o:fort to he a l h ot'h fai l i n; he a lt~ a nd a failing marriage. As a p oet, Dun½ o.r 's 110.rk fall s i nto tu o d i visio ns : lect and standard ( so,,10 : rn.:r 11 dia- 11.tor ar:r " or "cla.ss:1.c") E ng lish . He att 0r,1pt b ore t o pre sent some of h is po etic c oncerns, ach ieveme nt s a nd tber,108 . Dun1") 0.1° r s 1 5.f o a nd Hor ks a.re too far- r each ing and cor,1 plex t o ,,_,c as se s sed c or.1pletel:r i_n this typ e of s ur vey .' 220 .. ' ' �a rna.n or as an D~mb a.r wa.s ~... _ lQo 61 _.., ,: "Howells Har1 per-b aps t ho 8:1-1:r literature 11'10 >as :-1 t o ra:.,., ~r hc o 1~ cr i t lc i::-:i th e l1is tory of Ameri.can a'JJ. c to c re a te r•oputa.t l ons ½:r n. sincle re v i01 :r " (Brool:s , The Confident Years, 1;;2). Bnt, as Barksdale and Einnamon no t e, :9:owc:i..:o' rcvicu ·t-ras uore of a social commen- tary (liberal, tbat !s) th an li t ora.r:r cr'i.t lcin r.i . s ingled out t!1c clial oct poc~::s for spe ci..o. l pro.5.so . said, Howells Dun11 ar, he 11 1,ms the on:.:r ma n of p 1,.r e Afr:tcan ½looC::. and of American civilization to .focl negro brricall ,r. .., . ::tro a.0ct:1oticall:r a.i.1Cl express it 11 Du~, ar, lat er rcaliz1 nc Ho~ells' praise TTas n curse in disguise, strucsled for t'l-}c rest of ' ~ls l ife to remove the dialect stigr,ia. Ho complained t o ,Ta~·.1cs 1foldon Joh nson t h at t he public on:y wanted to read ~ is dialect pieces. the pressure to be an intelligent n~ a tG.bo , 11 And feeling be elsewhere com- plained of having to p lay t l1e part of a "hlack 1"11.1 i te ma n." Dunbar's resentment of t 1.1e "label" of dialect poet when h e felt he had rr..orc prof01.,.na. a nd co1;1p lex tbi n0 s to say is capsuled in 221 �this often-quoted stanza. fro ::u "Tho Poet 11 : He sa.ng of love when eart11 i:-ra.s ~roung, And love, itself, was in hi s lays. But ah, the -;-1 0rld, it tnrned to praise A jingle inn broken to nc;ue . Earlier in the poer,1 preferred to sing. Haunted Oak, 11 Dunbar refers to a ndeeper note" which he But while poems like "The Debt, 11 11 Sympatby, 11 "The and "Ere Sleep Comes Down to Soothe the Weary Eyes,n do have deep a.nd complicated meanings, one searches in vain for Dunbar the man in them. pieces, Dunbar 1,ms In the dialect ab le to capture the rhythms, phonetics and idioms of Black speech. But it ls generally agreed that, es- pecially since be used ridicule-directed white models, he s·aw the Black man as a subject for either humor or pity • . The South's revenge for the Civil Har h ad come in part through its philosophers and writers who reflected nostalgically about the npeace and tranquility" of plantation life. This was political chicanery at its worst, but several BlaQk poets, Dunbar included, followed the white originators of the minstrel and plantatlon school of poets. (Whites did not origi- nate minstrelsy--hu t they did corrupt it; see Loften Mitchell's Black Drama.) As a result, Dunbar's treatment of Blacks in his dialect poems is stock in trade for the era: singing, grinning, obsequious, head-scratchinc, master-loving, watermellon-eating, dancing, banjo-picking, darkies. Certainly Dunbar comes t hrough realist1.cally as in "A Negro Love Song" 222 �(a written accou nt of a song sung by Black be h ad worked with), "Litt le Brm-m Bah~r, 11 11 theme), "The Par ty , 11 1 rn1en De Co' n Pone's Hot," ( the g ood-eating '1-Iou Lucy Bae ks lid, 11 11 Tbe Rivals II and others. He also acbievc:::i subtlety and irony in others. 1 t-vn'l en Malindy sings" is by all accounts h:i.s importo.nt llnguisti c-cultural contribution. Yet Dunbar seemed to reserve the "serious" sub- jects for standard ~nglish--for wh:i.c1'1 Black critics will not forgive him--a.nd even :tn this seriousness be speaks of people biding bebi nd lonely. 11 tiiasks 11 or being ''caged II or "drca1;1i ng II or being In these standard pie ces, Dunbar treats loneliness, unrequited love and goes on loft:" f li g11t s as a. knight or wanderer or theologian; or be is resigned as i n 11 Rcsignation" where he invites God to "crush me for Thy use" if need he. Yet accusations that Dunbar HRS completely tor::1 from the real world of Blackness are not true. I n "T:1e :Haunted Oak," for example, he indicts the judge, t h e rai ni ster and t he doctor, for the lyncbine of a Black man. He a l so h~e ooded ov er his dark skin, feeli :1.c tbo.t , duri ns a t:tmo of preference for light-skin a nd the ;1al,i t of "passing ," h is color he ld him back. Bnt some of l1is po0tr:r a nticipates Garve:r's call for "ethnic purity." He prai3es t b c hr01m sl:in of :::and:" Lou in "J)re a :n:i.n' Town" and be loves "Dcl:' 11 for ~e:t ng 1 • • • brm·m c z 1r own ca n be . . .. .. .-. - . .. She ai n 't no mullnter; She pure cullnd ,--don 't you see 223 �Da.tts de why I love hub so, D' ain't no mix ahout huh . A similar theme pervades "S ong ," ("African me.id") '"Dinah Kneading Dough 11 ( ''Brown arms b uried elb01-r-deep ") and "A Plantation Por- trait!' ("Browner den de Frusb's Hing "). In bis dialect poems, Dunbar reveals a love for spiri. t and revelry and good times. But nowhere is t h ere an indicat :i. on of t be enormous suffering and violence inh e r ited 1 ) :T p os t -war Af ro-Americans. The lynchings, tbe patt~r-roller s s1-1oop ing dm-rn on defe nseless ex-slaves, the night-rides of t b e Ku Kl ux I:lan and 1-n1i te Citizens orga nizations, the harsh and deb :i.litati ng economic s ituation of Blacks in general--none of tbe s e t h ings find t h e i r way i nto Dunb ar's poetry. All thi s , of coure e , is i ro n:i. c a gainst Du nb ar's great admiration for such men as Preo.eric k Douglass, Alexander Crummell, Booker T. Hasb i Ll.zton "Blac k ~a.m,so n of Brand:n-l i ne 11 --all of whom he immortalized i n p o-e try . I nstead, i n b is "deeper note" Dunb ar (notwith standi ng the examp les of 1-Jh itfi.eld, 1·TT1ib;1s. n , DuBois, and others) s p oke of 'hear t b reak , pr obed b is own pessim1.s m and religious doubt a ncl s ee[1ed l i tera'::..l:r to p :J. ne a~-rn.~r. ( I n one dia- lect poer.i, h owever , h e a dvi sed Blo.c ks t o "Kee p P'2.u ggint Along ~-") Tiucb of t b is e n i gma. of Du nb ar s eems to b e explained in bis poem "A Ch oice 11 ( Ge ncra.1 -::y over looked h y cri.tics wb o r.1 onotonously quote fror.1 "Th e Poot 11 ) i n wb ich h e cor.1plai ns of h eing tired of problet'.'j,S and sh• os s e s: But i n a p oem l e t me sup , Not s i r.~ l es b r ewad to cur e or ease �.,,L].. 118, On more t~an one occasion, Dunhar inti mated to associates tHat l1 c 1:ras all "ot1t fec1 tlp -i-ri tl 1 raci.a l a s i tatton--a.pparcntl2r feeling tl"Jat Black-wh1.te r clat ior.s ucro 1-:i eyonc: ropah 1 T'vd.s could be • There are poets, he re in tl,e ml ddle of the 20th centnry, who feel the sace wa:r. :·fo,:e rt' ; eless Dnnb ar' s request was answered 'A Choice,'" said That pootc d i ould 'h o sui:ft de c rees An~ we~ stern facts to so~er song. Dunbar ei t}:er did not becd/~ear or wns not aware of t11:ts "answer 11 ; but if 1J e bad tal::en Cotter's ad v ice perhaps t1.rn world 1vould knm-1 a d5.fferent poet. A'!-)ove e.11, Dunbar was a skillful reader of h is poetry--often hr i nc i nz eudiences to their feet for stand inc ovat lo rs nncl ~)J.co.s for e :, coros. in the use JTi::i dexterousness "h,-.r - several "'GDe - b rations of Black colle ce poets and lc.;r wrlters irJ}:-:,o Lni tated }1 1m. In a.b1ost c~rer:· stf 1::::tantial Black co numni t:r there is some public faci li t:r named. after Dui'} 1~ar. JTo lJroto ln aL10st ever:, prevailing sty1-e--t11e ~rontost exploi tor of Eni.31:i.sh poetic techniques between Fhit man and Cn1le n . Sonnet, :r,.adrical, couplet, ballad, Spiritual, pre-h1-ues, soncs (includine use 225 �of musical notntio~ in some instances), 7ou name it and Dunhar seems to ;1ave tried it. Dunbar ' s po0t~1s can ' :e fonnd i_n Complete Poems, the text used for t~rn discussion l: er0. Por critical- 1~io_;rap11ical ·w riting o n Dun1,ar see 1foz_;ner 1 s Black Poets of t 1 ~e Unltod States (tbe most ambitious study to elate) , Bro..Hloy ' s Pnul Laurence Dunhar: Poet of Hln People, wor'.rn l1:r Brm-:n, ~=teddi.n.::;, TTictor Lawson ' s Dunbar Cri ti c al1~r Exa.,dne d, 7ir2:inia c1,_nn in;::;:.: a ri1 1 s Panl Lanrence Dun'!:.::ar and IT:i_s Son:::; , and Jenn Gould 1 s T1-"}a t Dnn:Jar Bo:r: Ameri c a ' s Fa1:1ous i;ecro Poet . The Stor:r of Ot'.~ers w'.· o 1.1ave written on Dunbar inc lt~de Houston Bs.'.:er, Dar~1.·.11 Turner, Benjamin r:a:rs, James Helclon ,Tobnnon , Hicl.: Aaron Ford a nd AdcJ_::rn n Ga:<"c.e, ,Tr . , v.11:o recently pub lished a Dunbar ' , :tograp'·:,:r. Junius IIordccai Allen ( l J?~-?), a. 1, out w', o.n ·we know ver:r l:tttle, is an :i.t;1portant f'iG'J.re in this tra;1si_t:to:"lal pl: ase of Black poetr:r . T°!"is pbasc , 1 1-r 11c:, w:i.t:1ess ed t 11e passinc; of the plantation tradition in poetr:- and t:!o wiltin=: of Wasblncton ' s influenc e on Blac k tb5-nkors and nct:i. v :tsts, co::ne :::i to a close about the middle of tho second decade of t he 20t ~ century . Allen , Dunbar , DnBois, Car.1p 11 oll and Corrotb ers are D.monc:; the many t rans i ti oni::-i ts . AlJ.en was 1.)orn i 11 lfont;::;or.ier:", Ala:"l ama , and moi.red witl1 l, is fa r.1i 2..:r to Topeka, TCa.nsa, years old . i 1en r. e was seven Ex c ept for n t 1lroe - ~rea.r period, dnri nc: w11i c;1 ;1e Hrote for• and trn'.·cl0d .-rit 1.., a t 1, entrical r;roup, 1.1e spe !.1 t most of bis life as n '. ~- oi2.erma!cer for w:,:i.c:.1 ll e l1 ad apprenti c ed. His onl:-r volume is m-1:rr:-~e:.::, Tales ancl. :Rh-:rrned TnJ.es 226 (Topeka, 1906). �!1ostly in dialect, ItJ:rmes co nt ai ns "c;reat felid.t:-- of c:.1a.rac- terization, surpris it1c turns of wit 11 ai:d "quai ;Tt. p'I-Jilosophy. 11 The book appeared t1"J e :renr of Dtrn~)ar' s deat 1"' and Kerlin places Allen on par witb Dunbar --some1,J1·: 2t of Allen is deep anc7. pr of ounC: ::i. n aD exaseration. Howe v er, , otb ,, 5 s standard. En.:;l ish pieces 1 (b e 1.ncludes two in tt:e 1· >00'.;:) a nd dialect. "Countlns Out II is a ratber l :tebt rccol'2.ccti_on of ch5.lc11-, ood :::;ames such as 11 Countins : curri nc; : 110 II gives clnes to tbe po:;c 1-olo,c).ca:, l::i.n _:;~1tsti c a :1d c;e stural development of ?~.e. c l: :,.oun.:;~tc::>s (ubic Allon also knows tho co nso qucn c c,s of 1 ' 11 is c h ar:i1incl:r suff:lcient). 0 ct tin c can 01, t II out at ni gb t or ln alien torrttor:,. amonc3 vi ciou s, 'ha te-~11on 6 eri ng and Aro ,~o·H trit'· co nse que n ces fra t' c;1°·t; 227 �5.s t 1-:0 f 5.rst to To win one stride from sh eer defeat; To die--but cain an inch. His pen remained silent afte1• his first book. And one wonders if .Johnson, like so many Black artists, renounced his artistic inclination ( in view of the ti mes) and simpl:~r c;ave up. His dialect poems ce.rry, on t h e surface, t h e spirit of the "dialect tradition." But Allen is a biting satirist of middle-class Blacks (Wagner attributes this to an "inferiority complex") and pokes fun at whites. who tries to "resist" in On, Mr. Suny, 11 Temptation over ... takes the preacher 11 The Devil and Sis Viney" but in "Shine and "The Squak of the Fiddle II show his close ob- servation of(and take-it-or-leave-it attitude toward) whites. His satire of the Black middle-class is reminiscent of the impatience suggested in statements by Whitman and anticipates the works, especially, of Frank Marshall Davis and Melvin Tolson. Allen is also important as e. stylistic innovator. In "A Victim of Microbes," he again casts aspersions on whites and spoofs stereotypes of Blacks as field workers and laborers. But he couches his narrative in an exciting new literary form which allows for an alternation between a loosely rhymed eight-lined stanzas and four-lined stanzas of blank verse in 228 �which repetition of the sort found in the blues of Spirituals occurs: I done hyeahed de doctor say it--de doctor hisse'f said it-- •••• Brown was right when he said Allen's work was "unpretentious 11 and contained "pleasant humor." For selections of Allen's poetry see Kerlin's work; see, for criticism, Brown and Wagner. Primarily important as a writer of prose, journalist and an inspiration to other writers, Alice Nelson-Dunbar (1875-1935) was born and received _her public education in New Orleans, Louisiana, and married Paul Laurence Dunbar in 1898. She did further study at Cornell and Columbia Universities and the University of Penn~ylvania. She authored volumes of prose (Violets and Other Tales, 1894; The Goodness of St. Tocque, 1890) and edited Masterpieces of Ne ero EloquenEe, 1913, and The Dunbar Speaker, 1920, in which appears some of her poetry. :Mrs. Dunbar-Nelson was noted :for her abilities as a journalist and lecturer; for a while she served as managing .edotor of The Advocate and she contributed to numerous magazines. Her poetry, as yet uncollected, bas little racial flavor; but she does protest World War I and her often-anthologized sonnet represents her technical abilities in that form. In "I Sit and Sew" she laments that, as a woman, she can do little else to hasten the end to war. "The Lights At Carney's Point" contains "fine symmetry, highly poetic diction and great allusive meaning." An easy-flowing poem in four-lined stanzas of iambic tetrameter meter, "Light" allows the poet (as with many romantic writers) • 229 �to stream associations from a central theme--the lights. But something is lost when the lights go "gray in tbe ash of day" And the sun laughed high in the infinite sky, And the lights were forgot in the sweet, sane calm. Studies of Mrs. Dunbar-Nelson's poetry are underway. collected poems have yet to be published. Her "The Sonnet" is printed in several anthologies and three of her poems. appear in Kerlin's book. Kerlin also advances brief criticism. A critical study of Mrs. Dunbar-Nelson is currently. Although Sterling Brown says that Joshua Henry Jones (1876-?) "gives little besides banal jingling " we mention him briefly as part of our effort to survey most of the poetic output of the period. ~or more listings of lesser-known poets see the end of the chapter. Jones was born in Orangesburg, South, Carolina, and, after completing high school, attended Ohio State University, Yale and Brown. He served on the editorial staffs of several newspapers, was secretary to th~ mayor of Boston for four years, and published two books of poems (The Heart of the World and Other Poems, Boston, . 1919, and Poems of the Four Seas, Boston, 1921) and a novel (By Sanction of_Law, Boston, 1924). Jones' poetry treats nature, nostalgia, race struggle ( as in ''Brothers u) and sentimental love ( "A Southern Love Song") themes which Kerlin has compared to Johnson's "Love Song." Though grim, 11 To A Skull," does show some origi- nality. 230 �Noted more for walking all the way from his home in the South to Harvard University, where he camped overnight and was arrested on a charge of vagrancy, Edward Smyth Jones (18?-?) published The Sylvan Cabi~ in 1911. nalled "pompously literary" by Brown who adds that his verses are less interesting than his "biography, tt Jones wrote "Harvard Square" wjile he was in jail. The poem brought him immediate attention and helped speed up his release. The poem is a hodge-podge of imitations of various European models used by Jones. He recites the names of Dante, Byron, Keats, Shelley, Burns, and so on down the line, in a bombast of stanzas. "A song of Thanks, sensitivity and deeper feeling. 11 however, shows more While it leaves a·. lot to be desired, one can certainly feel the power growing through the repetition (in several dozen lines) of "For the" sun, flowers, rippling streams, and other faces of nature. Alex Rogers (1876-1930) is one of the several dozen or so "minor" writers of dialect during this period. As we stated earlier, poets published pamphlets themselves, s .e cured places for their work in newspapers and macazines, and traveled on a regular reading circuit executin 0 their poems and ditties, o:rten to the accompaniment of bands or single musical instruments. This practice would continue up until this very day when many of the poets, if not heard live, loose their signi:ficance and dramatic flavor. Such was the case with Rogers who ''wrote lyrics for most of tbe songs in the musical comedies in which Williams and Walker appeared. 231 11 Rogers was born in �Nashville., Tennessee., educated in tbe schools of that city., and finally worked bis way north where be wrote some of the most popular songs of bis day; be ma.de a number of performers famous., including white entertainers looking for "Negro stuff." work is satire, humor and some slap-stick. some clue to bis intentions: His His titles give '~Thy Adam Sinned," 11 Tbe Rain Song" (a Flip Wilson-type conversation between "Bro. Wilson" and ''Bro. Simmons"), "Tbe Jonah Man, Drop." 11 and "Bon Bon Buddy, the Chocolate Rogers' significance, however, lies in his work in the _ theater and his ground- breaking e.fforts to cha.nee the popular (ministrel-inspired) image of Blacks. Dunbar had co-authored lyrics for Clorindy--Ori gin of the f!ake Walk (1 098 ) and In De.homey (1903). This was part of a groundswell that occured when, according to Loften Mitchell (Black Drama): In the latter part of the nineteenth century a group o.f Negro theatrical pioneers sat down and plotted the deliberate destruction of the minstrel pattern. These men were Sam T. Jack, Bert Williams, George Walker, Jesse Shipp, Alex Rogers, S.H. Dudley, Bob Cole, J. Rosamond Joh nson and John w. Isham. And in destroying the minstrel pattern, these men were to help pave the way for the million-dollar musical pattern which today dominates the American theatre. Mitchell's observation sheds great li gbt on the importance of many Black "poets" who, however dismally they may fa.re on paper, 232 �are of major importance to the aggreGate ritual and musical sense/life of on-going Black society. Today we see a similar pattern, with radical variations, of course--growing from the work of James Weldon Johnson and others--in Gil Scott-Heron, The Last Poets, the poets who are writing for the ritual theater, and in the efforts of dramatists like Melvin Van Peebles (Ain't Supposed to Die A Natural,) Paul Carter Harrison (Tbe Great 1-IcDaddy ), Imamu Amiri Baraka (Slave Ship), the work of Barbara Teer, Clay Goss (Andrew and Home-Cookine), Eugene B. Redmond (The Face of the Deep, 9 Poets with the Blues, and The Night John Henry Was Born) and the experimental productions of Michael Gates (The Black 0offin, There's a Wiretap in My Sou~: or Quit Bum~ing Me and Will I Still Be Here Tomorrow). Th is pattern, practically perfected by Langston Hughes, can also be seen in outstanding performing-cultural centers conducted by Katherine Dunham in East St. Louis, Val G-ray Ward in Chicago, and at Alma Lewis's Center for Afro-American Cultural and Performing Arts in Boston. Sterling Brown lumps Rogers in a class with other "minor writers of dialect" and includes Sterling Means (The Deserted Cabin and Other Poems), S. Tutt 'Whitney, Waverly Turner Carmichael, and just about anybody else who wrote dialect at the time. Means also wrote in conventional English forms. For evaluations of Rogers and other similar writers see Mitchell's Black Drama, Johnson's American Negro Poetry ~nd Black Manhattans) and Brown. 233 �As part of a stream of Black "immigrants" that has not been abated to this very day, George Rec;inald Margetson (1877-?), was born in St. Kitts (British West Indies) and came to the United States when he was 20-years-old. Mare;etson, e. wholly original poet, got a good solid grounding in literature in his childhood and produced f'our volumes of' poetry: England in the West Indies (1906), Ethiopia.ts -Plt ght (1907), ~ongs of Life (1910) and Th e Flcd cling Bard and_tbc Poetry _Society (1916). His acbievement can he seen in the last hook which consists of one 100-page poem. A s~tire, owing debt to Byron and other English inf'luences, the poem represents one of the most important technical undertakinc; by a Black poet since 1foitma.n's Rape of Florida. Marcetson uses mostly seveh-lined stanzas of five-f'oot meter with the seventh line lengthening to an Alexandrina. His rhyme scheme is ab ab . b cc and he exhibits a wacky, uproarous use of both rhyme and humor. The basic stanzaic pattern is interspersed with shifting meters and schemes which appear as four-lined stanzas in an ab ab movement or an a a ab context. The poem begins in a search for the Poetry Society (reminiscent of several European poets) and Margetson essays an old theme: that of poetry being mechan- ical and your success depending on school or dress as opposed to bow talented. During this nquest" Margetson "digresses" to discuss and explore practically every major current theme in society: social conditions, World War I, politics, religion, literature, the Black problem, and he even pokes fun at President �Woodrow lJ'ilson: Come, Woody, quit your honeymooning! In this important poem, Hargetson is scathing , sustained and brilliant. He views the ma.ny currents runnine; through the Black community and satirically sums up all the conf'usion: Some look to Booker vlashincton to lead them, Some yell for Trotter, some for Kelly Miller, Some want DuBois with fat ideas to feed them, Some want Jack Johnson, the bic white hope killer. Perhaps some want carranza, some want villa, I guess they want social equality, To marry and to mix in white society. Other, later, satirists whom Margetson's work calls to mind are Tolson (and his incomparable Harlem Gallery ), Frank Marshall Davis, Dudley Randall, George S. Schuyler (Black Ho Mor~), William Melvin Kelley and Ishmael Reed. In bis other poetry, Margetson is strone and competent--he reflects bis immense reading background, 11 Spenser to Byron"--but none of his earlier work matches up to Fledgeling Bar~. For samples and criticism of Margetson's writing see Johnson and Kerlin. Sterling Brown also makes a brief critical observation. In many ways the poetry of William Stanley Braithwaite (1878-1962) has suffered the fate of that by Phillis Wheatley, Dunbar and others somehow deemed "not Black enough" for inclusion in some Afro-American poetic-cultural circles. 235 The Frenchman �Jean Wagner said that a study of Braithwaite does not belong among those of other '1Bla.ck poets." A mulatto, Braithwaite was born in Boston to West Indian parents and was mainly self-educated. He is considered a major influence on "the new poetry revival" in America and counted among his friends such white literary figures as Vachel Lindsay, Carl Sandburg, Edgar Lee Masters, Arrry T,owell and Edwin Arline:ton Robinson. His career as a poet began with the 1904 publication of Lyrics of Life and Love and his second volume (House of the Falling Leaves) was published in 1908. His Selected Poems was published in 1948 by Coward-Mccann, Inc. Best known for his Anthologies of Magazine Verse, published from 1913 until 1929, Braithwaite was for many years a literary critic with the Boston Transcript. His other anthologies include The Book of Elizabethan Verse_ (19061 Tl]e Book of Georgian Verse_ (1908) and The Book of Restoration Verse (1909). For 11is efforts Braithwaite received the NAACP's coveted Springarn medal in 1918 for high achievement by an Afro-American. The same year he received honorary degrees from two Black universities and later became professor of creative literature at Atlanta University, a position he held until he retired in 1945. Graithwaite's poetry, Sterling Brown said: The result is the usual one: the lines are graceful; at their best, exquisite, and not at their best, secondhand; but the substance is thin. Even the fugitive poetry of some 236 Of �of Braithwaite's masters had ereater human sympathies. Brown is implying, of course, that some of the white "models" that Braithwaite used could "get down" (to use a current phrase) even if the Black poet could not. Brown is essentially correct; I have tested the t h esis in classrooms and t he best students appear dumbfounded upon confronting Braithwaite after leaving other Black poets. And Braithwaite's problem is not · the same sort of "problem" presented by a, say, Tolson--wh ose work is dif.ficult and complex but not unweildy on repeated readings {plus Tolson's work is essentially Black-based). Braithwaite seems to be reach ing for a h i gher science in h is words; but he does not chart bis path so we can follow. Brown said bis writing resembled npoetry of the twilight"--just as you think you have his meaning , it slips away. This is especially true of poems like "Turn Me to My Yellow Leaves" (about a death-wish?), nnel Cascar," "Ironic: LL.D" (about the waste-land, c.f., T.S. Eliot, and history?), "Scintilla," and "Sic Vita. t' "Rhapsody" is one of Braithwaite's most attainable poems, but the message is nebulous. He expresses thanks to t he supreme being for "the gift of song " and is replenished in the knowled ge that "world-end things" that dangle on the "edge of tomorrow" can be obliterated by dreams. In his critical introduction to Braithwaite, Johnson (American Negro Poetry) apologizes for the poet's lack of sensitivity to either mistreatment of Blacks and explains his 237 �failure to dip into the Black folk-base: This has not been a matter of intention on bis part; it is simply that race bas not impinged upon him as it has upon other Negro poets. In fact, his work is so detached from race that for many years he had been a figure in the American literary world before it was known generally that he is a man of color. Certainly Johnson meant no harm in usine the word "color" but it tempts one to punning. Braithwaite, as Brown and others have noted, rejected having his work indiscriminately called "Negro" poetry. This issue continues to raise its head with, first, Cullen and, later, Hayden {including many other lesser-known poets in between). And there are other poets of the 20th century who have written {or write) Braithwaite's type of poetry. Some, of course, are experimenting and searching for new forms. See for example some of the work of Cullen, Hayden, Randall {Hore to Remember) Russell Atkins, Bob Kaufman, Tolson, Gwendolyn Brooks, Michael S. Harper {especially History as Apple Tree), and others. The debate over how much of {or when) a poet•s work is or should be nracial" is a continuing one and is not likely-given the diversity of the poets--to be settled in the very near future. For example, with the exception of Claude McKay, no other poet has as many {or more) poems as Braithwaite in Johnson's 1922 (1931) anthology. Whether Johnson did this out of debt or respect is not knowu. Braithwaite, we know, had praised Johnson 238 �(Fti'ty Yee.rs) :for bring ing "th e first intellectual substance to the content" of A.fro-American poetry . But J'. Saunders Redding called Braithwaite "the most outstanding example o:f perverted ener~J 11 t h at was produced in a. 14-y ea.r period of Black poetry. At ~tlanta University , Braithwaite rubbed shoulders with DuBois, Mercer Cook, Rayford Logan and others, which apparently helped h i m doff some of h is Bostonian snobbishness. His poetry in e eneral reflects t he influe nce o:f Keats arrl the pre-romantic British poets. He loves to speak of dreams, trances, impendi ng doom, silence and t h e prospect of touching other worlds. For selections of his wor k see most anth ologies of Afro-American literature. Brown, Redding and Brawley. He is critically assessed by Oth er evaluations a.re primarily concerned with Braithwaite's work as anth ologist and critic. Barksdale and Kinnamon give a good overall assessment of the man. Braithwaite did include some Blad{ poets in h is magazine anthologies and he stands a.tan important t hreshh old of the A.fro-American entry into t he era of modern poetry . · Records show t hat literally hundred s of poets, insp! fed by the brilliant example of Dunbar and company , took part of this exciting pre-Renaissance of Blac k American cul ture and arts. For more on t h ese poets, stude nts s h ould eo to such publications as The Century , t h e Inde pendent, The Ch ica ~o Defender, and the numerous other art-and-poetry -conscious publications of th e day . Yet it is i n some wa:rs appropriate t h at we approach our cl os e to th is ch o. pter wi t h Lucien B. Watkins 239 �(1 D79-1921), first teach er a rx:1 t ~'.' en soldter, t-.rb o was ce.11.ed 11 t h e poet laureate of t 1~e New He s ro. 11 \.f 2-t ki ns pubJ. isb ed one volume of poetry in 190 7 (Voj_c es of 3o-:1.J- tucle_) hi s seco nd hook (l·n 1isperi nc; Winds , n . d . ) was bronglJt out b y frie nds sb ortly after bis untime ly death . Watkins i s ch iefly noted for his mili tanc:,r of ton0 as typified in h is sonnet "Th e Hew Ne,sro 11 which opens wi t l1 tbe words He t h inks in black and goes on to describe a God with Africa n features. Watkins also wrote bis own eulo z:r a fet-1 weeks before he died. In the hymn-inspired form he is grippingly aware of his approaching death as shown in these lines: :rv:ry summer bloomed for winter's frost: Alas, I've lived a nd loved and lost! nA Hes sage to t h e Moder n Pha.roe.hs" is inspired (introduced) by a passage from Joh n 11.44 in t h e Dible. The interations "Loose him!" and nLet him go!' frame each of the six four-lined stanzas. Taking the militant stand chnracteristic of bis work, Watkins tells the Pharoahs to let the Black man go b ecause he 11 bas bis part tc;, play" In Life's Great Drama, day by day,-adding that freeing the A.f'ro-American will "be the saving" of whites' nsoul. 11 In many ways a precurser of the Harlem Renaissance, Watkins conducted experiments in verse ("A Prayer of the Race that God Hade Black") and expressed pride in bis African heritage ("Star of Ethiopia"). He was born in Chesterfield, Virginia, �educated at Virginia Normal and Industrial Institute, and was active as a teacher before he served overseas in World War I which "wrecked his health." Perhaps Watkins' feelings are best expressed in these lines (reminiscent of Margetsonts: "The white man's heaven is the black me.n's hell.!!): God! save us in Thy Heaven, where all is ·well! We come slow-struggling up the Hills of . Hell! For additional comment on Watkins see Brawley' s Negro Genius, Kerlin's study (which includes more selections) and Johnson's American Negro Poetry (selections also). During t h is ver~r i mportant perio d of transition, across all levels of Black America, there were other poets writing. We ought to site T. Thomas Fortune (1856-1928 ) wrote journalism and important political studies of Blacks. And although Brawley calls him one of "the most intelligent and versatile Ne groes of the era," bis collection of poems, Dreams of Life: Mis- cellaneous Poems (1905), shows no marked distinction in that category (though he implies a desire to return to Africa in "The Clime of My Birth 11 ) . A preacher-poet, Geor ge C. Rowe (1853-1903), published Thoughts in Verse (1887) and Our Heroes (1890). The first book contains sermons in verse and the second is aimed at "the elevation of the race." Rowe, a pastor of the Plymouth Congregational Church of Charleston, South Carolina, also published "A Noble Life, 11 a poem in memory of Joseph C. Price, first president of Livingston College. Known for her �now famous Journal, Charlotte L. Forten Grimki (1 837-1914) is considered to have npossessed sensitivity and creative skills beyond the ordinary" in t h e few poems s h e wrote. Uncollected, they are scattered throughout her notes and various periodicals published between the 1850's and the turn of t h e century. Islay Walden (1847?-1884) published Miscellaneous Poems in Washington, D.C., in 1873. There is an immaturity in Walden's style, owing, according to Jahn, to the fact t hat h is enrollment at Howard University 11 de~troyed his natural talent." Th e Nation's Loss: A Poem on the Life and Death of the Hon. Abra.ham Lincoln, by Jacob Rhodes (1 835?-?), was published in 1866. Summer, John Willis Menard (1 838-1893), the In Lays of first ✓elected Black congressmen in the United States, makes women his central theme--calling t h em by name as h e praises their "hairrr and "lips." For racial reasons, h e was denied his "earned" term in the House of Representatives. Ja mes Ephriam McGist (1874-1930) brought out Avengine; the Haine (Ralei gh , North Carolina, 1899), Some Simple Songs and A Few More Ambitious Attempts (Philadelphia, 1901 ) and For YOt::r 3-weot 8a1:e (Pl 1 ilnc1clp1 , ia, 1?06). Charles Douglas Clem publ ished Rhyme s of n Rhymster (Edmond; Oklah oma, •\ »• l A. :- . _f: ' .:~ ::. "::1 :.-:-, - - - -- - • �reflected the t h ouc;hts of William J. Candyne. Prose was in- cluded b~r Frank Barbour Coffin (1870?-1951) in Coffin's Poems with Ajax' Ordeals (Little Rock, 1892). James Thomas Franklin published one volume of poetry (Jasamine Poems, Memphis, 1900) and one of prose and poetry (Mid-Day Geanings, A Book for Home and Holiday Reading (Memph is, 1 893). not ext a nt . Je_~samine apparently is Poems of To-Day or Some Fror.i t h e Everglades ( Quinc:r, F lor i c1a , 1 ~')3 ) ua:::: pt1.', 1ts11ec. ·--:• Cupid Al eyns 1-.r .,i tfield. Joshua Mccarter Simpson (1 820?-1 876) released The Emancipation Car (Zanesville, Ohio,) in 1 874. Simpson included a prose satire called "A Consistent Slaveh older's Sermon." The Open Door (1895) was published in Winfield, Kansas, by F.S. Alwell. Aaron Belf'ord Thompson {1883-1929) was a member of a family that consisted of a trio of poets. Thompson and his sisters, Pricilla and Clara, brought out seven volumes of poetry between 1899 and 1926--the middle of the Harlem Renaissance. Priscilla Thompson published Ethiope Lays (1900) and Gleanings of Q.uiet Hours (1907). Clara Thompson released ~one;s from t h e Way side (190 8 ) ahd A Garland of Poems (Boston, 1926). Aaro n Thompson publish ed Morning Son~s {1899), Echoes of Spring (1901)--both dictated to his sisters and brother--and Harvest of Though ts (1907). F.choes, in its second edition of 1907, bore a h andwritten complementary introduction by James Wh itcomb Riley . Th eir subjects are the conventional ones of t he 19th century . Charles Henry Shoeman published A Dream and Other Poems in An Arbor in 1 899. Magnolia Leave s was publish ed by Mary Weston Fordh a m in Charleston, �South Carolina, in 1897. Straddling similar fields of expression, as did Alex Rogers, James Weldon Johnson, Nathaniel Dett and others, George Hannibal Temple (a musician) brought out The Epic of Columbus' Bell and Other Poems in 1900. Benjamin Wheeler :followed him in 1907 with Culling from 7.ion's Poets {Mobile, Alabama). Several dozen other Afro-Americans wrote poetry during the later part of the 19th and early 20th centuries. Among them were Robert Benjamin (Poetic Gems, 1883), Lorenzo Dow Blackson, Walter Henderson Brooks, John Edward Bruce, Alexander numan Delaney, Josephine Delphine Heard, Joseph Cephas Holly, A.J. Jackson (A Vision of Life, 1869), Henry Allen Laine (Footprints), Mary Eliza Lambert, Lewis Howard Latimer, Grace Mapps, Journalist William I-I.A. Moore, Gertrude Mossell, James Robert Walker (Poetical Diets). Other occasional poets who were ·q uite popular among their contemporaries included Solomon G. B11own, William Wells Brown, Katie n. Chapman, W.H. Crogman, Frederick Douglass, Leland I1. Fisher, Nathaniel Dett, and Virgie Whitsett. Some notable turn-of-the-century poets, a :few of which will be heard from later were, Benjamin Brawley (critic and social historian), Charles Roundtree Dinkins, David Bryant Fulton, Gilmore F. Grant, N.N. Rayson, Elliott Blaine Henderson, H.T. Johnson, Jefferson King, J.W. Palsey, Otis M. Shackelford, Walter E. Todd, Richard E.S. Toomey, Irvine W. Underhill, Julius C. Wright and others. 'F'or more on these poets, including delightful pictures of some, see �Brawley's The Negro Genius (and otber works), Sherman's Invisible Poets and Kerlin's Ne gro Poets and Their Poems. Kelly Miller's Race Adjustment appeared in 1909 as a partial answer to sori1e of the evils and ills plaguing Blacks. But against the balocaustal "panorama of vio1ence n a nd 'bloodsljed, the title of Hiller's book seemed a.l r.i.ost h ollow. was born in 1909 and a year later DuBois WRS The N"AACP put at the belm of its publicity de~ artme nt and made ed itor of Crisis. Echoes :rrom t he 1906 Atlante. riots, in whi cb JO Bla.c ks were ''butchered", could still be heard r evorberati n: in speech es and fear-seized Black h eRrts. (For more on t h is senseless and sadistic murder of Blacks see John Hope Franklin's !ro~ Slaver~ to Freedom and Ralph Ginzherg' s 100 Years of L~rnchin3: . ) On t h e lecture-circuit rampage, DuBois hentedl:r criticized President Theodore Roosevelt who had declared t h at 11 Ha.pe is t h e sreatest cause of lynching. The nation was tryine; to turn back the clock, as evidenced by the nostalgic minstrelsy, a nd was conductinc a good "sabotage" or the Reconstruct1.on. And Blacks were feverously mobilizing to keep from beinc sold "back into n new form of slavery." 245 11 � 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_04 Title A name given to the resource Copy of Drumvoices: The Mission of Afro-American Poetry: A Critical History, Chapter IV. Jubilees, Jujus, and Justices, p. 168-245 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. https://digitallis.isg.siue.edu/files/original/efe6c634b118d7cbf0a40da224b42850.pdf ca15909d8f48fc93de485455eb1174df PDF Text Text CHAPTER III AFRICAN VOICE IN ECLIPSE: IMITATION & AGITATION 1746 - 1865 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." The fact that one writer has made more works accessible to the public than another writer does not make him/her the "greatest II or even "greater. 11 In every era., quiet and important writers have been passed over in favor of literature that is more "timely, 11 'flamboyant II and "relevant 11 --to use an overworked contemporary term. Here and following chapters, I am including brief representations of the poetry. And while this book certainly is not an "anthology," "samples" are given to reinforce comments on styles, themes, subjects, language and other aspects of the poetry. The poems included, it is hoped, will allow student, general reader and teacher immediate access to comparisons, contrasts and tentative analyses. There also is no over-riding effort to explain the works in a • 93 .I �poem-by-poem breakdown. However, Chapter VII will offer an historical "runnlng " a nal:,rsis of several poems with emphasis on how the poems can be read silently and aloud. Also to be examined are some of the consistencies (and similarities) in themes that can be found i n many of the poems. II Literary and Socia~ Landscape Blacks have he en in the Western Hemisphere almost as long as whites. After 1501, most of the Spanish exped:i.tions to the New World included Black explorers. By the time the 20 slaves- to-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 ½oth 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 Neoclassicism (or from the Romanticism of the lBOOts). 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, co nsidered the finest Black talent of the colonial era, caught between contrivances of the Age of Enlightenment and the approaching grip of the romantics. 94 The neoclassical �tradition that reached its height in the poetry of England's Alexander Pope, had already begun to die out with the death of Pope himself in 1744. All over Colonial America, however, white poets were imitating the stiff-collared conventionality of that period. The moral issues considered by most of the poets (Black and white)--universal brotherhood of man, quest for reason and order, the Jeffersonian ideals of freedom, liberty and representative government--were removed from the everyday brutality of slavery. Some of the most liberal men of the day (Jefferson, Washington, Hume) implicitly justified slavery by suggesting that Blacks were in some ways inferior. Despite Jefferson's pontifications on humanitarianism, he was unable to reconcile the disparity between his public stands and his failure to manumit his own slaves. Although Jefferson carried on a written correspondence with Black astronomer and mathematician, Benjamin Banneker, he considered Phillis Wheatley's work "beneath criticism. 11 On the general American scene, the Revolution behind, a national literature had begun to emerge. Fascinated with American employment of new technology (Franklin's lightning experiments, printing presses, etc.) and the prospects of unexplored regions of the New World, writers started recording travels and observing the mixture of races and religions. Although religious fervor was still high (Calvinism, Weslyanism and deism had run their courses), political problems dominated. Between 1790 and 1832 the new American government was being consolidated and the writings of men like William Bradford, • 95 �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 an:1 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 white America's greatest writers along with romanticism and rugged individualism. :Mystified by the noble savage (Indians and sometimes Blacks) and challenged by the "new frontier," Americans began to romanticize their situation and especially that of explorers 1~0 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 (cons:J.dered the first great American novelist--The Scarlet Letter), John Greenleaf vJhi ttier, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, James Russel Lowell, Oliver Wendell Holmes, Harriet Beecher Stowe (one of the first white American novelists to feature a Black protagonist in fiction--Uncle Tom's Cabin), Ra lph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, �Herman Melville (considered to have written one of the handful of "great Tl American no ve ls-- r-Iohy Dick), Walt '!rJhi t man ( termed the Tlgreatest" American poet--Leaves of Grass). Other writers, primarily political acti vists or abolitionists, included John G. Calhoun, Willlar:i Lloyd Garrison, and Abrahar,1 Lincoln. Using their own and Black materlal, a numhe r of white composers i mmortalized t he era ln songs-- man:- of t 1.1 em national:tstic. It wa s C.nr ing t hj_::.; r, e rio( t11at Fran c:Ls Scott Key wrote TIThe Star Spangled Banner. 11 Step:1en Foster b8. S since b een accused of merely putting to music the s on cs that were sung by slaves. There was no i.:;oncral encot1rage r:1ent, bowever, for Blacks to earn to read; but many slave owner s indul ged their chattel tn uriting exercises as pers onal pasttir.1es and h obbies. So nany of the early Black poets, then, grew up in relative security. To be totally free, David Walker ohser ved in h is Appeal (1829) to be economl cal ly insecure, socially ostracized and psycho- ':lrn : og1 cnlly oppres sed . Co nseque ntly, t h ose slaves priviledged to read and writ e invariably took European literary models. f~ta , of course, were not the only ones writing. In addition o n ol1tionists-essayists, like Walker and Frederick Douglass, '1h per iod of Black literary activity was highlighted by •lt1t tng slave narratives: ·r t troed slaves. autobiogra phical accounts of escaped The most popular of t h ese, and one of the rit rocorded, was The Interesting 'JITarra ti ve of the Life of Gustavus Vassa, the African (1789). includes it in bis Great Slave Narratives 97 Arna (1969). �Vassa, who also included penned some notable verses, c onstructe(l a story pattern that was to b ecome fa miliar to readers of early America: that of the escaped, freed or run away slave w1 o reported his or h er hardsh ips and struggles. Vassa descri hes his life in Africa up until the time of h is kidnapping . With vivid memory and detail, he establishes the orig inal bases for what we have come to call the nAfrican Continuum" in America. It is not just mere coincidence that t b is statement from 1789 almost 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), h as d l scussed the problem of determining auth enticity of the narratives. Hrs. Porter is librarian of the Moorland Foundation at Howard University--which houses an outstanding collection on the Black past. book she included: 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 a gainst colonization; printed letters, sermons, petitions, orations, lectures, essays, reli g ious and In her �moral treatises, and such creative manifestations as poems, prose narratives, and short essays. Mrs. Porter thus sums up the intellectual and literary output of the early Africans. The word "African," was used generously by most writers and speakers of the era. 'When "African" was not employed it was i r:1plied through the use of "Coloured," "Black, 11 "an Ethiopian P.r incess" and other terms. 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 send many a loudmouth back to school! In addition to the plethora of pamphlets, broadsides, books and news organ that emerged from Black individuals and institutions during the period up to the 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 Cu:ffee and Daniel Coker, took up projects of "mutual aid" for Africans. Their work set the stage for missionary, ab olitionist and self-help programs undertaken later by people like Jarena Lee, Frederick Douglass, R. Martin Delaney, Sojourner Truth, and Alexander Crummell, to name only a handfull. The intellectual, relig ious and moral work of Blacks in the North was paralleled by the development of folk materials 99 �(the songs and stories) of Blacks on S outhern plantations. In general few states, North or S outh, allowed educational or vocational opportunities for Blacks. Thus the energies of early Black writers and intellectuals, Mrs. Porter and William Robison point out, were aimed at setting up of various '~frican" societies and free schools, and the promotion of literacy and self-betterment among newly freed slaves. Many educated Blacks of the North also acted as conduits for the Underground Railroad. The Rev. Allen, popular religious crusader and founder of tre Bethel African Methodist Episcopan Church, seems to have been referring to the sa:ne Black "sensib ility" described by Vass a when he said ( in 1793) that be was confident that there was no religious sect or de nomination that would suit the capacity of the colored people as well as the Methodist; ••• Sure I am that readin g sermons will never prove so beneficial to the colored people as spiritual or extempore preaching ••.• Much evidence exists, then, of Blacks b anding together for "mutual" concerns in the early days of America. The horror~ 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 100 �Appeal). Reporting on white America's "need" to vent its fears and hatreds on Blacks, Winthrop Jordan (vJbi te Over Black, 1968) noted that whites initially feared tbree things: loss of identity, lack of self-control and sexual license. In an ei'i'ort to e.scape the "animal within h imself t11e white man debased the Negro, surely, but at the same time he debased himself." And a young Frenchman, Alexis de Tocqueville, visiting America in 1831, said racial prejudice was "stronger in the states that bave abolished slavery than in tbose where it still exists." 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 facing hell from all sides. Nevertheless a literary tradition did develop and flourish in Black America. The example of the narratives (including those by }Iarrant, 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 (185,7). 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 on in the cause oi' abolition and other social reform programs. His Anti-Slavery Harp (1348 ) 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 o~ creator and activist, characterizes the history of Black • 101 �creativity in America. Yet many critics, Black and white, unaware of the stresses and demands on Black artists do not approach their subjects with the understanding required. Political journalism (see Dann's The Black Press, 1827-1890), also, 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' Hirror for Liberty (first Black magazine, 1838), Douglass' Monthly 1844) and North Star (1847), to Hamilton's Anglo-African Magazine {1859), the tradition of Black journalism and research on the African experience was firr;1ly established. Huch of the journalistic writing (like the poetry) took pros or cons on the question of imigration, colonization or the elevation of the 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 songs-Seculars and Spirituals. These songs would . later form the nucleus for much of the Black and wh ite writing themes. On the eve of the Civil Har, tbe Dred Scott decision (a hlow to slaves and abolitionists) help step up the demands for the abolishment of slavery. Brown's The Black I-Tan (1 863) was a capsule of one er•a which closed on the blasts of cannon and another that opened on tl1e sound of jubilant shouts. 102 �III THE VOICES ON THE TOTEM "mean mean mean to 1, e free 11 --Robert Ha:rden Age.inst the foregoin 6 b ackground, t "'.-: e poets of Colonia.1Revolutionary-Slavcry America appear c ur ious, tearful, exciting, paradoxical, fri gh tening and puzzlin 0 • Biblical i maGery, classical allusions and t bemes, batred of slavery and ambiguous praise for slave- masters, recollectio ns of Africa, appeals and condemnatio ns, all be come enmeshed in the intricate linguistic and psych ological uehbinc; of t ½is early poetry. In 1770, at 17 y ear s of a g e, t he privileGed slave girl Phillis 1'H-1eatle:r ;) ccame t 1~e first Black "exception to tbe rule" And for d ecades students of in English and A~orican po etry. American poctr:r 1.-w.d gone a1)ont t1-:ieir recitations and research a:::; though notbinc; or no o:1e of i mporte.n ce :~np::1e r:: ed IIiss Hll eatley Fig'bt"--tbo accou nt of a ::. 71.:. 6 I nc.inn r,1assacre in :D e erfield, , ~ -- -" ·, J_ L, • ..1... .L ,:_, . .Jupiter !!anmo n' s "An :Sveni n.:_: T:.1ou_::;:::t , Salvat io n h:- C"!:~ rlst, With Pen:i.tentie..l Cri es" (1761) :i.n t l'J o lTeH Yorl-: Historical Society, t hus establishinc Tiammo n a s t ~e first ~u½l ishe e African poet in America. 1 03 �Ue r.1ent5.o:1c d earlior t h at ~.:.a ny ant}; olo 6 ies omit "Bar's Figl1t. 11 Thin i n u nd or:J t anda1~l e si nc e T1iss Terr:r (1730-1 831) never wrote, or at lea s t pr e sented, anymore literary works. America's "first rccro poet," t h en, is i n porta nt primarily for being just tl1at--firs t . Lilre Hiss 1,n10atley, Vassa and oth er N'ew England slaves, she was ld.dnapped as a child ai.1d l)rought to New Enc;land (Rh ode Island). She witnessed t b e Indlan raid reported in her 2 3-line do seercl a nd ~as a flair for storytelling . Hence despite t ll e poe m's "ohviously weak literary merit," this Black writer performed one of th e earliest ser vices of' the poet--that of a singer of' h istory-- in recording actual names and places in her narrative. Since she was 16-:~ears-old and a servant girl, writing was surely not h er primarily respon- sibility. Yet "Bar's Figh t," ach ie ves some success when seen against tbe oral tradition i n poetry: Listen my children and you sh all h ear Of the midnight ride of Paul Revere. or Now, children, I' m going to tell you the story ab out raw-head and bloody-bones! and There was an old woman who lived in a shoe She had so many children she didn't know what to do. Compare the fore g oing lines to Aue ust 'twas, the twenty-fifth, Seventeen hundred forty six, 104 �Tbe Indians did in ambush lay, Some very valiant men to slay, The names of wbom I'll not leave out: Samuel Allen li ke a h ero fout, and the elemental connections will readily be seen. One has only to read this poem aloud to get b otb t h e effects and Miss Terry's apparent intentions. 1foen sb e wrote 11 Bar 's Fight 11 Miss Terry worked for an Eb enezer Wells of Deerfield, t~ssachusetts, but was 1:;iven her freedom ten y ears later when she married a free Black man, Ab ijah Prince, children. wh om she had six by Prince later b ecame tbe owner of considerable land and was one of t h e founders of Sunderland, Ver mont. Hilliam Robinson (Early Black American Poets) lists Hiss Terry with the "orator" poets and righ tly so. Other details about Miss Terry and the Princes can b e obtained from George Sheldon's A History of Deerfield, Hassacbusetts, 1 695. Slave poet and intellectual, Jupiter Ha mmon (1720?-ll300?), provides yet anoth er look into the capab ilities, mind-sets and limitations of Africans in Colonial America. Hammon is generally not regarded as an "i mportant" Black writer-- but is distinguished for being the first African in America to publish his verses. This he did in 1761 ( "An Evening Th ough t, 11 composed in December of 1760); 1778 ("An Address to Hiss Ph illis Wh eatley"); 1782 ("A Poem for Ch ildren"); and in the mid-17 80•s ("An Evening's Improvement 11 ) . In his nAddress to the Negroes of the State of New York" (written in 1786 and pu1)lished in 1806) Hammon linked in with a tradition that included pamph leteers, like • 105 �Quinn, Walker, Ruggles and oth ers of t b e period. Hammonts "Address" sought freedo m .for younger Blacks, claiming that 11 for my own part I do not wish to be free." This statement appears, on the surface, to b e the ultimate in self-debasement and self-denial; but one h as to view it in t h e context of statements by de Tocqueville, Walker, and others, along with the circumstances o.f the aging and reli gious Hammon. That Hammon himself was deeply reli e ious 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 Ne gro Writing ). In the poem to Miss Wheatley, he notes t h at it 1--1as throu gh that "God's tender mercy" that she was kidnapped from A.frica and bro.u ght to America as a slave. And Hammon seemed, generally, to reflect with prevailing wh ite attitude toward the "dark" continent: one engulfed in i g norance, ~arbaris m and evil. Obviously not as well read as Hiss l:Jb ea tley, Hammon was unable to take his themes to universal and intellectually arresting levels. He was born a slave a nd b elonged to t h e inf'luential family 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 in.formation available on the life of Hammon; but it is difficult to understand why an intelli gent Black man, who lived such a long life, mirrored almost complete ignorance of the horrors of slavery--despite the almost daily local newspaper and verbal accounts a.nd discussions of the 106 ' '' �11 peculiar ins ti tut ion. 11 J:arimon' s li terar:r models were primarily f' the conventional material of hymns of t h e period. So his re- • i.,; ligious fervor--at t h e time of religious revi vals in Europe and Colonial Amer1.ca--coupled with his stylistic b orrowings from hymns constitut e h i s major poetic effort. Thought, 11 "An Evening which .i irs. Porter tells us was probably during tl1e deli ver:· of a sermon, 11 11 t chanted beGins: Sal va t ion co~e s b~ Christ alo ne Tb e o nl:r Son of .God; Tiedemp tion now to every one, That lo ve h is only word. Dear J"e s us He would fly to thee, And leav0 off every Sin, Thy tender Mercy well a gree; Salvation fro m our king ; Like Miss Terry, Hammon was not primarily a poet. And hence, J unlike approaching Phillis Wheatley, one sh ould not spend too t ...I Drnch time or be too h arsh in criticizing (or complaining about) him. The basic structure of the English hymn--wh ich merged I' with the Spiritual--as Ha mmon interprets it, is an alternation of iambic tetrameter and iambic trimeter combined with a rather clumsy ab ab rhyme sch eme. Compared to other bymns, it is no worse and is better t h an amny. Despite the times, pressures and censures, however, one is bardpressed to accept Harnmon's assurance to the s lave tbat: In Christian faith thou hast a share, Worth all the gold of Spain. 107 .. �Hammon's works can be found critically introduced in Robinson's anthology, in Stanley Ransom's America's First Negro Poet, the Complete Works of Jupiter Hammon of Long Island (1970) (and in Barksdale's and Kinnamon's Black Writers of America, 1972); critical-biographical attention is in Vernon Loggins' The Negro Author (1931) and J. Saunders Redding's To Make A Poet Black (1939). Yet another slave, Phillis 'Wheatley (1753 ?-1784}, has to be examined. There has been substantial critical-biographical treatment of Miss 'Wheatley, so no attempt will be made here to give her full consideration. By far the most gifted and com- plex poet until Dunbar, Phillis ,fueatley was also priviledged as a young child and allowed access to the Boston library of John Wbeatlye--to whom she was sold after being brought from Senegal when she was six or seven years old--where she read voraciously. By the time of her teens she had learned to speak and write English, and acquired a New England education which put great emphasis on the Bible and the classics. ·Her poetry, like Hammon's reflects deep interest in and knowledge of religion; but it is alsb steeped in classical allusions and conventions of the 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. 108 George �Washington, so moved by her poetic tribute ("To His Excellency General Washine;ton"), invited the young poet to visit him at his camp at Cambridge, Massachusetts--an invitation which she later accepted arrl was treated as roy alty. Miss Wbeatley's earliest verses were penned during the · years of her adolescence. "On t h e Death of the Rev. George 1770, 11 re.fleets the elegaic theme which occupies Whitefield: much of her poetry. Manumitted and sent with other members of the Wheatley family to London in 1772, because of frailness and poor health, Miss Wheatley was received like a visiting dignitary in London's literary circles and hailed as the "Sable Muse. 11 Th e next y ear (1773), while in London, she became (at 20-years-old) the first African, a~ the second woman from America, to publish a book of poems: Poems on Various Subjects, Reli g ious and Moral, by Ph illis Wheatley, Negro Servant to ~Tr . Wheatley of Boston. The volume, the only one she ever publish ed, became an i mmediate success in both England and America and won her an everlasting place in the history of Engli sh poetry i n Amer i ca. Upon her return to America, Mis s Wheatley ' s misfortunes seemed to come in such lightning succession that one wonders how sh e withstood adversity as lon g as she did. First, t h ere was t he death of :tv".irs. Wheatley and t h en, during the l 770' s, t h e deaths of t h e remaining Wheatl e~rs. The poet t h en married a Joh Peters, who "proved to b e both a t1bitious and irresponsible," for whom she b ore thre e childr en--all of wh om died in infancy. 1 09 �Additionally, t he Peters family li ved in squalor a nd poverty, like so many New Encland Blac ks . Commenttnc on the circum- s tances surroundinc her de ath , Barksdale a nd Kannamon (Black Writer s of Americ a ) observe wi t b stoRach -curdli ng accuracy that: l t Her early death pr ovides a COQmen t ar y o n the de sperate marginality of life among Boston 's free Blac ks at tre.t time . an extre .. :.c >· To Phillis 1-n~eatley , benig n ma ::; ter-8 Gr-rr.n t relation- ship , freedom's uncertainities and insecur- ities were overwhelming . Certainly, h ad she been initially free in Boston, she would probably never have had the time, the opportunity, or the peace of mind to write poetry. For the state of freedom for the Black man in the 1780'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 pref'erring 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 the conventions and themes associated with neoclassicism: Salvation, Mercy and Goodness. 110 Truth, Some resent her so-called "pious • ! �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 being "Black enough." Considered on the landscape of the times, however, Miss Wheatley comes off as a genius--with hardly an equal among ·Back or white contemporaries. James Weldon Johnson, during a comparison of Miss Wheatley's "Imagination" to Anne Bradstreet's "Contemplation," said "We do not think the black woman suffers by comparison with the white" (Negro American Poetry). During h er l i fe ti me Miss Wh eatley published some 50 poems, almost half of them elegies, five or six political and pa~riot pieces ("General Washington" 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. S-ince her greatest models were Pope, Dryden, Milton and the earlier classical writers, one must examine these sources to uncover some keys to her techniques atrl allusions. But one only has to read (aloud) the following passage from "Rev. George Whitefield" to feel impact: I l, "Take him, ye wretch ed, for y our only good, "Take h i m, ye starving sinners, for your food. ''Ye t hrifty , come to t h is life- giving stream, I, ; . 111 .... �'~e preachers, take him for your joyful theme; "Take him, my dear Americans, he said, "Be your complaints on his kind bosom laid; "Take b im, ye Africans, h e longs for you, "Impartial Savior is his title due; ''Washed in the fountain of redeeming blood, '~ou shall be sons and kings, and priests to God." More will be said of this poem in Chapter VII; but we should state that some of the previously harsh criticism of Miss Wheatley has been tempered in light of increasing :feminism and, especially, efforts by Black women writers, scholars and intellectuals to reevaluate h er. Much of her work is done in the heroic couplet which dominated the period o:f poetry-writing. These 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. Roger ~n1itlow (Black American Literature) complains that Miss Wheatley "falls short . in what Pope called the 'correctness' of diction and meter, that near-perfect choice of word and measurement and weighing of syllable." One could agree, if Miss ll'Tbeatley's sole aim were simply to imitate. But there is a great evidence that she--like Black poets always seem to be doing--was trying to achieve a readable poem without losing the essence o:f the couplet. After all, as Stephen Henderson (Understanding the New Black Poetry) has suggested, many Black poets have their ears and thought rhythms attuned to the spiritual and phonological 112 �demands of the audience that loves "extempore" delivery, when the written lines are strict and tight. Also, in placing "Their colour is a diabolic dye" in ✓ "'---- quo tat ions ( "On Being Brought from Africa to America "l, Misa 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 C.a in, May be refined, and join the angelic train. Yet there is firm evidence that Miss "Wheatley was not insensitive, at least to her on predicament as a slave without a fundamental and geneological identity. Honourable William, Earl of Dartmough," 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 Afric's fancy'd happy seat: What pangs excruciating must molest, What sorrows labour in my 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 • 113 ~' • I .. •' . II I �via repetition ("such, such"; see Margaret Walker's lines "How Long!"), place her alongside other Black voices that searched for answers to the pall of racial insanity that enwebbed them. hymn form. Miss Wheatley also experiments with the In "A. Farewell To America II and "An Hymn To Humanity" one bounces along her alternating lines and rhythms. We stated earlier that Miss vJheatley's critical image has somewhat shifted. Perhaps the capstone of this shift was the Jackson State College Poetry Festival, held in November of 1973 to commemorate the 200th anniversary of the publiEbony magazine (March, 1974) cation of Miss Wheatley's Poems. did a five-page picture essay on the festival, organized and hosted by Margaret Walker poet-novelist and Director of Jackson State's Institute for the Study of History, Life and Culture of Black People. According to Ebony "eighteen Black women poets converged" on the Black college campus to salute Miss Wheatley, read their own poems and discuss poetry and life. Writer Luci Horton noted that recently there has been more respect for the 11 slave girl who, under unspeakable cir- cumstances, was able to write poetry or any literature at all." In addition to Dr. Alexander, the list of poets included in 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, Sonia Sanchez, Alice Walker, Malaika Ayo Wangara ( Joyce Whitsitt Lawrence) and Carolyn M. Rodgers. Gwendolyn Brooks' absence '· 114 �was conspicuous. The festival was also the subject of a six-page picture essay by Carole Parks in Black World (Webruary, 1974). One of the most revealing comments was made by Paule Giddings, a young editor at Howard University Press: There is something wrong with a critical tradition that makes Phillis Wheatley an historical footnote •••• Phillis Wheatley was black and . this is the difference (between her and other poets of her day) and also the contradiction: the contradiction between her blackness which she recognized and never was .free, to forget by a thousand humiliations and white mercantile England, a world that was never to be hers, but whose values she seemed to accept. She was in a slave world, but not truly of it •••• It does no good to reproach a child for yielding to attractive influences when within herself there is no strong residue of any other influence or tradition. It is easy to say she had no racial consciousness. It would be .fair to look at the choices she had and ascertaln whether or not she was capable of enduring even more intense isolation. Ms. Giddings has asserted ·what appears to be a balanced answer to the protestations o.f Redd inc , Brmm, Brawley ( "no racial 115 �value") ~ and others. It remains to be seen as to whether current and future generations of Black and white students will keep Miss Wheatley a "statute in the park" or bring her to the table and "examine her hlood and beart." Critical treatment of this first Black woman of letters already has been extensive: Juli.an Mason's The Poems of Phillis 1~eatley (1966); Barksdale's and Kinnamon's critic a l introduction; Robert C. Kuncio's "Some Unpublished Poe:m3 of Phillis Wheatle~~" I (New Entland Quarterly, XLIII, June, 1 S'7 C, 2 27-2°7); Lor:Gins' I The Negro Author (1931); Bra.wley's The Negro Genius; Redd1ng's To Make A Poet Black; Shirley Graham's The Story of Phillis Wheatley (1949); and Jerry Ward's and Charles Howell's article in the Summer, 1974, issue of Freedomways. We have already mentioned Gustavus Vassa (1745-1801), one of the most interesting of the early writers, in another context. Born the seventh and youngest son of a chieftan (in Essake, now Eastern Nigeria), Vassa (African name: Olaudah Equia.no) was first sold to a Virginia plantation owner. His journeys later took him on several Atlantic voyages and then to the Mediterranean where be served in the Seven Years War . Vassa held technical jobs on ships as a result of bis adeptness at the English language and his 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 Sierre Leone. Vassa is chiefly known for his Narrative (1789) which was a best-seller among abo- 116 �l1tionists in England and America. Slave narratives, we have observed, were a part of a branch of Black writing which gave 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 first writer of a slave narrative, as is popularly thought. Briton Hammon (no relation to Jupiter) published in London A Narrative of the Uncommon Sufferings and Surprisin5 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 alonel" Which is, of course, reminiscent of Hammon's opening line: Salvation come by Christ alone Nevertheless Vassa's language is less saturated in Biblical terms than Hammon•s. And the former, as verse writer, has a better control on the language. In the "Verses" he applies a • 117 �driving iambic tetrameter meter with an a ab b rhyme scheme: Those who beheld my downcast mien Could not guess at my woes unseen: They by appearance could not know The troubles I have waded through. Lust, anger, blasphemy, and pride, With legions of such ills beside, Troubled my thoughts while doubts and fears Clouded and darken'd most my years. In the first stanze quoted Vassa presages the duality and mental pressures that more skilled writers would describe in years to come. Implying that the job of the oppressed Black is to keep his head even and up, Vassa says even those who see him in his sorriest state cannot envision the sufferings he has endured. Dunbar would say the same thing in a different way in ''We Wear the Mask" more than a century later. 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 Man) 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 1 s work which acts as only one of numerous L 118 �conduits for Black anguish and outrage when the options 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 frQm Africa (1964) and in Whitlow's Black American Literature. In the summer of 1974, Darwin Turner conducted a graduate and postgraduate seminar on Slave Narratives at Iowa State University where he directs the Center for Afro-American Culture. 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 in America. SO Black antislavery societies Blacks in the United States had been stireed by slave rebellions both here and in places like Haiti, the Carribean and Trinidad. Especially inspiring during this period was the 1839 revolt of slaves aboard the Spanish schooner L'Amistad. Led by Joseph Cinque, a Mandi-speaking 119 �prince, the fifty slaves, killed 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 Sierre 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 1973-74, and the Cinque of the L'Amistad revolt. In light of the growing consciousness among Blacks, it was to be expected that A 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 planter 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 for composing "personal" poems. His second book of poems, Poetical Works of George M. Horton, the Colored Bard of North Carolina, was published in 1845. 120 �Horton's hopes that he would gain enough money from the sale of his books to secure bis 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": When on life's ocean first I spread my sail, I then implored a mild auspicious gale; And from the slippery strand I took my flight, And sought the peaceful heaven of delight. ••• •••••••• ••••••••••• • •••••••••• ••••••••• Hard was the race to reach the distant goal, The needle oft was shaken from the pole; In such distress who could forbear to weep? Toss'd by the headlong billows of the deepl Horton goes on to say that ''Eternal Providence" saved him when he was on the "dusky verge of deep despair" and when "the last beam of hope was almost gone." Yet Horton writes bitterly of slavery as well as lightly of love and humorously of life in general. Influences on his poetry are Byron, Wesleyan Hymnal stanzas, and other sources from books that he had read. In the poem from which the stanzas above were taken he pursues a rather monotonous iambic tetrameter meter. But in a poem like "Slavery" (published in The Liberator, March 29, 1834), he can vary the hymn pattern in the ·way that Phillis Wheatley does in ' 121 �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 ohl how 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 sbould'st be so dull and slack, And scorn to set me free? Then l e t me h as t en to t be grave, ~1e onl~ ref us e fo r t h o s l ave , Ubo mourns for liher t:.r. Also effective and sustaining in po1ver is "The Slave's C~mplaint" when features seven thre e-line stanzas with a final indented one word refrain: "Forever n which is followed by either question mark, colon or exclamat i on ~ar k . Horton handles well some of bis love poems and in "Th e Lover's Fare1-10ll" 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 aHay! In this and other pieces Horton makes good use of dashes--which allow him to develop suspense and render his statemepts more 122 �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, Who sable 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 1 s The Black Poet (1967), Brown's as~essment and Jean Wagner's Black Poets of the United States (1973). Horton, of course, trails and precedes a long line of orators and poets, many of whom we know very little about today. In fact, comparatively speaking, 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 123 i �and that most northern Black writers, intellectuals and educators turned their attention to the educational, physical and educational needs of free and enslaved Blacks. Of these and other matters, Mrs. Porter provides ample proof and discussion in Early Negro Writing. Occasional 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. R~chard Allen, probably "changed 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 a.re led to improve them and quickly appear, For the bless'd hour when Jesus in power, In glory shall come is now drawing near, He thinks there will be shouting, and I'm not doubting, But crying and screaming for mercy in vain: 124 •' �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" Who, with a tender father's eye Looked down on Afric's helpless raceZ Robery Y. 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, " "Sole" and "Recitative." In ."Anthem II" an abbreviate form is employed and Sidney drops the solo and recitative--keeping only the chorus: Chorus. Rejoice that you were born to see, 125 �This glorious day, your jubilee. Sidney also wrote a hymn which Hrs. 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 Hrs. Porter's Early Negro Writing: 1760-1873. The collection includes two very touching examples of writings "On Slavery" and "On Freedom" by 12-year-old boys from the New York Ai'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 Minor's 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 M.M.E. Bishop in 1852. In the political and educational spheres be helped urge Lincoln 126 �(on April 14, 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 ,;. rrote . 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 correctly observes that a major problem with the poetry is "the repetition of end stopped lines, and his diction, a hybrid of classical and Biblical vocabularies, can prove distracting to many readers." Nuch of this we can forgive, however, when we understand Henry Dnrnas' 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 bis seriousness. Yet Payne never fails to So hurt was he in wake of the 1834 South Carolina law that, effective in 1835, made Black literacy illegal, Payne wrote "The Mournful Lute of the Preceptor's Farewell.n We find bis enbossed concern for students in these lines: Ye lads, whom I have taught with sacred zeal, For your hard fate I pangs of sorrow feel; Ob, who shall now your rising talents guide, - Where virtues reig~ and sacred truths priside? 127 �Payne is a handler of the language, observing that "two revolving moons s:iall lj__s11t the shores" after tbe dread law 11 s11Ut the do ors 11 on cducat1. on for South Carolina Blacks. Engulfed in tb0 rclic;:i.oua and r1oral fervor of r,10.ny Black minist01 s of tbe period, the poet n nd orator reflects age-old 1 concerns about deceit a nc1 mistrust in sucb pieces as "The Pleasures." He complains that Men talk of LovoJ But few do ever feel . The speechless raptures uhich its joys reveal. Hen "mistake love, 11 Payne notes, For grovelling lust, that v:lle, 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 ~piscopal Church (Baltimore, 1866) and The History of the A.H.E. Church (Nashville, 1866). .Josephus R. Goa.m's 1935 (Philidelphia) biography: See also Daniel Alexander Payne, Christian Educator, Robinson's comments and Brawley's Negro Genius. Unfortunately too little is known of romantic poet John 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 128 �connected in a way that makes them readily acessible. The only record of Boyd is made available by C.R. Nesbitt, EBq., Deputy Secretary and Registrar of the Government of the Bahamas. Nesbitt must have recognized the talent and the promise and he aided Boyd's poetry through publication in London in 1834. Boyd, it seems, was self-taught on New Profidence Island where he remained all his life. His poem "Vanity of Life" was published in the February 16, 1~33, issue of the Boston-based Liberator. His 1834 volume is entitled The Vision/ and otber/ 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 Bible and classical influences. "The Vision/ a Poem in Blank Verse" is immediately reminiscent of Milton 1 s Paradise Lost. Boyd skirts a rhyme scheme but employs a f'airly regular iambic pentameter meter. All things considered, his work partially cancels the criticism by Sterltng Brown that Black poets lag in their stylistic awareness. opens brilliantly with: Me thought the Moon, pale regent of the sky, Crested, an:l filled with lucid radiance, Flung her bright gleams across my lowly couch; 129 "Vision" �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" Boyd encounters characters of both the heavens and the hells. When the narrator, "dreamer" joined the train Fervent hosannas struck the astonish'd ear, As when in the midbour 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 nvision" is also peopled by "grim death and ghastly Sin" who "lay coiled, like snakes in one huge scaly fold," and consider their "inexpiable doom--." Boyd's tones are sacred and surreal and be assembles harmlessly complex subordinate clauses that help build an exciting linguistic crecendo as in "Ocean": 'When t he fiat of the most High, Thy fountains burst, a copiously 130 �Thy secret springs, with ample store, Pour'd forth tbeir waves from shore to shore Wide as the waters roll, oh, wave. Boyd's work has yet to be appraised in terms commisserate with its importance. Robinson makes brief but significant comments " on his poetry. Ann Plato, another romantic poet, is also one fpr 'Whom there exists little of the 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 Hl41. What little is known of her comes by ~ of an introduction to her book which was written by Rev .. J.w.c. Pennington, pastor of the Colored Congregational Church in Hartford, of whicb 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 ~>nly allusions to slavery. Her book also contains essays on religion, mod- eration, conduct and other conventional themes. These same themes are pretty much paralleled by the 20 poems, 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; 131 �The language and the subject matter are stock but "Forget Me Not," each stanza of which ends with the title, is well handled and has flashes of the preachment of self-control that Vassa alluded to in his verses: When bird does wait thy ab sence long, Nor tend unto its morning song; While 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 sbe asks: "Tell me a story, father, please," · And then I sat upon his knees. Again, as in her contemporaries, we f'ind the inf]uences of English writers of a preceding generation or so, the debt to Biblical learning and much imitation. For brief' critical notes on Miss Plato see Robinson's Early Black American Poets. 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 as a teacher was Jerimiah w. Loguen who later become an important social-religious leader and a Bishop of the A. H.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 132 �a Freeman. Known, as were many of the orator-poets, for reciting his poems orally, Rogers' themes are unashamedly abolition, Black betterment an::l political hypocrisy. Working politically on behalf of Blacks, Rogers apparently designed The Fugitive Slave Law (Ue1-1 ark, 1855) and Repeal of Missouri Compromise Considered (Newark, 1856) to be read aloud from platform. Like, James H. Whitfield, who came later, Rogers gave up hope in America's ever giving Blacks a fair deal and sailed for Africa where he died after contacting a fever a few days after be arrived there. His incisive no-holes-barred approach to the political climate and conditions of the time is seen in "On the Fugitive 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 rigbt. And the ringing cry of the elocutionist can be beard later in the poem when, in discussing the f'ugitive bill, he asks and answers: That Bill a law? the South says so, But Northern f'reeman answer, Nol Anticipating the fiery and torrential Whitfield (and 20th century "angry voices") Rogers continues: That bill is law, doughfaces say; But black men everywhere cry "Nay: We'll never yield to its control While life shall animate one soul 133 �At times biting and over-bearingly harsh as a poet, Rogers resounds in "The Repeal of the Missouri Compromise Considered" with these words: "I want the land, 11 was Feed om' s cry; And Slavery answered, "So Do IJ By all that's sacred, I declare I'll have my 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 nLawZ 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. 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 A.frican 'Free School 1vhere be 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, hm-rnver, be became eligible for a professorship in Na.thematics and Belle Lettres (181~9) at the New York Central College in l:cGrawville, Courtlandt County. William G. Allen and George B. Vashon were also on the faculty there. He held various educational jobs j_ncluding a princi- palship of the Institute for Colored Youth in Philadelphia 134 �ii~"- ' and grammar shcool No. Go in New York City wbi1e H. Cordelia Ray was a teacher tbcr o.. :S.eason ·was an intellectual and a scholar but was not blind to the practical needs of AfroAmoricans . He oppos ed plans to colonize Blacks, claiming instead that the7 ne eedod to pursue v ocational careers hers in America. AGain, not primarily a poet, Reason is competent as a poet in "The Spirit Voice" which opens with: Come! rouse ye brothers, rouse! a peal now breaks From lo1-1cst island to our gallant lakes: 'Tis summoning you, who in bonds have lain, To stand up r:i.anful on tbe battle plain, and urges Blacl:s to fi.ght for freedom and opportunity. The poem {whose complete title is "The Spirit Voice or, Liberty Call to the Disfranchised") is indebted to the rhyming couplet so famous during the era and which had been used with great skill by Phillis 1fueatley. It appears in William Simmons' Men of Mark (Cleveland, 180?). 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 voice" (see the idea of African Spirit Force) longs for the time when freedom's mellow light 135 �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 Theel In wailings lond and breathings shoft, Beseeching God, they face to see. How reminiscent of and "not unlike" the Spirituals this burst isl Certainly the student of this peirod of Black poetry will want to keep his rhythmic lyres attuned to the Biblical and innovative cadences of those "Black and unknown bards.° For assessments of Reason see Robinson, Brawley and Kerlin. 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 136 �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 when he published America and Other Poems in 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" (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 Dourlass and novelist :rvrartin Delaney who called the 1854 National Emigration Convention of Colored Men which Whitfield attended. respected and admired Hhitfield. 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 137 �spent most of bis life in Buffalo where he barbered and conducted most of 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, Hhitfield is writing to be heard, listened to and read aloud. Consequently much of his poetry (though not lacking in religious fervor) r~inforces bis ideology and negative views of America. America, the Sweet land of liberty becomes for Whitfield, "America" Thou hoasted land of liberty,-and To thee I sing becomes It is to thee I raise my song, Thou land of b lood., and crime, and wrong. Like Rogers., 1-Thitfield did not believe America was , capable of redemption; and., again like bis predecessor, he died on a journed to find something better. The 1.dea of "giving"· up on America would appear thematically in the poetry of later writers like Fenton .Johnson, Lee, Baraka and some of the Muslim poets. It would also be implicit in the expatriation of writers and artists such as Paul Robeson, Wright, Baldwin, Chester Himes and Katherine Dunham. In a driving iambic pentameter meter (in couplets), whish has all the openings for spontaneous interjections and expletives, ·wbitfield in "America," accuses 138 �the United States of killing the Black sons who fought for her and of general hypocrisy. Here one can see Whitfield anticipating current slogan, which Hayden makes use of in "'Words in the Hourning Time": Killing people to save, to free them? Though more general, Whitfield continues a similar assault {stating life is hell) in "The Misanthropist" but tones down to a reverent salute "To Cinque": . ' All baill though truly noble chief, Who scorned to live a cowering slave; Thy name shall stand on bistory 's leaf, Amid the mighty an:l 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 Whit.field's primary goal is to get a politi9al "message" over, his poetry, as art, leaves some things to be desired. Robinson points out that Whitfield "is genuinely angry" {despite the inf'luence of Byron) and that the bitterness and force in his work is not to be mistaken for romantic ori linguistic cosmetics. Lastly, we must note that Uhitfield 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 139 �on European despotism of the mid 1800 's) in his poem ''How Long?": I see the "Rugged Russian Bear" Lead forth his slavish hordes, to war Upon the right of every State Its 01-m 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 aril law. Selections of Whitfield's poetry can be found in the Robinson anthology, in Negro Caravan (1941), and in the Barksdale and Kinnamon text. Whitlow discusses Whitfield's poetry and im- pact as does Loggins, Brown, Brawley, Wagner, and Ruthe Miller (Black American Literature, 1971). The most popular Black 19th century poet before Dunbar was Frances E.W. Harper (1825-1911), the first Black American to publish a short story ( "The Two Offers," 1859). Born free in Baltimore as Frances Ellen Watkins, she was educated in Pennsylvania and Ohio, and spent most of her adult life in the cause of antislavery and other types of social reform. She worked in turn for the abolition movement, the Underground Railroad, the A.M.E. Church and the Women's Christian Temperance league. 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 after his 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 vecy 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 Hile 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 f'iction 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 powerf'ul flashes of imagery and statement. Her models are Hrs. Hemans, Whittier and Longfellow, and so we f'ind an overwhelming influence from the ballad. In reading her poetry in public, Hrs. Harper was · able to appeal to what J'ohnson (God's Tronbones) called a "highly developed sense of' ' . sound" in Af'ro-Americans (see, again, statements by Rev. Allen and Vassa). She apparently kne1v her limitations, for Robinson tells us that her popularity ••• was not due to the conventional notion of poetic excellence, l1rs. Harper was fully aware of' her limitutions in that kind of poetry, it was due more to the sentimental, emotionfreighted popularity what she had given the lines wi.th her disarmingly dramatic voice and gestures and sighs and tears. �----------Up until the Civil ifa.r, ::irs . Harper's favorite themes were slavor~r, its harshness, and tbe hypocrises of America. She is careful to place graphic details 1-1'!:iere tbey will get the greatest result, especially when the poet-:-is are read a.loud. An example of t!1ls is f onnd in "The Slave ?-Toth er": Ho is not hers, for cruel ha~ds The onl~~ ~-rreath of household love ~"'tat binds ber breaking .h eart. A. similar pla:r on the emo tions is se en in poer.1s like "Bury He in a Free Land, 11 "Sone;s for the People," ''Double Standard" (with its stirrings of feminis1;1 ) ahd 11 The Slave Auction." A woman is not solely responsible for her "fall," she suggests in "A Double Standard" adding that And wha.t ls wr onG i.n a woma n's life In man's cannot be right . Highly readable nnd less academic in her use of poetic techniques and vocahttlaries, }1:rs . Harper is nevertheless quite indebted to the Bible for• mu.ch of her imagery and moral message. And she is able to merge and modify tho folk and religious forms in a poem like 11 Trnth II where she opens wi tb a debt to the Spirituals: A rock, for ages, stern and high, Stood frowning 'gainst the earth and sky, And never bowed his haughty crest When angry storr:1s around him prest. Morn, springing from the arms of night, �Had often bathed his brow with light, And ld.ssed t~1e sbe.dows f1•om 'his face w·i th tender love and gentle grace. Several religious songs are suggested here; but she also loves to return to the theme of women as she does in "A Double Standard" and "The Slave Hother." In the ballad "Vasbti" she tells of the heroine who dared to disobey her dictator-husband. The strength and determination of womanhood is expressed in the last two stanzas: She heard agaln the King's command, And left her high estate; Strong in ber 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 uould not bow to shame. Certainly a comprehensive biographical-critical study of Mrs. Harper is long over due. Selections of her work can be found in Kerlin's critical anthology, in Negro Caravan, in Robinson's book., in :Hiller's anthology, in the Barksdale and Kinnamon anthology and in numerous other recent anthologies. Mrs. Harper's works are critically examined by Loggins., Wagner, Whitlow, Brawley., Bro·wn and Sherman (Invisible Poets: Black Americans of the 19th Century, ·1974). Like other writers, educators and activists of his day., �George B. Vashon (1822-1378) contributed to the influential Anglo-Af'rican I-l:agazine which was published intermittently between 1859 until the encl of the Civil War. Vashon had a good solid education--in classics and history--at Oberlin College whe1"e he received bis A.B. in 1844 and M.A. in 1849. Vashon, known chiefly for his "Vince nt ogi," which Sterling Brown tells us, "is the first narrative poem of any length by a Negro poet." Vashon distinguished himself as a teacher, lawyer, lecturer and 1,: riter. He Pl"acticed law in Syracuse, taught school in Pittsburg, 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 University in D.C. where he was a. ]aw professor. Huch of Vashon's poetry reflects debts to his strong education and the influence of Scott and Byron. All are seen in "Vincent Oge," ' inspired by the courageous (hut foolish) . ' . efforts of Vincent Oge, a Haitian mulatto who was "entrusted with the message of enfranchisement to the people of mixed blood on the island. n The order bad come down from the Con- vention in France, of which Haiti was a colony. Internal disruption in France (due to t he Rev olution, 1789-1799) had f echoed to its colonies in t h e Caribb ean ·wh ere Oge led a short-lived armed uprising that cost him his life when be was rei'used asylum in Spanish Santo Domingo and rem.anded to the French authorities in Haiti. As punishment and a warning to others, the French had Oge' tortured on the wheel and severed his body into four parts each of which was hung up in the four 144 ·I �leading cities of the island. ' Oge's followers were either put to death or imprisoned and their properties confiscated. ' example as was Whitfield by Vashon was as moved by Oge's In the lengthy poem, "Vincent Oge," ' Vashon 1mmor- Cinque's. ' talizes Oge in an admixture of classical and Biblical language, using a pleasant iar.:i.bic tetrameter meter and an over dose of dissonance in his rhyme scheme which features an alternating a b a b/ a a bb. The style is somei-11,at reminiscent of 1'IT11tfield who breaks his rhyme scheme (see !!America TT) after each group of eight or nine lines. "Vincent ogi II and . 11A Life-Day" were both printed in Autographs for Freedom for 1853. For Vashon, the struggle is very much alive, ' 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 ' 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 ( lynch.:.theme) poets sucb as .Johnson, IfoKay, 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-- 14.5 �The strained eyeball's idiot stare-The hopeless clencb--the quivering frame-The martyr's death--the despot's shame. The rack--the tyrant--victim,--all Are gathered in t!-:la.t ,Tudgment 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 wo~k of Mrs. Harper, and setting the stage for such awesome poem's as Wright's "Between the lvorld and Me, " McKay's "The Lynching.," Dunbar's "The: Haunted Oak" and Dodson's "Lament," 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 "The Lynching": And little lads, lynchers that were to be, Danced round the dredf'ul thing in fiendish glee. Unlike McKay., however., Vashon cheers up at the end: Thy coming fame, OgeJ is sure; Thy name with that of L ' 'Overture, 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 Washington" by Hiss Wheatley. "A Life-Day" is a ' shorter poem, in three parts, and, like "Vincent Oge, is founded 146 ' . �on a factual event: the love-arfair and eventual marriage of a young white man and a light-skinned Black. For selections of Vashon's works see Autographs for Freedom and Robinson's anthology. For critical discussions sec the works of Brown and Brawley. 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 La.nusse (1812-1867), Victor Sejour (1817- 1874), Nelson Debrosses and 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 understood. 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. Host were fluent in speaking and ·writing French and from that influence their wor·k derives a spicy melody and an unhibited treatment of romantic love and revelry. Huch of the work is also intimate and sophisticated in its use of conventions and materials gained from French educations. The Creole poets' works appeared as "the first published anthology of Negro verse in America" in a volume called Les Cenelles (Hew Orleans, 1845 ). In addition to French, the Creole poets also wrote in Spanisb, Latin and Greek and were generally from tbe wealthy land-owner class �and owned slaves. About Dalcour lj_ttle is known except that he was born of wealt11y pa.rents who sent hin::. to France in tbe early 1800's to receive a good education. Returning to Hew Orleans af'ter his schooling, be 1-ra.s unable to accept the racial temper and again took up residency in France. Hhile in 1Tew Orleans, however, he wrote a num1:,er of poems, one of which was "Verse Written in the Alhu1:1 of Eadar,1oj_selle. relives the 11 1t The poem touchingly vanlted skies" and "gentle flas b es II whicb, to the poet, are "less lo-vol:r 11 1-:hon see n a gainst tbe lady's eyes Beneath their brown lashes. Lanusse, Le r.enelles editor, contributed to New Orleans CTreole newspapers, L'Union and La Tribune, serv ed as a conscripted Confeder a.to ~oJ.dier in tbe Civil War, spent some time as principal of tb o Catholic 8cl~ool for Indigent Orphans of Color. He also encouraged literary and other artistic expression amonz; f ellm i artists and 8olici ted work for Les Cenellen. He eulogized h is brother, Hm·,ia, in tbe poem Tttrn ' ' . Frere/Au Tombeau de Son Frere," reca.lli n 6 t :i a.t "unf e lling death has cut you dmm." :rz:sew~Jere La.nusse refers to death as "some other band shutting ~,rour eyelids." Some·what naughtier and more poignant in ":Spigram," Lanusse gives the account of a trwoma.n of evil" Hh o uants to "renounce the devil" but, asks" Before pure grace takes rne in hand, Shoulcln't I show m~r daughter how to get a man?" �f Sejour lived most of his life in France and only returned to New Orleans for hr:tef visits to his mother. Son of a wealthy i'amily, he wrote several plays, 21 of which were staged in France and three in new Orleans in the 18,Sors. S~jour's literary abilities 1-rere praised hy napoleon III and he rubbed shoulders with major French literary personalities of his day. His scope is wider than some of the other Creole poets. His "Le Retour de Napo1Jon 11 ("The Return of Napoleon") is · an elegy and a celebration all in one. ' While eulogizing Napoleon, Sejour praises both his and France's triumphs and glories. poem of flowing, g·ra.phic exaltation. It is a Opening on the scene of a "sea" that "groans under the burning sun," 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. All is over • ••• Yet, hail, O, captainJ Hail my consul of proud bearing. Admonishing France to ''·J eep, France, weep, 11 f Sejour reminds the country that "death has lightning struck the people's 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 be practised in New Orleans." In Debrosses' "Le Re tour .au Village aux Perles" ( "neturn to the Village of Pearls"), be seems to anticipate what Waring Cuney sees through the "dishwater" in his poem 149 �"Images." The 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 Tiedouble/ 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 arrl Spiri tus.1 f'orms of' Afro-American poetry. Riquet says that since his "candid friends are calling for a rondeaul" he and his "}fose ••• must work a wonder." Other Creole poets included Hichel Saint-Pierre (18? - 1866), Camille Threrry (1814-1875), Joann! Questi (18? - 1869 . compiled an Almanach of Laughter) and T.A. Desdunes whom Jahn says "is reminiscent of the Senegalese poet Birago Diop." The duty of the poet is to "rhyme in an uncommon way" or he will "earn the name of poetaster--from our candid friends." 150 �The Creole poets are examined and represented by selections in E. naceo 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 critical selection by Jahn. Lanusse and Lecour also appear in Hughes' and Bontemps' The Poetry of t h e Uegro (1949, 1970). There were other poets writing a nd publish ing during this same period. Hany of them published their works in ~ingle editions, and copies of some are no longer extant. Brawley refers to a poet known as "Caesar" who allegedly wrote but whose poetry is not available. are: Other poems and their collections Haria and Harriet Falconar, Poems on Slavery (London, 1788); James Hontgomery, James Graham, E. Benger, Poems on the Abolition of the Slave Trade (London, 1809); Anonymous, The West Indies and Otber 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 1freath: In Celebra~ion of the Extinction of Negro 3 lavery in the Bri tisb Dominions (London, 1835); Anon~rmous, Anti-Slavery 1-Ielodies (Hinghar.1, Nassachusetts, 1834); George 1,n1i tfield Clark, compiler, The Liberty Mi nstrel (New York, 1844); William. Uells Brown, Anti-Slavery Harp (Boston, 1849); "A West Indian," Charleston, South Carolina: a satiric poem showing that slavery still exists in t h e country which boasts, above all otbers, of being tbe seat of liberty. (London, 1851); Sara-----------------Darkness Brought to ligbt (Derry, 151 �New Hampshire,? 1855); George ·H. Clark, The Harp of Freedom {New York., 1856); and Abel Charles Thomas, The Gospel of Slavery ( New York, 1864) • In 1860 Blacks represented population and were by 4,1~41., 830 l4. l % of strong. the United States The sour tastes left the worst internal social in.flagra.tion until the 1960 1 s and 70's, the problems of caring for and protecting the soon-to-be-released slaves, the need to develop and ate.ff educational facilit'les for Blacks, all engulfed Afro-Americans 1·n a deluge of h orror and hope. Although it is clear that the works of many poets leap the arbitrarily-imposed chronological boundaries, the temperments, 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 "the image of a :face" that, in the words of Corrothers, "Lieth, like shadow on the wild sweet flowers. 11 The following poens are included as examples to enhance and possibly cla1•ify the for ego ing discussion on the "Imitation and Agitation" of '¼frican Voices In Eclipse." 152 � 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. 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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_01_02 Title A name given to the resource Copy of Drumvoices: The Mission of Afro-American Poetry: A Critical History, Folk Spiritauls (cont'd), p. 14-27 Relation A related resource Eugene B. 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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. https://digitallis.isg.siue.edu/files/original/b625894b140d30b742878a18c9202118.pdf aeadc798dc9d2499046cb2f891cedc61 PDF Text Text CHAPTER II THE BLACK AND UNKNOWN BARDS 0 black and unknown bards of long ago, How came your lips to touch the sacred fire? -- James Weldon Johnson I Origins of Black Expression: In this chapter, as in subsequent ones, I will attempt to place the Black creative mind within the spirit and letter of an African-American cultural tradition. Unfortunately, many early scholars either played down or ignored African influences on Black American poetry. these early scholars. This was certainly not true of all For while some gloated over the "findings" of "Southern whites"--purposting to prove that the Spirituals were derived solely from English (Hymns and Psalms) sources-Johnson (Book of American Negro Spirituals, 1925), Professor Work (Folk Song of the American Negro, 1915), and others, displayed faultless proof of Africanisms existing in practically · all Black American folk materials. The approach to this chapter will be via the philosophical concerns, updatine some of the thinking on traditional African views and mannerisms in Black America. Then brief consideration will be given the major trunks of the folk poetry: The Spirituals and the Seculars (or religious folk poetry and everyday workand-pl·a y folk poetry). I have included a fair representation of the original folk poetry. This is appropriate 27 of course, �since most anthologies of Black literature and poetry omit these items; and because without a knowledge of them one will be hard-pressed to understand the Black poet's use of folk materials (see Dunbar, .Johnson, Brown, Hughes, Hayden, Walker and others). However, before discussing the origins of Black expression, we should give mention to the role of the griot-or story teller--in pre-industrial African (and other) societies. The Black poet, as creator and chronicler, stems from the group of artisans known as griots--human records of family and national lore. Originally trained to recite--without flaw--the gene- ologies, eulogies, victories and calamities of the folk, the griot (like the lead singer of Spirituals) had to spice his reportage with dramatic excitement. Hardly a Black youngster grew up (even in recent times) without input from a sort of griot (uncle, grandmother, big brother or sister, mother or father, preacher, etc). The job of the grito, like that of the mater-ceremonial drummer, W 8.S so important that in many ancient societies a mistake could cost him his life. The griot began at a very early age his mastery of technique and information. Like the drummer, he understudied an elder statesman of the trade. His training demanded a certain psychological adjustment to the significance of his job-which was to contain (and give advice on) the "heirlooms" of the community. As years and centuries passed, this "factual" information was converted into a lore, mythology, cosmology and legend; it became a part of the vast web of racial conscious- • 28 �ness and memory. It became the legacy with which every new born child entered the world. Clearly, tnen, the myth-and legend-building Black poet has a past into which to dip and a future to predict, project and protect. And any violation of the past, present or future constitutes a serious crime against one's ancestors--against one 1 s parents, against one's blood, against one's god. So it follows that the poet--griot-- is not some haphazzardly arrived hipster or slick-talker simply mouthing tired old phrases. To the Black griot-singer- poet the job of unraveling the complex network of his past and present-future worlds is a painful but rewarding labor of love. We can say, then, that tbe Black Experience in the United States continues via the African Continuum: a complex of mythical (see Jahn), linguistic (see Twiggs), gestural (see Emery, Black Dance), psychological, sexual, musical, physical and religious forms. This complex is evidenced in the day-to-day attitudes and activities of Blacks: their sacred and secular (organized and random) expressi'ons, their physical appearances, their dress patterns and their family life. Not only in the United States, but in the Caribbean, in the West Indies, in Latin America, in all areas of the world where Blacks live in suhstantial numhers--tbey exhibit characteristics peculiar to the nature and culture of indigenous Africans. Naturally, general Black expression evolves from the myriad components of Black culture; and the artistic (song, poetry) expression--traditional Black (African) 29 �communities did not separate life .from art--is a more soph isticated form honed from t h e ge neral "storeh ouse." No one has yet put t h eir h ands on exactly 1-rhe.t mome nt in ti me a nd wher e t h e first Af ri can s ound?, or i,wvements Here incorpor ated into 11 1-1h i te II or 1fo stern fra mes of references or vice versa; but we do know t hat it did h app e n. Unfortunately , i nept reporting on t he Black Experience b as muddied t h e waters so much that one is repulsed a nd h orrified b y ob servations and conclusions of some Black and w11i te "researchers. 11 In an unf'linchingly br illiant analysi s o.f Black Afr i can Oral Literature, presented at t h e First World ' Festival of Ne gro Arts (1966) in Dakar., Senegal, Basile-Juleat Fouda., noting that "oral literature is as old as creation, 11 coined the phrase "Archival Literature of Gesture." important revelations., Fouda s aid: Concluding his "Thus in t he Black Africa of tradition., literary art is an ano nymous art because it ts a social a.rt; it is a social art because it is a functional art; and it is functional because it is humanist." research is not b ounded by color. Good Blo.c k sociologist E. Franklin Frazier (Black Bourgeosis) held(wrongl y ) t h at t h ere were no significant carryovers (cultural transplants) from Africa to the United States. (Slavery., Frazier said, "stripped II the African of his culture and "destroyed" his personality.) White anthropologist Melville Herskovits (The Myth of the Negro Past) proved without a doubt that there were African "survivalisms" operating daily in Black Americans culture. 30 (For more thought �.....,. . on this see Jahn' s r-iuntu, 1:lork' s findings, memoirs of Katherine Dunham, works of Lorenzo Dow Turner, Negro Folk Music of Africa and America. (Folkways, Lp) and others.) Rudimentary Black expression and the numerous folk forms it produced (field hollers, vendors shouts, chants, worksongs, Spirituals, blues, Gospels, jazz, rhythm 'n blues, soul music) form the linguistic and modal bases for most Black poetry. The early song and chant forms were almost always accompanied by what we have come to call "dramatic ideograms"--or dances. Dance became one of the three basic artistic modes encapsulated by folk expression. The other two are Song and Drum. Aside from being the first means of communicating over distances, the drum also played a major role in the social lives of traditional African peoples. The career drummer, like the Black American musician today, went througb yea.rs of grueling practice and preparation--learning not only drumming techniques but the legends, the myths, the meanings and symbols of which the drum was derivative. Dance always accompanied song--Fouda re.fers to the "acoustical phonetic alpha.bet"--so that the complex web of oral nuances was illustrated vividly and graphically. Obviously, when teaching or entertaining, the artist/teacher had to present his material in -interesting and exciting ways so as not to bore the audience. Thus repetition became a backbone of Black expression--a flexible, buoyant repetition that was designed to reinforce and increase group participation. The three essential modes--dr~, song and dance--heightened 31 ' �I the immediate experience, which was ecstatic, therapeutic, spiritual, visceral and revelatory. Added to these intricate and varying modal patterns were the colorful costumes, make-up, props and important subject matter. The achievement was not just the vicarious experience but one of the act and symbol being actualized together. \foile such a prospect boggles the mind, a serious study of these forms and the general tradition will prove eye-opening for many a disbeliever. Early Black American oral and gestural art forms inherited the qualities described thus far. In language, in dance, and, more importantly, in points of view (attitudes) toward time, life and death, the cosmology of Africa "continued" (with some modifications) in the Black culture of the Western Hemisphere. Specifically, information was conveyed by way of aphorisms, riddles, parables, tales, enigmatic dances and sounds (tonal scales). jokes and poetry. Oblique and cry ptic utterances, puzzles, The pattern remains in tact today. Jahnfs Muntu documents many examples of t h e African "carryovers" and "survivalisms" operating in t l1 e Western Hemisphere. 1. One can For a brilliant and co[sent statement on t h is aspect of Black expression see Samuel Allen's "Tbe African Herita ge" in the Jan., 1971, issue of Black World. Allen--a.lso known as Paul Vesey--is a.n acknowledged auth ority on b oth African and Afro-American culture. In the article, ~e finds African "carryovers" in the Black American church (Baldwin), literature (Sterling Brown, Cleaver) and secular life. 32 �find the tradition in Black poets, in the sermons of Black ministers and in family and otber social gatherings. The scintillating Black poet Tolson operates in the old enigmatic (word-fencing) frame when in "An Ex-Judge at the Bar" he says: Bartender, make it straight and make it twoOne for the you in me and one for the me in you. Tolson (known to carry this Black nature into his teaching at Langston University where be reportedly gave a student an "Frr to the 20th power) ends the poem with an equally enigmatic mock: Bartender, make it straight and make it threeOne for the Negro ••• one for you and me. In the Spirituals (to be discussed) one finds similar debts to the African tradition of Song, Dance and Drum. So too in the shouts and hollers where actual African words and phrases were often used. 2 Hence we can say that the traditional African phonology and ritual, modified on the anvil of slavery, were operating and continue to be represented in different forms of Black American expression. The African slave, forced to acquire functional use of English and to reject surface aspects of bis religion, went "underground" so to speak and became bi-lingual and bi-physical. 2. Hence, while much of the The fine poet Raymond Patterson (26 Ways of Looking at a Black Man) is currently assembling a book listing several hundred African words that are used daily in the American 33 �thematic material of the Black folk tradition is taken fro m the harsh difficulties the slave encountered in America, t h e form, spirit and phonology were essentially African. The use of poly-rhythms 3 and the introduction of s yncopation, t he reliance on various rhythmic instruments (drum-related and sometimes invented), the adherence to a non-European tonal scale and the employment of the blue tone, the development of a distinct body of folklore and a rich language to . convey the lore--all represent t h e African's resourcefulness. Cross-cultural inputs are also evident, however, in--for example--the Spiri tuals wh ich, in many cases, were influenced by the English Hymn and the Psalm. Other considerations in- clude the slave's use of European instruments (Baraka points out, in Black Music, that the piano was the last instrument to be mastered by the Black musician.4 The reason ought to be obvious.), the Black adaptation of songs beard in the "big house," the continual re-styling of American fads and tbe vocabulary. See b i bliography for more on the little known area of scbolarship. 3. Isaac Faggett, a y oung Black composer-band director in Sacramento, Calif., has said that the word "poly-rhythm" (i.e., many rhythms overlapping each other) should perhaps be replaced by or alternated with the words "poly-meter" or "poly-metrics." 4. Eileen Southern, in 'E1e Music of Black Americans, sets forth a thorough and accurate discussion of these points. 34 She �employment of Biblical imagery and language in songs and sermons. Langston Hughes noted tbat the Blues usually dealt with the theme of the rejected lover and personal depression. Hughes' first volume of poems, in fact, was entitled The Weary Blues. However, the Blues, like the Spirituals, do not simply preach resignation or submissiveness. Rather, as Janh and Howard Thurman {The Negro Spiritual Speaks of Life and Death) ·note, underneath the complaint is a "plaint": or change! things must get better For as the slave said: Freedom, oh Freedom, how I love thee! Freedom, oh Freedom, how I love thee! And before I'll be a slave I'll be buried in my grave And go home to my Maker and be Free! II Black Folk Roots in America: "Get it together or leave it alone" --Jackson Five Black poets have been writing in the English literary tradition since the middle of the ei ghteenth century. But notes with some detail how the Africans {made slaves) had to learn to use the instruments of the New World. Professor Southern also relates how Black music lnf'luenced whites in the early _days of America. 35 �it is the folk literature--those productions of the everyday people--which must be examined before a literary or poetic tradition can be viewed in its entirety . There are few persons in the United States who have not been touched or inI'luenced (in one way or another) by the folk expression of Black America. White Americans began collectine Black folk lyrics and stories in the early :,ears of t h e ni neteenth century (see bibliography). In the same century , this aspect of Black culture reached wide audiences via at least three major vehicles. The fir s t was the abolitionist movement which featured Black poets (Francis E. W. Harper, James Whitfield, Benjamin Clark, and others), orators and prose writers (David Walker, Frederick Douglass, etc.), and journalists (John Russwurm, etc). The seco nd veh icle was the national and European tours (in t he 1870 's) of student ch oirs from Hampton Institute and Fis k (The J ubi lee Singers) University. The abolitionist movement popularized anti-slavery and freedom songs and the colle ge ch oirs gave wide ex posure to t h e Spirituals, considered by most sch olars (of' Black culture) to be t h e first authentic poetry of Blac k America.. Tb e t h ird major veh icle was the publication (in t h e late ninete ent h century ) of Brer Rabb it tales b y Joel Chandler Harris. In st ud ies and writings, Harris reco,enized t he r,1yt h ic wor t h in Blac k f ol kt ales and exposed readers to s uch charac t ers a3 Brer Te r rapin , Brer Bear, Brer Fox, Brer :Tol f and others . 1 Hany of t l10 se t ale s and ch aracters have African counterpart s . 36 �F '!R III Spirituals: "Tryin' to get h ome" For many reasons, t~10 use of tbe word "spiritual II to describe Black reliciosity is a misnoLler. Current inter- pretations, outlined by neu ini'ormation and er.1pirica._!- research into history and thought convinces us that the entire Black world is 11 spiri tual 11 : i.e., lnforrned by and responsible to a "higher order "--the order of God or the "eods." The ex- huberance, the spontaneity, the ecstas?, the trances, the talking in tongues, the racial flavor and flair in dress (at church and nightclub), all point up the interdependence and the integration of various modes and points of view in the Black community. Professor Work describes it as "this difference and this oneness." The contemporary Black poet Hayden understands this intee;ration w11en, in a poem to Malcolm X, he exclaims tlle 11 blazine oneness" of Allah. Further proof of this fusion is seen in the emotional abandonmerit of church folk during secular picnics, socials and other events of merriment. One has only to listen to Aretha Franklin alter- nate between Gospel and blues to see this unity of expression r:'. operating today • .? 5. And certainly it is clear in the works of Let us observe that the most brilliant and influential Black poets have intimately understood this aspect of Black culture. Almost without exception (and Kerlin, Brown and 37 �the Staples Singers, tbe Edwin He.wkins Singers a nd in a more vulgarized manner in Flip Hilson (Rev. Leroy ). In t he words or one brother, "the preach er and the pimp style out heavy." Still, it is i mportant that we offer t h e traditional portrait and break-down of Black folk expression--so as not to confuse or invade the "sacred" bastions of h istory. The Spirituals have been the source of continuing debate among scholars: Are they completely African in ori gip? Are they primarily English (I:Iethodist, Wesleyan, etc.) in origin? Or do they represent t he co-joining of African/European t h emes and religiosity ? Persons desiring to concentrate on t h is area of Black poetry should trace t h e history of these ar guments and debates and reach conclusions of tbeir own. Johnson (and bis brother, J. Rosamond) put togetb er t h e best known collection of these songs in Th e Book of American Negro Spirituals (1925), and The Second Book of American ITe gro Spirituals (1926). The Spirituals usually deal with phy sical or fi gurative contact between the singer (or congre gation) and God. (Early Afro-Americans often used the words God, Jesus, Savior, and Lord interchangeab l y . For a. more t h orough discussion of this see Benjamin May s ' The Negro's God.) The songs also deal with others warn young Black writers to follow example) Black poets since the Civil War have availed t h emselv es of integral folk rudiments--even when they did not use t h em in poetry. It is still a fact that Black culture (despite the racist and techno- 38 ' �a longing for rest and the overcoming of for midahle obstacles or adversaries. Professor Work's 1915 study was seminal and remains a land mark in the study of African and Black American songs. His work provides many answers to questions and issues that had been (and continue to be) muddied by the waters of insensitivity and careless research. His efforts, "undertaken for the love of our fathers' songs," gives clear connections between the African and Afro-American folk song. His main concern is for the religious songs--although his comments on form and style are of general value: In America we hear it (the song) and see it acted in the barn dance, on the stage, in the streets among the children; in fact, many an occasion is enlivened by this species of music, the interest in which is intensified by tbe rhythmical patting of hands and feet. This rhythm is most strikingly and accurately brought out in their work songs. Citing the emotionalism and songified intensity of the Black American, Professor Work says "He worships not so much because he ought, as because he loves to worship." This "worship," of course, is the kind we referred to earlier: the integration logical barrages of the West) still remains more consciously "integrated" than other cultural unit in America. 39 �of sensuality and ecstasy into the swee ping rit ual of live and immediate drame. Such musical acti v ity is "as natural to the American Negro as his breath 11 : Indeed, it is a portrayal of h is soul, and is as characteristic as are h is phy sical features. Hear him sing in his church , h ear h i CT preach, CToan, and g i ve 1 gravery 1 in h is sermon, h ear t h e wash er- woman sing ing over h er t ub , h ear t h e lab orer singing his accompaninent to h is toil, h ear the child b abbli ng an extemporaneous tune •••• Even those Negroes wh o have b een educ a ted and wh o have been influenced by lonG study , f i nd it difficult to express their musical s el ves in any other way. Black song, as is readily observa ble, possesses b oth pure song (the verse and chorus plan) a nd ch a nt (use of interjections and expletives) qualities: Poor man Laz'rus, poor as I, Don't you see? Poor man Laz'rus, poor as I, Don't you see? When be died h e found a h ome on h i gh , He h ad a home in dat roc k , Don't y ou see? Alluding to the deeper, more psy ch ological, meaning of these songs, Professor Work says "there are closer relations b etween 40 �the soul and musical ex pressions t h an h ave satisfactorily explained. These relations can be felt, but any accurate description seems beyond the grasp of man's mind." Never- theless this important study goes on to classify and number these songs of: Joy, Sorrow, Sorrow with Note of Joy, Faith, Hope, Love, Determination, Adoration, Patience, Courage and Humility. Like most scholars of the Spirituals, this one points out that there is no h ate, resentment or vindic.tiveness in them. However, Dr. Thurman, theolo gian and ph ilos9pher, has excavated underpinnings of turbulence. In The Negro Spiritual, Dr. Thurman tells us death was i mmediate and ever-present for the slave. In such an atmosphere of anxiety and fear, the slave developed a rather stoic attitude in which he saw death as inescapable arrl as, possibl y , the only remaining vehicle for mediation with t h e plantation lords. The slave could take his own life, if he wanted to--as h e did many times in preference to slavery or separation fro m family and/or loved ones. Dr. Thurman's brilliant analysis must be read by any serious student of Black t h ought and culture. Johnson (who also classified the songs) 6 said a hierarchy of poets for the Spirituals included the song-maker (writer) and the song~leader. 6. The leader h ad to remember leading lines, Johnson, Brown, Kerlin and Dr. Thurman also give con- sideration to the "poetic" content of the Spirituals. Johnson and Professor Work discuss the preservation and promotion of 41 �WWW W pitch tunes true and possess a powerful voice. Johnson, who (like Professor Work) believes the earliest Black American songs were built on the common African form, says the Spirituals were written by individuals and set to tm moods of groups. Like the blues, their secular and structural cousins, the Spirituals incorporated antiphony or call-and-response which allowed for audience (congregation) participation (either by alternating, or intermingling, with the leader): Leader: Oh, de Ribber of Jordan is deep and wide, Congregation: One mo' ribber to cross. Leader: I don't know how to get on de other side, Congregation: One mo' ribber to cross. Heavily influenced by Chrlstian imagery and mythology, the creators of the Spirituals often chose the most militant of biblical personalities as their heroes. This aspect of these "poems" opens up an entire area of questions and research for the student seeking to compare/contrast biblical themes and characters to the Spirituals. Certainly there is need to ex- amine the English Hymns and Psalms in the framework of such a study. The Spirituals should also be compared/contrasted to the Black literary verse or the period during which they these songs through archival holdings, choir concert tours and the attention paid to them by composers. �were forged--especially the work of Jupiter Hammon, Phillis "Wheatley and George :Moses Horton. IV Folk Seculars: Don wid massa's hollerin'; Don wid massa's hollerin'; Don wid massa's hollerin' Roll Jordan roll. We observed that there is a thin line between the Black religious and secular worlds. This is true for many reasons-- some of them stemming from the African tradition of interrelating all aspects of life. As John M'Biti (African Religions and Philosophies), Gabriel Bannerman-Richter and others point out, the African takes his religion (his beliefs) with him where ever he goes. Many investigators (Jahn, M'Biti and others) also remind us that most African languages have no word for religion or art. The two are inseparable. Again the ways of African peoples (see Mphahlele's Whirlwind) are expressed in "integrated" terms. True, in Black America there is some tension between secular and religious communities--but so often ( and most Blacks understand this well though they don't always admit it) they are the same: on different occasions. wearing different hats Study, again, the case of a Rev. Jesse Jackson or a Rev. Ike or a Rev. Adam Clayton Powell! We have also observed that many motifs and components of Black expression are interchangeable. That is, songs and . I, 43 �speeches designed for church or other religious activity are often re-cut (modified) for a secular--social affair. are numerous examples of t h 1.s practice. There During the Civil R:i.gh ts era, we would s in8 I woke up this mor nin' with my mind stayed on freedom though we were .fully aware that church .folk were used to singing it this way: I woke up this mormin' with my mind stayed on .Tesus 1-rany of Curtis Hayfield's (and the I mpressions') songs rely strongly on the material of songs sung in Black churches. Even Hayfield's more recent tunes (see "If There's A Hell Below") carry the Black church flavor--with their warnings, admonishments, threats of societal destruction, and pleas for love (see also :Marvin Gay's pieces like "Save The Children"). Some works by the Temptations ( "Run Away Child Running Wild") reflect the historical theme of "searching" found in Black religious songs. This same group's "Poppa Was A Rolling Stone" describes poppa "stealing in the name of the Lord." B.B. King's "Woke Up This Mornin" is a blues treatment of the idea expressed above in the Spiritual: "I Woke Up This Mornin. 11 When heard the old Supremes singing "Stop in the Name of Love" we were tempted to replace "love" with "God." Often the songs contain exchangeable and interchangeable words such as "Lord" and "Mother"; ''Baby II and "God"; "Sweet thing" and "Sweet .Tes us 11 ; ' ' . "Captain" and "Maker"; and "God" and "I'-1'.an". The reasons for such usages, as we have stated, are deeply enmeshed in the 44 �mythos of Blacks. Richard Wri ght's "Bright and Morning Star" (in the Bible, a metaph or for Jesus) becomes t he son of old Aunt Sue in the sbort story b y that name. Th e h ero of John A. Williams' novel, Th e Nan Who Cried I Am, says "thank you man" to God after a sex act. "Slipping into Darkness 11 ( Wh en we h ear a tune like War's "when I b eard my mother say") we must understand tlehistorical significance and function of social (therapeutic) art--just as we must understand· the function of the mother-like voice t hat admonish es Isaac Hayes to "shet yo mouf II in "Sh aft. 11 When conserve.ti ve Black Christians complained of Duke Ellington's use of reli gious the mes in jazz, he replied "I'm just a ecumenical cat"--mea.ning he avoided fine distinctions in where or to whom he played. The church has been the training ground (academy, if you will; see Frazier's The Negro Church in America) for most of the big (vocal) names in Black popular music as well as for important orators, race leaders and community business men. Against the fore going discussion we can view' t h e Folk Seculars in their ri gh t perspective as a vital part of the rich storehouse of Black folklore. (my own grandmother: Through songs, aphorisms "You don't believe fat meat's greasy!" and "If you ain't gon' do nothing get off the pot!"), fables (see Aesop), jokes (see minstrelsy and t he Black comedy tradition), blues and other enduring forms Blacks capture severe hardships and tribulations, folk wisdom, joys and tragedies, and the longings and h opes of Blacks during slavery afterwards. 45 �Tbe Seculars, more so than the Spirituals, give important clues to the inner-workings of the common Black mind. And a closer look at the total folk tradition will reveal the structure and principles of folk psychology. It is, after all, back and forward to these folk materials that researchers will have to go if they are serious about delineating the feelings, emotions and thought patterns of Blacks. The Seculars are surer indices to the workings of the folk mind because they are not as limited as the Spirituals. Though most Blacks in the United States are awe.re of and have heard the Spirituals, an even larger number have had sustained exposure (directly or indirectly) to the secular vocalizations and gestures of Black culture. Contemporary Black popular music and culture con- tinue to be informed by the street and home utterances. An exciting reciprocity allows entertainers to borrow freely from what they bear while the folks recorded. 11 run and tell that" once it's Some examples of songs, titles and other epithets borrowed directly from the people are: James Browh's "Brand New Bag, 11 "Licking Stick" ( see "honey stick" in :McKay's story "Truant"), "Give It Up or Turn It Loose," "The Payback" and "It's Hell"; Marvin Gaye's 11 1-Jhat's Going On" and "Let's Get it On"; Curtis Hayfield's "Superfly"; the . Jackson Five's "Get It Together or Leave It Alone 11 ; Flip Wilson's ''What You See is ·what You Get" (and the Dramatics' tune by the same name); Aretha Franklin's "Respect" and "Run and Tell That"; and Jean Knight's nMr. Big Stuff"--to name just a few. - 46 �As with the Spirituals, whites (primarily abolitionists) were among the first to collect Seculars of wbatever type. William Wells Brown, the first published Black novelist and playwright, collected "anti-slavery" songs. Thomas Wentworth Higginson, writer and abolitionist wbo led a Black regiment in the Civil War, collected songs be heard among his men around campfires and during marches. Though primarily con- cerned with religious songs, he also described some of the properties of general Black song delivery. One of the most important collections of these seculars was put together by Thomas W. Talley ( of Fisk Universit:r, as was Professor Hork). Professor Talley did pioneering work in the identification and classification of Negro Folk Rhymes. Describing the philo- sophy, structure and, in some cases, origin of the songs, the Fisk scholar collected well over JOO examples. r important examples and discussions of the artistic products of folk secular folk life can be found in the works of Hughes and ' Bontemps, Brewer, Spalding, Dodson, Chapman, Brown (Negr£ Poetry), Abrahams (Deep Down in The Jungle) and Bell (The Folk Roots of Contemporary Afro-American Poetry). Bell's ·work i's recent (from the new Broadside Press) and is somewhat vague in perspective as a result of an -imposed ("foreign") construct. Also valuable to an examination of the Seculars are regional works ( such as Abrahams') including Drums and Shadows (Georgia and South Carolina), Goldstein•s (ed.) Black Life 47 �, ' 'I and Culture in the United States, Lore nzo Dow Turner's work in the Gullah culture, Dorson's Negro Folktales in Mich igan, and others (see b ibliography). By f ar the most faithful representation of secular or reli g ious folk materials in the written poetry is in t h e work of Sterling Brown (see his Southern Road, especially Joh nson's introductio n , and h is critical comments in Negro Poetry ). Brown takes exception to Johnson's comment that dialect poetry has onl y two stops-1.1humor and pathos "--and implies that Black poets up until his time had been remiss (or lazy) in not de velop i ng broader uses and deepening the r.1eaning of Black life t 11rou gh the use of folk materials. The tradition of "tall" tale-telling is, of course, submerged in the American my t h os. So the Black narrator found a flexible atmosphere into wh ich h e could introduce his own manner of storytelling and h is own tradition of song. As he had done in the Spirituals, he Gained a resourcefulness in the use of langua ge, acquired instruments to accompany the song or story, and de veloped an ab ility to seize upon a good or amenable context in wh ich to tell or sing h is story; h e also made use of t h emes and ideas fro m the vast ethnic potpourri of America. the Spirituals. The Seculars grew up side-by -side with The Spirituals emerc ed from the attempt of the slave to web to gether his disparate (yet mutual) wounds. Spirituals represent t he slave's perserverence and (in many instances) bis hope and faith in mankind. The Seculars, also �developing in the shadows of the 11 biG 11ouse, 11 reflect the social life of the Black American on the plantation and later. In songs and ditties, the Black American couched his longings and bitternesses, but voiced his hopes and cynicisms through the oblique, eliptical and encoded words and seemingly unintelligible phonetic symbols. These African forms (see Rappin' and Stylin' Out, Kochman) have continued up to the present. Few Black youngst-ers are able to side-step the rigorous (and sometimes painful) verbal desterity demanded by playmates during verbal sparring matches that inevitably take place. The forms of such behavior were in tact during slavery--when a slave might be discussing a master's "moma" or "old lady" during a rather harmless "rap" (rhapsond? rapport?) with his fellow field workers. Frederick Douglass reports (Narrative) tbat slave over-seers thought slaves sang because they were happy. We know that such was not the case (se DuBois Souls of Black Folks) and that such refrains as "stealing away" implied a lot more than wanting to reach the arms of Jesus on the cross. similar codes in his stories and poems. Henry Dumas chronicles And Mel Watkins (Amistad 2) discussed an updated version of at least part of this phonenon in his article on folk singer-hero James Brown. Though he is discussing a secular character, Watkins' revelations are similar to Dr. Thurman's: that in the absurd context of being owned by someone else, it is not life or death that loom so importantly. One lives, Ellison suggests (Invisible Man), the day-to-day 49 �absurdity in a sort of comic-tragic vi ce. TTatkins says: James Brown's initial acceptance by a black audience is fixed in this crucial factor. From the moment he slides onto the staee, whether unconsciousl~,r or intentionally, his gestures, his facial expressions and even the sequential arra.n ge ti1ent of b is materials are external affirmations of a shared acceptance of t ~ e absurd or, more ineenously, of jiving. The i mpeca'bly tailored s uit s, which be brandishes at the outset, become meaninGless accoutrements as his act progresses and, sweating and straining , he ge ts down, li terall:r down on the floor, to wring t ;:10 last drop of emotion fro m a sonc;. Watkins is incorrect about the dress ½ecomine "meaningless" to a Black audie nce, but his general thesis is on tar get. Elsewhere Watkins, fir mly understand:i.nc; the i mp ortance of 11 verbal agility a mons Blacks, sa:rs :t.t is conmen to ·h ear 1-)lack women discussins a ~an's 'rap' or 'progr am' on the same level as tbey di8cuss l1is bank account. TT Blacks c;e~1erally witl11::l old t h eir judc;u~nt on (or acceptance) of a speaker or e ntertainer until he exbil)it s , in b is dress- c;eotnre -rat) , that l1 e under stands t'-:o 1rnllspring tbat f':C'ocl uced the "Slac k a,.1d unknown bards. 11 Return:i. n 6 :)riefly , to ou1• b istorical assess ment, we can 1101-1 see bou t he folk strain in Black writte n nr t eYolved. �From this 11 song" record ed :i.n the l ·S50 ' s by Douglass, Dey gib us de liquor, And say dat 's good enough for the nigger. to the fea1"' of 11 de Cunjab Hrrn" captured in "Gullah" by Campbell in the latter part of the 1900 's, De Cunjah man, de Cunjah li1a.n, 0 chillen run, de Cunjah man ! the deceptively "sin ple" ernplo:rr:1ent of folk expressions have prevailed as an ioportant antidote for the social maladies inherited by Blac ks in the Western Hemisphere. ''De Cunjah i-1an 11 is, of course, equivalent to the "things that go bumping in the night" in Ireland--and tbus has ties to general folk superstitions and t:iythology. But there was also the "buggah- man 11 (Dunbar's "Little Brown Baby"), the 11 rag man", "p~e;-leg," "raw-bead and bloody bones" and ( in places lik_e Trinidad) the "obeah man." Most of these supernatural characters a.re throw backs to various African reli gious and ritual practices. Of the new generation of poets, Ishmael Reed (Catechism of a neoamerican hoodoo church) is the innovator in the use of supernatural the mes and vocabulary. The theme of the 2nd Annual John Henr~r Memorial Authentic Blues and Gospel Jubilee (held in Cliff Top, W. Va., in August and September of 1974) was 11 Tryin' to Get Home. 11 How stea.d- :fastly the folk tradition runs like a vein through Black history. In the Seculars (and the Spirituals) we repeatedly hear something similar to the last stanza of "Rainbow Roun Mah Shoulder": 51 �I'm gonna break ri ght, break ri ght pas that shooter, I' m goin h ome, Lawd, I'm goin home. Again the use of -the work "Lawd" in a "secular" song further bears out the communal integration of the folk expression. My own sisters often interject or exclaim "Lord" or "Lawd" in everyday discussions ab out life. It is next to impossible to list all (or each type) of the Seculars. We have mentioned Professor Talley's pioneering efforts at classifying t h em. But many obstacles lay in the way of recorders of secular folk life. of censureship of language. One problem was t hat Such censuring marked all types of Black creativity, fro m t h e slave narratives to reli gious songs. Hence the more "protesting " aspects of the works were deleted as were "offensive words." Anyone wh o has b eard "authentic" Black folk songs knows t hat t h ey reflect tlJe convergence of madness, absurdity and h ope in t he Black body. Subsequently what are known as "curse" or "obscene" words are sprinkled throughout much of the "secular" lore. ' Brown discusses the "realism II in the folk r hymes along with an attempt to slassi.fy at lee.st some of t h em ("fiddle-sings," "corn-songs," "jig-tunes," "upstart crows"): Ballads, Ballads: Negro Heroes, John Henry (folkified in song), Work Songs, The Blues, Irony and Protest. Irony and protest, of course, run through Black folk and literary poetry from the earliest days (Whitfield, Harper, . anti-slavery songs) to the most recent times (Josh White, 52 . �Leon Thomas, Don L. Lee, Jobn Ecbols, Jo:1nn:.· 8 c ot t ). observers have pointed to the silliness of □ a n:, ::o ~e researct~ era who, white as ever, appeared in person to ask Black folk sonr; writers arrl singers if they endorsed "protest,n then went away satisfied with a "no" answer. Given the nature and history of race relations one can understand the reluctance on the parts of Blacks to tell whites the truth about "anything" let alone ab out such a sensitive area as "protest." ·Yet in the dog-eat-dog world of survival, t he folk person knows that "If he dies, I'll eat h is co'n; An' if he lives, I'll ride 'i m on." In summary we can say that unlike other eth nic immigrant groups ( the Afro-American was not a willing i mmigrant!), the Black American did not simply transplant h is stories--keeping them in their exact same form. He found American or European language counterparts for h is t h emes and vocabularies. But his phonology, style and spirit were informed by the African tradition. The student of Black folk poetry will want to compare and contrast the Seculars to other eth nic stories and songs. Boasting or "ly ing ," for example, is one ingredient o'f the "tall" tale. How does the Black song or story (Le., . "Shine," "Signify ing :Monkey ," "Dolemi te," "Frankie and Johnnie," . . . etc.) fit this motif? How does it conceal deeper meanings on the issues of slavery , inh uman work conditions, or contradictions in Christianity ? What are the similarities between the Seculars and the Spirituals? Between the Seculars and �the literary poetr~? These and other questions (on Black heroes, cultural motifs, blues themes, language and endurance) will lead one through exciting corridors of Black folk creativity and thought. V . SPIRITUALS GO DOWN, MOSES Go donw, Moses, Way down in Egypt land Tell old Pharaoh To let my people go. When Israel was in Egyptland Let my people go Oppressed so hard they could not stand Let my people go. Go down, Moses, Way down in Egyptland Tell old Pharaoh 11 Let my people go. 11 "Thus saith the Lord, 11 bold I1oses said, "Let my people: If not I'll smite ~our first-born dead Let my people go." 54 �"No more shall they in bondage toil, Let my people go; Let them come out with Egypt's spoil, Let my people go," The Lord told Moses what to do Let my people go; To lead the children of Israel through, Let my people go. Go down, Moses, Way down in Egyptland, Tell old Pharaoh, "Let my people go!" SLAVERY CHAIN Slavery chain done broke at last, broke at last, broke at last, Slavery chain done broke at last, Going to praise God till I die. Way down in-a dat valley, Praying on my knees; Told God about my troubles, And to help me of-a He please. I did tell him how I suffer, In de dungeon and de chain, And de days I went with head bowed down, And my broken flesh and pain. 55 �SPIRITUALS (cont'd) Slavery cbain done broke at last, broke at last, broke at last, Slavery chain done broke at last, Going to praise God till I die. I did know my Jesus heard me, 'Cause de spirit spoke to me, And said, "Rise my child, your cllillun, And you too shall be free. "I done 1 p'int one mighty captain For to marshall all my hos ts, And to bring my bleeding ones to me, And not one shall b e lost." Slavery chain done broke at last, broke at last, broke at last, Slavery chain done broke at last, Going to praise God till I die. NO HORE AUCTION BLOCK No more auction block for me, No more, no more, No more auction block for me, Many thousand gone. No more peck of corn for me, No more, no more, 56 . . �SPIRITUAIS (cont'd) No more peck of corn for me, Many thousand gone. No more pint of salt for me, No more, no more, No more pint of salt for me, Many thousand gone. No more driver's lash for me, No more, no more, No more driver's lash for me, Many thousand gone. SHOUT ALONG, CHILLEN Shout along, cbillen! Shout along, chillen! Hear the dying Lamb: Ob! take your nets and follow me For I died for you upon t h e tree! Shout along , cbillen! Shout along, chillen! Hear the dying Lamb! SWING LOW, SWEET CHARIOT Swing low, sweet chariot, Coming for to carry me home, Swing low, sweet chariot, Coming for to carry me home. 57 �SPIRITtJAI.S (cont'd) I looked over Jordan and what did I see Coming for to carry me home, A band of aneels, coming after me, Coming for to carry me home. If you get there before I do, Coming for to carry me home, Tell all my friends I'm coming too, Coming for to carry me home. Swing low, sweet chariot, Coming for to carry me home, Swing low, sweet chariot, Coming for to carry me home. STEAL AWAY Steal away, steal away, steal away to Jesus, Steal away, steal away home, I ain't got long to stay here. My Lord, He calls me, He calls me by the thunder, The trumpet sounds within-a my soul, I ain't got long to stay here. Steal away, steal away, steal away to Jesus, Steal a.way, steal away home, I ain't got long to stay here. 58 • �SPIRITUALS (cont'd) Green trees a-bonding, Po' sinner stands a-trembling The trumpet sounds within-a my soul, I ain't got long to stay here. DEEP RIVER Deep river, ~ay home is over Jordan, Deep river, Lord; I wa.nt to cross over into camp ground. 0 children, o, don't you want to GO to t h at gospel feast, That promised land, that land, wh ere all is peace? Deep river, my home is over Jordan, Deep river, Lord; I want to cross over into camp ground. I GOT A Hmm I N DAT ROCK I got a home in dat rock, Don't you see? I got a ho me in dat rock, Don't you see? Between de earth an' sl~, Thought I h eard my Saviour cry, You got a home in dat rock, Don't you see? Poor man Laz'rus, poor a.s I, Don't you see? PooRman Laz'rus, poor as I, 59 �SPIRITUALS (cont'd) Don't you see? Poor man Laz'rus, poor as I, 'Wben he died he fonnd a h ome on h i gh , He had a home in dat rock, Don't you see? Rich man Dives, he lived so well, Don't you sec? Rich man Dives, he lived so well, Don't you see? Rich man Dives, he lived so well, When he died h e fou nd a 11ome in Hell, He had no borne in dat rock, Don't y ou see? God gave lfo ab de Rainbow siGn, Don't you sec? God g ave No~ 1 de Rainb ow sign, Don't y ou see? God c;a ve 1'00.1" de RatnboH sisn, No r.wre wat er 1_w.t f:i.re next ti me , Better get a h ome in dat rock, Don't you see? ' 60 �SPIRITUALS (cont'd) I BEEN .REBUKED A:t:ID I BEEN scornmn I been rebuked and I been scorned, I been rebuked and I :Jeen scorned, Chillun, I be en rebuked and I be en scorned, I'se had a hard time, so's you born. Talk about me much as you please, Talk about ne much ns you please, Chillun, talk about me much as you please, Gonna talk a;)out you when I get on my knees. DE OLE SHEEP DEY KNOW DE ROAD Oh, de ole sheep, dey know de road, De ole sheep, dey know de road, De ole sheep, dey know de road, De young Lambs must find de way. My brother, better mind how you ·walk on de crqss, De young lambs must find de · ·wa~r, For your foot might slip, and yo' soul git lost, De young lamb s mus t find de way. Better mind dat sun, and see bow she run, De young lambs must find de way, And mind, don't let her catch you wid yo' work undone, De young lambs must find de way. 61 �SPIRITUALS (cont'd) Oh, de ole sheep, dey know de road, De ole sheep, dey know de road, De ole sheep, dey know de road, Young lambs must find de way. DE HAHMER KEEPS RINGDTG Oh, de hammer keeps ring ing On somebody's coffin, Oh, de hammer keeps ringing On somebody's coffin, Oh, de hammer keeps rin r; ing On somebody's coffin: Good Lord, I know my time ain't long . Oh, de wagon keeps rolling Somebody to de graveyard, Oh, de wagon keeps rolling Somebody to de graveyard, Oh, de wagon keeps rolling Somebody to de graveyard: Good Lord, I know my time ain't long. Oh, de preacher keeps preaching Somebody's funeyal, Oh, de preacher keeps preaching Sombody's funeyal, 62 �SPIRITUALS (cont'd) De preacher keeps preaching Somebody's funeyal: Good Lord, I know my time ain't long. MOTHERLESS CHILD Sometimes I feel like a motherless child, Sometimes I feel like a motherless child, Sometimes I feel like a motherless child, A long ways from home, A long ways fro m home. Sometimes I feel like I' m almost gone, Sometimes I feel like I'm almost gone, Sometimes I feel like I'm almost gone, A long ways .from home, A long ways .from home. Sometimes I .feel like a feather in the air, Sometimes I feel like a feather in the air, Sometimes I feel like a featber in the air, And I spread my wings and I fly, I spread my wings and I fly. NOBODY KNOWS DA TRUBBLE AH SEE Oh, nobody knows da trubble ah see, Nobody knows but Jesus. 63 �SPIRITUALS (conttd) Nobody knows da trubble ah see, Glory, Hallelujah! Sometimes I'm up, sometimes I' m down, Ob, yes, Lord! Sometimes I'm almost to the grounr, Oh, yes, Lord! Although you see me goin along , so, Ob, yes, Lord! I have my trubbles here below, Oh, yes, Lord! Nobody knows da trubble ah see, Nobody knows my sorrow. Nobody knows da trubble ah see, Glory, Hallelujah! One day when I was walkin along , Oh, yes, Lord! The elements open and his love came down, Oh, yes, Lord! I never shall forget dat day, Oh, yes, Lord! ·' 'When .Jesus wash my sins away, Ob, yes, Lord! 64 �SPIRITUALS (cont'd) Ob nobody knows da trubble ah see, Nobody knows my sorrow. Nobody knows da trubble ah see, Glory, Hallelujah! DE BLIND MAN s TOOD on DE ROAD O, de blind man stood on de road and cried O, de blind man stood on de road and cried Crying "O, my Lord, save-a me; 11 De blind man stood on de road and cried. Crying dat he might receive his sight Crying dat he might receive his sight Crying "O, my Lord, save-a me;" De blind man stood on de road and cried. HE MEVER SAID A MCTMBALil'JG WORD Oh, de wbupped him up de hill, up de hill, up de hill, Oh, de wbupped him up de bill, and he never said a mumbaling word, Oh, dey whupped him up de hill, and he never said a mumbaling word, He jes' bung down his head, and he cried. Oh, dey crowned him wid a thorny crown, thorny crown, thorny crown, Oh, dey crowned him wid a thorny crown, and he • 65 �SPIRITUALS (cont'd) never said a mumbaling word, Oh, dey crowned him wid a thorny crown, and he never siad a mumbaling word, He jes' bung down bis head, and be cried. Well, dey nailed h im to de cross, to de cross, to de cross, Well, dey nailed h im to de cross, and be never said a r:m mbaling word, Well, dey nailed him to de cross, and he never said a mumbaling word, He jes' hung down bis bead, and he cried. Well, dey pierced him in de side, in de side, in de side, Well, dey pierced him in de side, and de blood come a-twinkline; down, Well, dey pierced him in de side, and de biood cor.1e a-twinkling down, Den be hung down his bead, and he died. JOSHUA FIT DE BATTLE OF JERICHO Joshua fit de battle of Jericho, Jericho, Jericho, Joshua fit de battle of Jericho, And de walls come tumbling _down. 66 �SPIRITUALS (cont'd) You may talk about yo' king of Gideon Talk about yo' man of Saul, Dere's none like good old Joshua At de battle of Jericho. Up to de walls of Jericho, He marched with spear in hand; "Go blow dem ram horns," Joshua cried, "Kase de battle am in my band." Den de lamb ram sheep horns begin to blow, Trumpets begin to sound, Joshua commanded de chillen to shout, And de walls come tumbling down. Dat morning, Joshua fit de battle of Jericho, Jericho, Jericho, Joshua fit de battle of Jericho, And de walls come tumbling down. OH, MARY, DON'T YOU WEEP . Oh Mary, don't you weep, don't you moan, Ob Mary, don't you weep, don't you moan, Pharaoh's army got drownded, Oh Mary, don't you weep. 67 �SPIRITUALS (cont'd) One of dese mornings, bright and fair, Take my wings and cleave de air, Pharaoh's army got drownded, Oh Mary, don't you weep. One of dese mornings, five o'clock, Dis ole world gonna reel and rock, Pharaoh's army got drownded, Oh Mary, don't you weep. Don't know what nry mother wants to stay her fuh, Dis ole world ain't been no friend to huh, Pharaoh's army got drownded, Oh Mary, don't you weep. Oh Ha.ry, don't you weep, don't you moan, Oh :Mary, don't you weep, don't you moan, Pharaoh's army got drownded, Oh Mary, don't you weep. VI FOLK SECULARS HE IS MY HORSE One day as I wus a-ridin' by, Said dey: "Ole man, yo' boss will die." "If he dies, he is my loss; And if he lives, he is my boss." 68 �FOLK SECULARS (co nt'd) Nex' day w'en I come a'ridin' by, Dey said: "Ole man, yo' hoss may die. 11 "If be dies, I•ll tan 'is skin; An' if he lives, I'll ride 'im a g 'in. 11 Den ag'in wten I come a-ridin• by, Said dey: "Ole man, yo' b oss mou gh t die. 11 "If h e dies, I'll eat his co•n; An' if he lives, I'll ride 'im on. 11 DID YOU FEED HY COW? ''Did yer feed my cow?" "'Will yer tell me h ow?" "Yes, Mam!" ., "Yes, Mam!" ' 11 0h, w1 at did y er give , er?" "Cawn an h ay. If 11 0h , w•at did y er gi ve 'er?" "Cawn an h ay. fl "Did yer milk 'er good?" "Yes, Ham!" "Did yer do lak yer should? 11 "Oh, how did y er milk 'er?" 11 Yes, Ha.mt "Swish ! 11 Swish ! Swish ! 11 "Did dat cow g it sick?" "Yes, Ham!" "W'us sh e kivered wid tick?" ''Yes, Mam!" "Oh, h ow wus she sic k ?" "All bloated up. II "Oh, how wus she sick?" "All bloated up. II 69 �FOLK SECULA~S (cont'd) SONG (From Frederick Douglass, Ny Bondaee and lI:r Freedom, 1853) We raise de wheat, Dey gib us de corn: He bake de bread, Dey gib us de crust; We sif de meal, Dey gib us de huss; We peel de meat, Dey gib us de skin; And dat's de way Dey take us in; We skim de pot, Dey gib us de liquor~ And sa.y dat's good enough for ni cger. SONG (Fro ~n Hartin .R . Delany, "Blake; or, The Huts oi' At;ierica, 11 in The Anclo-Af'rican EnQ;azine, June 1859) Come all m:~ bret1)r e n, let us take a rest, While t b e ::-ioon sbi ne s br:t o;t1t and c 1. 0 0 1,,; Old ,.1aster d5-ed 8.:.x: : .e:ft us all at last , And b as gone a t t h e bar to a pp ear! Old raaster's dead and lying in b is grave; And our b lood will now cease to .flow ; He will no ri10re tramp on the neck o.f the slave, For he's gone where slave-holders go! '7 0 �FOLK SECULARS (cont'd) Hand up the shovel and the h oe-0-0-0! I don't care whetber I work or no! Old master's gone to the slave-holders rest-He's gone where t he:r all ou3ht to go! SELLIH' TIT-1E Goodbye, Goodbye, If I nevah, nevah see you a.ny mo. Goodbye, Goodbye, I will meet you on the utha sho. Pray f'or me, Pray for me, If I nevab, nevah see you any mo. Pray for me, Pray ror me , I will meet you on the utha sbo. Be strong, Be strong, If I nevah, nevah see you any mo. Be strong, Be strong, I will meet you on the utha sh o. Fare thee well, Fare thee well, If I nevah, nevah see you an;r mo. Fare thee well, 71 �FOLIC SECULATIS (cont ' d ) Fare thee well, I will meet y ou on the uth a s h o. MANY A THOUSAND DI E No r:1 ore dri ver call for me, No more dri ver call; No more driver call for me, Many a thousand die; No more peck of corn for me, No more pock of corn ; No more pec k of corn for me, Many a t b ousand d ie! No more h undred las h for me, no more h u ndred lash ; No more hu ndred lash for me, Many a thousand die! FHEEDOH Abe Lincoln freed t h e ni gger, Wid da gun and wid da tri gger, An I ain't ginna g it wh ipped no mo. Ah e;ot mah ticket Out of dis heah t h icket, An I'm headin for da golden sh o. 0 freedo m, 0 freedo m, 72 �FOIJC 0 SECULARS ( cont f d) freedom after a while, And before I 1 d b e a slave, I'd b e burie d in my grave, And go home to my Lord and b e free. Therefll be no more moaning , no more moaning , No more moaning after a wh ile, And before Ifd b e a slave, I'd be buried in my grave, And go home to my Lord and be free. No more weeping , no more crying , No more weep i ng after a wh ile, And before I'd be a slave, I'd be buried in my grave, And go home to my Lord and be free. Therefll b e no more kneelin g , no more bowing , No more kneeling after a while, And before I'd b e a slave, I'd be buried in my e rave, And g o home to my Lord and b e free. There'll b e sh outin g , t h ere'll b e s h outin13 , There'll be s h outing after a wh ile, And before I'd be a slave, I'd b e buried in my grave, And go home to my Lord and b e free. WE 'LL SOON BE FREE We'll soon be free, We'll soon b e free, 73 �FOIJC SECULARS (cont'd) We'll soon be free, When de Lord will call us home. My brudder, how long My brudder, bow long , My brudder, bow long, 'Fore we done sufferin' here? It won't be long (Thrice.) 'Fore de Lord will call us home. We'll walk de miry road (Thrice.) Where pleasure never di.es. My brudder, how long (Thrice.) 'Fore we done sufferin' here. We'll soon be free (Thrice.) When Jesus sets sets me free. We'll fight for liberty (Thrice.) When de Lord will call us home. DON WTD DRIBER'S DRIBII'I ' Don wid driber's dribin' Don wid driber's dribin' Don wid driber's dribin' Roll, Jordan, roll. Don wid massa•s hollerin' Don wid massa's hollerin' Don wid massa's hollerin' Roll, Jordan, roll. 74 . ' �FOLK SECULARS (cont'd) RAINBOW ROUN MAH SHOULDER Evahwhuh I, shuh I look dis mawnin, Looks lak rain, looks lak rain. I gotta rainbow, tied a.11 roun mah shoulder, Ain gonna rain, a.in gonna rain. I don walk till, walk till mah feets gone to rollin, Jes lak a wheel, jes lak a sheel. Evah mailda:r, I gets a letter, "My son come home, my son come bome. 11 Da.t ol letter read about dyin, Mab tears run down, mah tears run down. I'm gonna break right, break right pas dat shooter, I'm goin home, Lawd, I'm goin home. RAILROAD SECTION LEADER'S SONG E.f ah could, ab sholy would, Stan on da rack ·whub Moses stood. Mary, Martha, Luke and John, ' All dem sciples dead an gon. Ah gotta woman in Jennielee Square, Ef you wanna die easy, lemme ketch you there. 75 �FOLK SECULARS (cont'd) Lil Evaline, settin in da shade, Figurin on da money I ain't made. Jack de rabbit, Jack de bear, Cancba move it jus a hair? All ah hate b out linin track, Dese ol bars bout to break mah back. You keep talkin bout da joint ahead, Never sa:t nawtbin b out mah ho g an b read. Way down yonder in da b olla of da fiel, Angels wukkin on dacha.yet wbeel. Reason I stay wid my cap'n so long , He giv me b iscuits to rear b ack on. Jes lemme tell ya whut da cap'n jes done, Looked at his watch and looked at da suh. Ho, Boys, it ain time. Ho, Boys, you cain't quit. Ho, Boys, it ain ti me. Sun a.in gone down yit. GO D mvN, OL' HANNAH Go down ol' Hannah, wen you rise no mo? 76 �FOLK SECULARS (cont'd) Go down ol' Hannah, Won you rise no mo? Lawd, if you rise, Bring Judgment on Lawd, if' you rise, Bring Judgment on. Oh, did you hear What the cap'n said? Oh, did you hear What the cap'n said? That if' you work He'll treat you well , And if' you don He'll give you hell . Oh, go down ol' Hannah, Won you rise no mo? Won you go down, ol' Hannah, Won you rise no mo? Oh, long-time man, Hold up ye ha.id. Well, you may get a pardon And you may drop daid. 77 �FOLK SECULARS (cont'd) Lawdy, nobody feels sorr:y For de life-time man. Nobody feels sorry For de life-time man. J{)HN HENRY HAMMER Dis is de hammer Killt .John Henry, Twon't kill me, baby, Twon't kill me. Take dis hammer, Carry it to de captain Tell him I'm gone, baby, Tell him I'm gone. Ef he axe ·you, Was I running Tell him how fast, b aby, Tell him how fast. Ef he axe you Any mo' questions, Tell him you don't know, baby, You don't know. Every mail day, Gits a letter, 78 SONG �FOLK SECULARS (cont'd) "Son, come h ome, baby , Son come h ome. 11 Been all ni gh t long Backing up timber, Want to go h ome, baby, Want to go bome. Jes' wait ti 11 I :nake Dese few days I st arted I' m going h ome, ba by , Is going h ome. Everywhere I Look dis morning Look lak rain, baby, Look lak rai n . I got a rainb ow Tied 'round my s h oulder, Ain't gonna rain, ½aby , Ain't gonna rain. Dis ole hammer Ring lak silver, Shine lak gold. Take dis h ammer 79 �FOLK SECULARS (cont'd) Throw it in de river, It'll ring rigbt on, baby, Ring rigbt on. Captain, did you bear All yo' men gonna leave you, Next pay day, ba9y, Next pay day? SHINE AND THE TITANIC It was 1912 wben the awful news got around That tbe great Titanic was sinking down. Shine came running up on deck, told the Captain, "Please, The water in the boiler room is up to my knees. 11 Captain said, "Take your black self on back down tbere' I got a bundred-fifty pumps to keep tbe boiler room clear." Shine went back in tbe hole, started shovelling coal, Singing, "Lord, have mercy, Lord, on my soul!" Just then half the ocean jumped across the boiler room deck. Shine yelled to the Captain, "The water's round my neck!" Captain said, "Go back! Neither fear nor doubt! I got a hundred more pumps to keep the water out." ''Your words sound happy and your words sound true, But this is one time, Cap, your words won't do. 80 �FOLK SECULARS (cont'd) I don't like chicken and I don't li ke h a mAndi don't believe your pumps is worth a damn!" The old Titanic was b e ginning to sink. Shine pulled off his clothes and jumped in the brink. He said, "Little fish, bi g fis h , and shark fishes, too, Get out o.f my way because I'm com1.ng throu gh." Captain on bridge hollered, "Shine, Shine, save poor me, And I'll make you as rich as any man can be. 11 Shine said, "Th ere's more gold on land t h an there is on sea." And he swimmed on. Jay Gould's millionaire dau ghter came running up on deck ·w1 th h er sui tease in h er hand and h er dress 'round her neck. She cried, "Shine, Shine, save poor me! I'll g ive you everyth ing your e~es can see." Shine said, "There's mo:ce on land t h an t here is on sea." And he swimmed on. Big fat banker beggine , "Shine, Shine, save poor met I'll give you a thousand s h ares of T and T." Shine said, "Hore stoc ks on land than there is on sea." And he swimmed on. When all them white folks ·w ent to heaven, Shine was in Sugar Ray's Bar drinking Sea.grams Seven. 81 �FOLK SECULARS (cont'd) THE SIGNIFYTNG IIOYimY Tbe monkey and Lion Got to talking one day. Monkey looked down and said, Lion, I hear you's ling in every way. But I know somehody 1-fuo do not think tha.t is trueIle told me he could whip The l 1 ving da:rliGhto out of you. Lion said, Hho? Monkey said, Lion, He talked about your marmna And talked about your grandr1a, too, And I'm too polite to tell you What he said about you. Lion said, Hho said wbat? rn: o? ;,fonkey in t 1, e tree, Lion on t he cr ou nd . Monkey kept on sic~lf~ing But b e d j_dn ' t co :.:.2 d o~ m . i:ionke~r said , Fis n ai.ie is Elephant-- He stone sure is not your friend. Lion so.id, Fe don't need to be Because toda~ will t e b is end. Lion took off tbrou gh the junGle 32 �FOLK SECULI\.TIS (cont' c5.) Lickity-split, Meaninc; to grab Elephant And tear hit:~ h it to hit. Period! He come across Elep':1ant copping a ri gh teous nod Under a fine cool shady tree. Lion said, You big old no-good so-and-so, It's either you or me. Lion let out a solid roar And bopped Elephant with h is paw. Elephant just took his trunk And busted old Lion's jaw. Lion let out another roar, Reared up six feet tall. Elephant just kicked him in the belly And laughed to see him drop and fall. Lion rolled over, Copped Elephant by the throat. Elephant just sbook bim loose And butted him like a eoat, Then he tromped him and he stomped him Till the Lion yelled, Oh, no! And it was near-nigh sunset When Elephant let Lion go. The signifying 1-fonkeJr Was still setting in his tree 83 �FOLK SECULARS (cont'd) ·when he looked down and saw the Lion, Said, Why, Lion, who can that there be? Lion said, it's me. Monkey rapped, Why, Lion, You look more dead than alive! Lion said, Ifonkey, I don't want To hear your jive-end-jive. Monkey just kept on signifying, Lion, you for sure caught hellMister EleplJant 's done whipped you To a fare-thee-well! Why, Lion, you look like to me You been in the precinct station And had the third-degre, Else you look like you been high on gage And done get caught In a monkey cage! You ain't no king to me. Facts, I don't think that you Can even as much as roarAnd if you try I'm liable To come down out of this tree and Wbip your tail some more. The Monkey started laughing And jumping up and down. 84 �FOLK SECULARS (cont'd) But he jumped so hard the limb broke And he landed--bam!-on the ground. When he went to run, his foot slipped And he fell flat down. Grr-rrr-rr-r! The Lion was on him With his front feet and his hind. Monkey hollered, Ow! Lion said, You little flee-bag you! Why, I'll eat you up alive. I wouldn't a-heen in this fix a-tall Wasn't for your signifying jive. Please, said lfunkey, Mister Lion, If you'll just let me go, I got something to tell you, please, I think you ought to knOi-J, Lion let the Monkey loose To see what bis tale could beAnd Monkey jumped right back on up Into his tree. What I was gonna tell you, said Monkey, Is you square old so-and-so, If you :fool with me I'll get Elephant to whip your head some more. Monkey, said the Lion, Beat to his unbooted knees, 85 �FOLK SECULARS (cont'd) You and all your signifying ch ildre n Better stay up in them trees. Which is wb:r today Manl ey does h is si gnifying A-way-up out of t h e way. FRANKIE AND JOHNNY Frankie and Johnny were lovers, Lardy, how· they could love, Swore to be true to each other, True as the stars u p ab ove, He was h er man, but be done her wrong . Frankie went down to the corner, To buy h er a bucket of beer, Frankie says "Hister Bartender, Has my lovin' Johnnie been h er~? He is my man, but he's doing me wrong ." "I don't want to cause you no trouble Don't want to tell you no lie, I saw your Joh nnie half-an-h our a. go I-Taking love to Nelly Bly. He your man, but he's doing you wrong ." Frankie went down to the hotel Looked over t h e transom so h i gh , 86 �FOLK SECULARS (cont'd) There she saw her lovin' Johnnie Making love to Nelly Bly He was her man; he was doing her wrong. Frankie threw back her kimono, Pulled out her big forty-four; Tooty-toot-toot: three times she shot Right through that hotel door, She shot her man, who was doing her wrong. nRoll me over gently, Roll me over slow, Roll me over on my right side, Cause these bullets hurt me so, I was your man, but I done you wrong." Bring all your rubber-tired hearses Bring all your rubber-tired hacks, They're carrying poor Johnny to the burying ground And they ain't gonna brin g h i m back, He was her man, but he done her wrong. Frankie says to t h e sheriff, "Wba t are they going to do?" The sheriff he said to Frankie, "It's the 'lectric ch air for you. He was your man, and be done you wrong." 87 .,.. I • �FOLK SECULARS (cont'd) 11 Put me in that dunc eon, Put me in t h at cel l, Put me where t h e nor t'!:i east wind Blows from the south east cor ne r of h ell, I shot my man, 'cause be done me wrong ." ST. JAiffiS I NFIRJ.mRY BLUES I went down to St. James Inf'irmar:r , Hy baby t h ere she lay, Out on a cold , cold table. Well, I looked a n I tur ned away. What's my baby's chances, I asked old Dr. Tharp. '~y six o'clock this eve nin She'll be play in a g olden h arp." Let her go, let h er go, God b less h er, 'Wh erever sh e may b e. She can hunt this wod e world over, But she'll never find a noth er man li ke me. JUST BLUES I got a sweet black gal Liven down by t h e railroad track , A sweet black gal 88 1 ' �FOLK SECULARS (cont'd) Down by the railroad track, And everytime she cries The tears run down her back. Cryin', baby, bave mercy, Baby, have mercy on me! Baby, baby, baby, Have mercy, mercy on me! If this is your mercy, What can your pity be? BLACK 'WOMAN Well, I said come here, Black Woman, Ah-hmmm, don you bear me cryin, Lawd, Lawd! I say run heah, Black Woman, . Sit on your Black Daddy's knee, Lawd! ; Mmmmm, I know yo house feel lonesome, Ah, don you heah me wboopin, Lawd, Lawd, Don yo house feel lonesome, When yo biscuit roller gon, Lawd, help my cryin timeDon yo house feel lonesome, Mmmm, When yo biscuit roller gon. 89 �FOLK SECULARS (cont'd) I say my house feel lonesomeI know you heah me crying , oh Baby, Ah-hmrnm, ah , when I looked in my ki tclien, Mama, An I wen all tboo my dinin room An-m.mmm, when I woke up this mornin I foun my b iscuit roller done gone. Goin to Texas, Mama, Justo heah the wild ox moanLawd help mah cryin time-Goin to Texas, Mama, Jus to heab the wild ox moan, An if they moan to suit me, I'm goin to bring a wild ox home. Ah-hmmm, I sa~r I' m got to go to Texas, Black MamaI know you h eah me cryin, Lawd, Lawd- Ah-hmmm, I 1 m got to go to Texas, Black Mama, Ahm-jus to h eah the wh ite cow, I say, moan! Ah~hmmm, ah, if they moan to suit me, Lawd, Lawd, I bleeve I'll bring a white cow back home. Say, I feel superstitious, Mama, 'Bout my hoggin bread, Lawd help my bungry time, I feel superstitious, Baby, ' b out my h oggin bread! Ah-hmmm, Baby, I feel superstitious, 90 �FOLK SECULARS (cont'd) I say'stitious, Black Woman! Ah-bmmm, ab you heah me cryin Bout I don got bungry, Lawd, Lawd Ob, Mama, I feel superstitious Bout my hog, Lawd Gawd, it's mah bread. I want you to tell me, Mama, Ah-hmmm, I heah me cryin, oh Mama! Ah-hmmm, I want you to tell me, Black Woman, 0 wbeah did you stay las ni ght? I love you, Black woman, I tell the whole werl I do. Ah-hmmm, I love you, Black Woman, I know you heah me whoopin, Black Baby! Ah-hmmm, I love you Black Woman An I'll tell yo Daddy, I do, Lawd. YOUND BOY BLUES I'm a real young boy, jus sixteen years ol, I'm a real young boy, jus sixteen years ol, I need a funky black woman to satisfy my soul. Hy father was no jockey but he sure taught me how to ride. I say my father was no jockey but be sure taught me how to ride. 91 �FOLK SECULARS (cont'd) He said f'irst in t h e middle, Then you sway fro m side to side. DACKDOOR BLUES I left my baby sta ndin in t h e back door cryin' Yes, I left my b aby standi n in t h e b ack door cryin' She said, baby , you gotta h o me jus as long as I eot mine. A BIG FAT HA.HA I' m a b i g fat ma rna, [!;Ot t h e meat s haki n on ma.b b ones, I'm a bi g fat r,i arna , got t h e meat sh aki n on mab bones, And every t i me I s h a kes, some skinny g irl loses h uh home. HOH LONG BLt:ms How lone; , h ov, lon 6 , h as t h at eveninc t r a in b in gone? How lo ne , ~ 0 11 long , baby, h ow l ong ? Had a gal l i ved up on t h e b ill If she' s t he r e, sh e lo ves ~e still Baby, b ow l ong , h ow long , b ow l on e ? Sta. nd :i.n a t t h e st a ti on , watch r,~:r b aby c o Feel dis c ust ed, blue , me an a n l ow How lone; , 1 7 0W lo ns : b aby , :1 0 1-1 92 lo ng ? ,, � 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_01_01 Title A name given to the resource Copy of Drumvoices: The Mission of Afro-American Poetry: A Critical History, Chapter II. The Black and Unknown Bards, p. 27-92 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. https://digitallis.isg.siue.edu/files/original/91aa91b6c10e09c6c254140b3f7c123f.pdf 46521bba4c124af627160d41881bebc4 PDF Text Text • • I I J, I / �{ (!) I~ ~ ~ t; ~ ~ '.~ . : f~ .n.J1>.Y1J1,.,.n {NM}.Jt ~~ G~ e . 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Ftr ~ ~ ~ ~ v~,.tJ4 - ''(TWA~ • · ~..,', 11.,..~Q /,,/~ p~4 ~~~- 7~:P:~ '1/u -tit, IUi.f;.J ~ AM£, tL,,,J. ... ~ /// �, ~ a. ;i.6 'f'A JI) ~ ~It-a~ /fll I;' II' -~'f+U .• • 11_ /t~'/ "At>th~"--1 Jk,Li~'-1101 ,r . . .,.... f~~~p®'' ,r{f,, ~,. , j~ :_/)W a.,f~.::r-t>,A/l ~ .. )¥ ~-z.1/Kf3 ,A, ,. � Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource Eugene B. Redmond Digital Collection Text A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text. Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context EBRWritings_09_44 Title A name given to the resource Handwritten notes possibly in reference to Drumvoices: The Mission of Afro-American Poetry: A Critical History Relation A related resource Eugene B. Redmond Digital Collection Language A language of the resource English Rights Information about rights held in and over the resource For digital rights and permissions, see <a href="https://www.siue.edu/lovejoy-library/about/policies.shtml">https://www.siue.edu/lovejoy-library/about/policies.shtml</a> or contact <a href="mailto:library@siue.edu">library@siue.edu</a> for direct inquiries. In copyright. <a href="http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/">http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/</a> Type The nature or genre of the resource Text Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Redmond, Eugene B.