The Vintage Book of African American Poetry 200 Years of Vision, Struggle, Power, Beauty, and Triumph from 50 Outstanding Poets

by Harper, Michael S.; Walton, Anthony

• ISBN13: 9780375703003
• ISBN10: 0375703004
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-02-15
• Publisher: Vintage

Summary

InThe Vintage Book of African American Poetry, editors Michael S. Harper and Anthony Walton present the definitive collection of black verse in the United States--200 years of vision, struggle, power, beauty, and triumph from 52 outstanding poets. From the neoclassical stylings of slave-born Phillis Wheatley to the wistful lyricism of Paul Lawrence Dunbar . . . the rigorous wisdom of Gwendolyn Brooks...the chiseled modernism of Robert Hayden...the extraordinary prosody of Sterling A. Brown...the breathtaking, expansive narratives of Rita Dove...the plaintive rhapsodies of an imprisoned Elderidge Knight . . . The postmodern artistry of Yusef Komunyaka. Here, too, is a landmark exploration of lesser-known artists whose efforts birthed the Harlem Renaissance and the Black Arts movements--and changed forever our national literature and the course of America itself. Meticulously researched, thoughtfully structured,The Vintage Book of African-American Poetryis a collection of inestimable value to students, educators, and all those interested in the ever-evolving tradition that is American poetry.

Author Biography

Michael S. Harper has twice been nominated for the National Book Award.  He is University Professor, Brown University, and lives in Providence, Rhode Island.<br><br>Anthony Walton is the recipient of a 1998 Whiting Writer's Award.  He lives in Brunswick, Maine.

Table of Contents

Introduction	xxiii
Jupitor Hammon
An Address to Miss Phillis Wheatly, Ethiopian Poetess	3	(4)
An Evening Thought: Salvation by Christ, with Penetential Cries	7	(4)
Benjamin Banneker
A Mathematical Problem in Verse	11	(3)
Phillis Wheatley
On Being Brought from Africa to America	14	(1)
To S.M., a Young African Painter, on Seeing His Works	14	(1)
On the Death of the Rev. Mr. George Whitefield	15	(2)
A Farewell to America	17	(2)
An Hymn to the Morning	19	(1)
An Hymn to the Evening	20	(1)
George Moses Horton
On Liberty and Slavery	21	(2)
On Hearing of the Intention of a Gentleman to Purchase the Poet's Freedom	23	(2)
Early Affection	25	(1)
George Moses Horton, Myself	25	(1)
The Slave's Complaint	26	(1)
To Eliza	27	(2)
George Boyer Vashon
Vincent Oge	29	(10)
James Monroe Whitfield
America	39	(4)
Lines on the Death of John Quincy Adams	43	(2)
Frances E. W. Harper
The Slave Mother	45	(2)
Let the Light Enter	47	(1)
The Slave Auction	48	(1)
Songs for the People	48	(1)
President Lincoln's Proclamation of Freedom	49	(2)
A Double Standard	51	(2)
Bible Defence of Slavery	53	(1)
Bury Me in a Free Land	53	(2)
Learning to Read	55	(2)
Joseph Seaman Cotter, Sr.
Dr. Booker T. Washington to the National Negro Business League	57	(1)
Frederick Douglass	58	(1)
Ned's Psalm of Life for the Negro	59	(1)
The Don't-Care Negro	60	(1)
William Lloyd Garrison	61	(3)
James Weldon Johnson
O Black and Unknown Bards	64	(1)
Go Down Death (A Funeral Sermon)	65	(3)
Sence You Went Away	68	(1)
The Creation (A Negro Sermon)	68	(3)
The Glory of Day Was in Her Face	71	(2)
Pual Laurence Dunbar
When Malindy Sings	73	(2)
A Negro Love Song	75	(1)
We Wear the Mask	76	(1)
Sympathy	76	(1)
Dawn	77	(1)
Robert Gould Shaw	77	(1)
Jealous	78	(1)
Frederick Douglass	79	(2)
An Ante-Bellum Sermon	81	(2)
Accountability	83	(1)
A Plea	84	(1)
Douglass	85	(1)
Ere Sleep Comes Down to Soothe the Weary Eyes	85	(3)
William Stanley Braithwaite
The House of Falling Leaves	88	(2)
The Watchers	90	(2)
Anne Spencer
Letter to My Sister	92	(1)
White Things	93	(1)
Lines to a Nasturtium	93	(1)
Dunbar	94	(1)
Neighbors	95	(1)
Georgia Douglas Johnson
The Heart of a Woman	96	(1)
I Want to Die While You Love Me	97	(1)
Little Son	97	(1)
Old Black Men	98	(1)
Claude Mckay
If We Must Die	99	(1)
The White House	100	(1)
The Harlem Dancer	100	(1)
The Tropics in New York	101	(1)
Jean Toomer
Cotton Song	102	(1)
Evening Song	103	(1)
Georgia Dusk	104	(1)
Harvest Song	105	(1)
November Cotton Flower	106	(1)
Reapers	106	(3)
Melvin B. Tolson
Dark Symphony	109	(5)
Sterling A. Brown
After Winter	114	(2)
Frankie and Johnny	116	(1)
Idyll	117	(1)
Long track Blues	118	(1)
Ma Rainey	119	(2)
Odyssey of Big Boy	121	(2)
Old Lem	123	(2)
Rain	125	(1)
Seeking Religion	126	(1)
Slim Greer	126	(3)
Slim in Atlanta	129	(1)
Slim in Hell	130	(4)
Southern Road	134	(1)
Strong Men	135	(3)
To a Certain Lady, in Her Garden	138	(2)
Gwendolyn Bennett
To a Dark Girl	140	(1)
Sonnets	141	(2)
Langston Hughes
Cross	143	(1)
Christ in Alabama	143	(1)
Dream Variations	144	(1)
Frosting	145	(1)
Harlem Night Song	145	(1)
Harlem Sweeties	146	(1)
House in the World	147	(1)
Madam and the Rent Man	147	(1)
Mother to Son	148	(1)
Passing Love	149	(1)
Personal	149	(1)
Suicide's Note	150	(1)
The Negro Speaks of Rivers	150	(1)
Theme for English B	151	(1)
Tower	152	(2)
Countee Cullen
A Brown Girl Dead	154	(1)
Yet Do I Marvel	154	(1)
From the Dark Tower	155	(1)
Uncle Jim	155	(1)
Death to the Poor	156	(1)
Four Epitaphs	156	(1)
Heritage	157	(4)
Incident	161	(1)
A Negro Mother's Lullaby	162	(1)
Saturday's Child	163	(1)
Scottsboro, Too, Is Worth Its Song	163	(3)
Robert Hayden
Ice Storm	166	(1)
Those Winter Sundays	167	(1)
A Plague of Starlings	167	(2)
October	169	(1)
Frederick Douglass	170	(1)
Homage to the Empress of the Blues	171	(1)
Paul Laurence Dunbar	171	(1)
A Letter from Phillis Wheatley	172	(2)
The Islands	174	(2)
Margaret Walker
For My People	176	(2)
Molly Means	178	(2)
October Journey	180	(4)
Gwendolyn Brooks
The Bean Eaters	184	(1)
Sadie and Maud	184	(1)
A Song in the Front Yard	185	(1)
Of De Witt Williams on His Way to Lincoln Cemetery	186	(1)
We Real Cool	187	(1)
The Mother	187	(1)
To Be in Love	188	(2)
Beverly Hills, Chicago	190	(1)
To an Old Black Woman, Homeless and Indistinct	191	(2)
The Blackstone Rangers	193	(2)
Mentors	195	(1)
Bob Kaufman
Battle Report	196	(1)
Grandfather Was Queer, Too	197	(1)
Walking Parker Home	198	(1)
Jail Poems	199	(7)
Raymond Patterson
Twenty-six Ways of Looking at a Blackman	206	(6)
Derek Walcott
God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen	212	(1)
God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen Part II	213	(2)
The Bounty	215	(8)
Etheridge Knight
Haiku	223	(2)
The Idea of Ancestry	225	(1)
For Freckle-Faced Gerald	226	(1)
Dark Prophecy: I Sing of Shine	227	(2)
Amiri Baraka (LeRoi Jones)
Preface to a Twenty Volume Suicide Note	229	(1)
from Hymn to Lanie Poo: Each Morning	230	(1)
A Short Speech to My Friends	231	(1)
Three Modes of History and Culture	232	(2)
Black Art	234	(1)
Black Bourgeoisie	235	(1)
Clay	236	(1)
Audre Lorde
Separation	237	(1)
But What Can you Teach My Daughter	238	(1)
Revolution Is One Form of Social Change	238	(2)
Sonia Sanchez
Reflections After the June 12th March for Disarmament	240	(4)
Lucille Clifton
miss rosie	244	(1)
the lost baby poem	245	(1)
light on my mother's tongue	245	(1)
to ms. ann	246	(1)
why some people be mad at me sometimes	247	(1)
to my friend, jerina	247	(1)
white lady	248	(1)
4/30/92 for rodney king	249	(1)
slaveship	250	(1)
Jay Wright
Journey to the Place of Ghosts	251	(2)
Boleros 19	253	(2)
The Healing Improvisation of Hair	255	(1)
The Albuquerque Graveyard	256	(2)
Love in the Weather's Bells	258	(1)
Meta-A and the A of Absolutes	259	(1)
The Lake in Central Park	260	(2)
Desire's Persistence	262	(5)
Michael S. Harper
Dear John, Dear Coltrane	267	(2)
For Bud	269	(1)
We Assume: On the Death of Our Son, Reuben Masai Harper	270	(1)
Here Where Coltrane Is	271	(1)
Last Affair: Bessie's Blues Song	272	(1)
Br'er Sterling and the Rocker	273	(1)
Nightmare Begins Responsibility	274	(1)
In Hayden's Collage	275	(1)
Angola (Louisiana)	276	(1)
Psalm	277	(1)
Release	277	(2)
The Ghost of Soul-making	279	(1)
My Father's Face	280	(3)
Ishmael Reed
Dualism	283	(1)
.05	284	(1)
Paul Laurence Dunbar in the Tenderloin	284	(1)
I Am a Cowboy in the Boat of Ra	285	(2)
The Reactionary Poet	287	(2)
Al Young
Dance of the Infidels	289	(2)
How the Rainbow Works	291	(1)
The Blues Don'ts Change	292	(1)
How Starts Start	293	(1)
From Bowling Green	294	(1)
Leaving Syracuse	294	(1)
Toi Derricotte
Before Making Love	295	(1)
On the Turning Up of Unidentified Black Female Corpses	296	(1)
Invisible Dreams	297	(4)
Haki Madhubuti (Don L. Lee)
We Walk the Way of the New World	301	(2)
the self-hatred of don l. lee	303	(2)
Sherley Anne Williams
Letters from a New England Negro	305	(15)
Marilyn Nelson
My Grandfather Walks in the Woods	320	(1)
Emily Dickinson's Defunct	321	(1)
Tuskegee Airfield	322	(3)
Yusef Komunyakaa
Untitled Blues	325	(1)
Elegy for Thelonious	326	(1)
Between Days	327	(1)
Facing It	328	(1)
February in Sydney	329	(1)
Euphony	330	(1)
My Father's Love Letters	331	(2)
Nathaniel Mackey
Winged Abyss	333	(2)
Black Snake Visitation	335	(3)
Gayl Jones
Deep Song	338	(2)
C. S. Giscombe
Dayton, O., the 50's & 60's	340	(5)
Rita Dove
``Teach Us to Number Our Days''	345	(1)
Banneker	346	(1)
Parsley	347	(2)
The Event	349	(1)
Weathering Out	350	(1)
The Great Palace of Versailles	351	(2)
Canary	353	(1)
Thylias Moss
A Reconsideration of the Blackbird	354	(1)
Landscape with Saxophonist	355	(1)
Lessons from a Mirror	356	(1)
The Undertaker's Daughter Feels Neglect	356	(2)
Cornelius Eady
Crows in a Strong Wind	358	(1)
Leadbelly	359	(1)
Muddy Waters & the Chicago Blues	359	(1)
Radio	360	(1)
Travelin' Shoes	361	(1)
Carl Phillips
Cortege	362	(4)
Aubade for Eve Under the Arbor	366	(2)
Anthony Walton
Dissidence	368	(1)
Celestial Mechanics	369	(2)
The Lovesong of Emmett Till	371	(1)
The Summer Was Too Long	372	(1)
Elizabeth Alexander
The Venus Hottentot	373	(4)
Narrative: Ali	377	(8)
Reginald Shepherd
Narcissus in Plato's Cave	385	(1)
Tantalus in May	386	(1)
Slaves	387	(2)
Selected Bibliographies	389	(10)
Permissions Acknowledgments	399

Excerpts

"The Slave's Complaint"
by George Moses Horton (1797?-1883?)

Am I sadly cast aside,
On misfortune's rugged tide?
Will the world my pains deride
         Forever?

Must I dwell in Slavery's night,
And all pleasure take its flight,
Far beyond my feeble sight,
         Forever?

Worst of all, must hope grow dim,
And withhold her cheering beam?
Rather let me sleep and dream
         Forever!

Something still my heart surveys,
Groping through this dreary maze;
Is it Hope?--they burn and blaze
         Forever!

Leave me not a wretch confined,
Altogether lame and blind--
Unto gross despair consigned,
         Forever!

Heaven! in whom can I confide?
Canst thou not for all provide?
Condescend to be my guide
         Forever:

And when this transient life shall end,
Oh, may some kind, eternal friend
Bid me from servitude ascend,
         Forever!



"Learning to Read"
by Frances E.W. Harper (1825-1911)

Very soon the Yankee teachers
   Came down and set up school;
But, oh! how the Rebs did hate it,--
   It was agin' their rule.

Our masters always tried to hide
   Book learning from our eyes;
Knowledge didn't agree with slavery--
   'Twould make us all too wise.

But some of us would try to steal
   A little from the book,
And put the words together,
   And learn by hook or crook.

I remember Uncle Caldwell,
   Who took pot-liquor fat
And greased the pages of his book,
   And hid it in his hat.

And had his master ever seen
   The leaves upon his head,
He'd have thought them greasy papers,
   But nothing to be read.

And there was Mr. Turner's Ben,
   Who heard the children spell,
And picked the words right up by heart,
   And learned to read 'em well.

Well, the Northern folks kept sending
   The Yankee teachers down;
And they stood right up and helped us,
   Though Rebs did sneer and frown.

And, I longed to read my Bible,
   For precious words it said;
But when I begun to learn it,
   Folks just shook their heads,

And said there is no use trying,
   Oh! Chloe, you're too late;
But as I was rising sixty,
   I had no time to wait.

So I got a pair of glasses,
   And straight to work I went,
And never stopped till I could read
   The hymns and Testament.

Then I got a little cabin--
   A place to call my own--
And I felt as independent
   As the queen upon her throne.



George Moses Horton (1797?-1883?), author of "The Slave's Complaint"

George Moses Horton, at his best, was a poet of daring intensity and vast ambition. Born about 1797 in Northhampton County, North Carolina, he was a slave for most of his life, until Emancipation in 1865. Horton, who taught himself to read, found his way into the hearts of many unwitting belles of North Carolina through his selling of personalized love lyrics to students at nearby Chapel Hill. He furthered his education by borrowing what books he could from these students.

Many of Horton's best poems concern the topic of slavery. His "On Hearing of the Intention of a Gentleman to Purchase the Poet's Freedom," "On Liberty and Slavery," and "The Slave's Complaint" examine the slave's position in clean and learned verses. "George Moses Horton, Myself" captures in its paced, cool contemplativeness and terse lyrics some of the unresolved strivings of the poet.

Horton had hoped to purchase his freedom with the sales of his first book of poems, The Hope of Liberty (published in Raleigh in 1829), the first full volume of verse published by an African American since Phillis Wheatley's some thirty years before. But he fell short of this goal, living instead through three generations of Horton ownership.

The Hope of Liberty was reissued in 1837 in Philadelphia under the title Poems by a Slave. Horton's second volume, Naked Genius, came to print in 1865, the year in which he escaped to the Northern infantry then occupying Raleigh. Little was heard of Horton after this point, and it is generally assumed that he lived the remainder of his life in Philadelphia, where he died in about 1883.



Frances E. W. Harper (1825-1911), author of "Learning to Read"

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper was born free in Baltimore in 1825. By the time of her death in 1911, she had become almost an institution in both literary and political circles. Harper used what seems to have been a tireless energy to publish countless poems, articles, essays, and novels examining both racial and gender division among Americans. Often thought of as the inaugural "protest poet," she presented her themes in graceful rhetoric, skillful metaphor, allusion, and allegory, embracing the demands of her craft along with the exigencies of the social moment.

Harper worked ably and extensively in her lifetime with the Underground Railroad, the Maine Anti-Slavery Society, the Women's Christian Temperance movement, the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the American Equal Rights Association, the Universal Peace Union, the National Council of Women, and the National Association of Colored Women. Her Poems on Miscellaneous Subjects was published in 1854, with a preface by William Lloyd Garrison. This volume proved so popular that it went through over twenty reprints in the author's lifetime.

Harper was also the author of Moses: A Story of the Nile, published in 1869, Poems in 1871, and Sketches of Southern Life in 1873. Iola Leroy, one of the more widely read novels written by an African American of the nineteenth century, was published in 1893.

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Excerpted from The Vintage Book of African American Poetry
All rights reserved by the original copyright owners. Excerpts are provided for display purposes only and may not be reproduced, reprinted or distributed without the written permission of the publisher.