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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 Poetry is a collection of inestimable value to students, educators, and all those interested in the ever-evolving tradition that is American poetry.
CONTENTS:
JUPITER HAMMON
An Address to Miss Phyllis Wheatly, Ethiopian Poetess
An Evening Thought: Salvation by Christ with Penetential Cries
BENJAMIN BANNEKER
A Mathematical Problem
PHILLIS WHEATLEY
On Being Brought from Africa to America
To S.M., A Young African Painter, On Seeing His Works
On the Death of the Rev. Mr. George Whitefield
A Farewell to America
An Hymn to the Morning
An Hymn to the Evening
GEORGE MOSES HORTON
On Liberty and Slavery
On Hearing of the Intention of a Gentleman to Purchase the Poet's Freedom
Early Affection
George Moses Horton, Myself
The Slave's Complaint
To Eliza
GEORGE BOYER VASHON
Vincent Oge
JAMES MONROE WHITFIELD
America
Lines On The Death Of John Quincy Adams
FRANCES E.W. HARPER
The Slave Mother
Let the Light Enter!
The Slave Auction
Songs for the People
President Lincoln's Proclamation of Freedom
A Double Standard
Bible Defence of Slavery
Bury Me in a Free Land
Learning to Read
JOSEPH SEAMAN COTTER
Dr. Booker T. Washington to the National Negro Business League
Frederick Douglass
Ned's Psalm of Life for the Negro
The Don't-Care Negro
William Lloyd Garrison
JAMES WELDON JOHNSON
O Black and Unknown Bards
Go Down Death (A Funeral Sermon)
Sence You Went Away
The Creation (A Negro Sermon)
The Glory of Day Was In Her Face
PAUL LAURENCE DUNBAR
When Malindy Sings
A Negro Love Song
We Wear the Mask
Sympathy
Dawn
Robert Gould Shaw
Jealous
Frederick Douglass
An Ante-bellum Sermon
Accountability
A Plea
Douglass
Ere Sleep Comes Down to Soothe the Weary Eyes
WILLIAM STANLEY BRAITHWAITE
The House of Falling Leaves
The Watchers
ANNE SPENCER
Letter to My Sister
White Things
Lines to a Nasturtium
Dunbar
Neighbors
GEORGIA DOUGLAS JOHNSON
The Heart of a Woman
I Want to Die While You Love Me
Little Son
Old Black Men
CLAUDE MCKAY
If We Must Die
The White House
The Harlem Dancer
The Tropics in New York
JEAN TOOMER
Cotton Song
Evening Song
Georgia Dusk
Harvest Song
November Cotton Flower
Reapers
MELVIN B. TOLSON
Dark Symphony
STERLING A. BROWN
After Winter
Frankie and Johnny
Idyll
Long Track Blues
Ma Rainey
Odyssey of Big Boy
Old Lem
Rain
Seeking Religion
Slim Greer
Slim In Atlanta
Slim In Hell
Southern Road
Strong Men
To a Certain Lady, in Her Garden
GWENDOLYN BENNETT
To a Dark Girl
Sonnets
LANGSTON HUGHES
Cross
Christ in Alabama
Dream Variations
Frosting
Harlem Night Song
Harlem Sweeties
House in the World
Madam and the Rent Man
Mother to Son
Passing Love
Personal
Suicide's Note
The Negro Speaks of Rivers
Theme for English B
Tower
COUNTEE CULLEN
Brown Girl Dead
Yet Do I Marvel
From the Dark Tower
Uncle Jim
Death to the Poor
Four Epitaphs
Heritage
Incident
A Negro Mother's Lullaby
Saturday's Child
Scottsboro, Too, Is Worth Its Song
ROBERT HAYDEN
Ice Storm
Those Winter Sundays
A Plague Of Starlings
October
Frederick Douglass
Homage To The Empress of The Blues
Paul Laurence Dunbar
A Letter From Phillis Wheatley
The Islands
MARGARET WALKER
For My People
Molly Means
October Journey
GWENDOLYN BROOKS
The Bean Eaters
Sadie and Maud
A Song In The Front Yard
Of Dewitt Williams On His Way To The Lincoln Cemetery
We Real Cool
The Mother
To Be In Love
Beverly Hills, Chicago
To An Old Black Woman, Homeless And Indistinct
The Blackstone Rangers
Mentors
BOB KAUFMAN
Battle Report
Grandfather Was Queer, Too
Walking Parker Home
Jail Poems
RAYMOND PATTERSON
Twenty-six Ways Of Looking At A Black Man
DEREK WALCOTT
God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen
God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen Part II
The Bounty
ETHERIDGE KNIGHT
Haiku
The Idea Of Ancestry
For Freckle-Faced Gerald
Dark Prophecy: I Sing Of Shine
AMIRI BARAKA LeRoi Jones
Preface To A Twenty Volume Suicide Note
From Hymn To Lanie Poo: Each Morning
A Short Speech To My Friends
Three Modes Of History And Culture
Black Art
Black Bourgeoisie
Clay
AUDRE LORDE
Separation
But What Can You Teach My Daughter
Revolution Is One Form Of Social Change
SONIA SANCHEZ
Reflections After The June 12th March For Disarmament
LUCILLE CLIFTON
miss rosie
the lost baby poem
light on my mother's tongue
to ms. ann
why some people be mad at me sometimes
to my friend, jerina
white lady
4/30/92 for rodney king
slaveship
JAY WRIGHT
Journey to the Place of Ghosts
Boleros
The Healing Improvisation of Hair
The Albuquerque Graveyard
Love In The Weather's Bells
Meta-A And The A Of Absolutes
The Lake In Central Park
Desire's Persistence
MICHAEL S. HARPER
Dear John, Dear Coltrane
For Bud
We Assume: On the Death of Our Son, Reuben Masai Harper
Here Where Coltrane Is
Last Affair: Bessie's Blues Song
Br'er Sterling And The Rocker
Nightmare Begins Responsibility
In Hayden's Collage
Angola (Louisiana)
Psalm
Release
The Ghost of Soulmaking
My Father's Face
ISHMAEL REED
Dualism
.05
Paul Laurence Dunbar In The Tenderloin
I Am A Cowboy In The Boat Of Ra
The Reactionary Poet
AL YOUNG
Dance Of The Infidels
How The Rainbow Works
The Blues Don't Change
How Stars Start
From Bowling Green
Leaving Syracuse
TOI DERRICOTTE
Before Making Love
On the Turning Up of Unidentified Black Female Corpses
Invisible Dreams
HAKI MADHUBUTI DON L. LEE
We Walk The Way Of The New World
the self-hatred of don l. lee
SHERLEY ANNE WILLIAMS
Letters From A New England Negro
MARILYN NELSON
My Grandfather Walks In The Woods
Emily Dickinson's Defunct
Tuskegee Airfield
YUSEF KOMUNYAKAA
Untitled Blues
Elegy For Thelonious
Between Days
Facing It
February In Sydney
Euphony
My Father's Love Letters
NATHANIEL MACKEY
Winged Abyss
Black Snake Visitation
GAYL JONES
Deep Song
C.S. GISCOMBE
Dayton, O., the 50's & 60's
RITA DOVE
"Teach Us To Number Our Days"
Banneker
Parsley
The Event
Weathering Out
The Great Palaces Of Versailles
Canary
THYLIAS MOSS
A Reconsideration Of The Blackbird
Landscape With Saxophonist
Lessons From A Mirror
The Undertaker's Daughter Feels Neglect
CORNELIUS EADY
Crows In A Strong Wind
Leadbelly
Muddy Waters & the Chicago Blues
Radio
Travelin' Shoes
CARL PHILLIPS
Cortege
Aubade for Eve Under the Arbor
ANTHONY WALTON
Dissidence
Third Shift
The Lovesong Of Emmett Till
The Summer Was Too Long
ELIZABETH ALEXANDER
The Venus Hottentot
Narrative: Ali
REGINALD SHEPHERD
Narcissus in Plato's Cave
Tantalus in May
Slaves
Michael S. Harper has twice been nominated for the National Book Award. He is University Professor, Brown University, and lives in Providence, Rhode Island.
Anthony Walton is the recipient of a 1998 Whiting Writer's Award. He lives in Brunswick, Maine.
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