Anthologies of African American Writing

Negro Poets and Their Poetry (4th ed.)

"Negro Poets and Their Poems". Ed. Robert T. Kerlin. 4th ed. Washington, DC: Associated Publishers, 1947. [The title page of the copy consulted says "Third edition. Revised and enlarged" but the content of the volume is the 4th edition.]

• "Negro Poets and Their Poems". Ed. Robert T. Kerlin. Washington, DC: Associated Publishers, 1923. xv+285 pp.

• "Negro Poets and Their Poems". Ed. Robert T. Kerlin. 2nd ed. Washington, DC: Associated Publishers, 1935. xxi+342 pp.

• "Negro Poets and Their Poems". Ed. Robert T. Kerlin. 3rd ed. Washington, DC: Associated Publishers, 1940.

• Internet Archive (4th ed., but title-page says "Third edition" and copyright page gives date as "1935," the same as the 2nd ed.)

This work offers critical discussion of "Negro Poets and Their Poems": it is not an anthology in the usual sense, but in the course of its discussion, it quotes about 200 complete poems (as well as offering extracts from many others). In the contents below, I've incorporated all the authors and poems that are mentioned in the index to titles:

Preface to the First Edition (xv)
Preface to the Revised Edition (xvii)
Preface to the Third Edition (xxi)
Preface to the Fourth Edition (xxii)

Chapter 1: The Present-Day Negro Heritage of Song:
I. Untaught Melodies: Folk Song – The Spirituals – The Seculars:
• Folk Song / Chicken in the Bread Tray (15)
• Folk Song / Juba (16)
• Folk Song / Fattening Frogs for Snakes (17)
• Folk Song / She Hugged Me and Kissed Me (17)
II. The Earlier Poetry of Art: Jupiter Hammon and Phillis Wheatley – Charles L. Reason – George Moses Horton – Mrs. Frances E. W. Harper – James Madison Bell and Albery A. Whitman – Paul Laurence Dunbar – J. Mord Allen.
• Mrs. Frances E. W. Harper / Truth (28)
• Mrs. Frances E. W. Harper / Vashti (30)
• James Madison Bell / The Progress of Liberty (extract) (33)
• J. D. Corrothers / Dunbar (37)
• Paul Laurence Dunbar / Ere Sleep Comes Down to Soothe the Weary Eyes (41)
• Paul Laurence Dunbar / Life (43)
• Paul Laurence Dunbar / Ode to Ethiopia (44)
• Paul Laurence Dunbar / With the Lark (46)
• Paul Laurence Dunbar / We Wear the Mask (47)
• J. Mord Allen / Counting Out (48)
• J. Mord Allen / The Psalm of the Uplift (50)

Chapter 2: The Present Renaissance of the Negro:
I. A Glance at the Field
• Charles Bertram Johnson / Humor (52)
• Wesley Turner Carmichael / It’s All Through Life (53)
• James Weldon Johnson / To America (53)
• George Marion McClellan / In the Heart of a Rose (54)
• Mrs. Alice Dunbar-Nelson / Violets (55)
• Miss Mary Effie Lee / Sunset (56)
• Miss Winifred Virginia Jordan / Loneliness (56)
• Lucian B. Watkins / A Prayer of the Race That God Made Black (59)
• Mrs. Georgia Douglas Johnson / Peace (61)
• Walter Everette Hawkins / In Spite of Death (62)
• Charles Bertram Johnson / My People (63)
• Fenton Johnson / I Played on David’s Harp (65)
• William Edgar Bailey / The Slump (65)
• Joseph S. Cotter, Jr. / The Mulatto to His Critics (67)
• Miss Eva A. Jessye / The Singer (69)
II. Some Representatives of the Present Era: The Cotters, Father and Son – James David Corrothers – A Group of Singing Johnsons: James Weldon Johnson, Charles Bertram Johnson, Fenton Johnson, Adolphus Johnson – William Stanley Braithwaite – George Reginald Margetson – William Moore – Joshua Henry Jones, Jr. – Walter Everette Hawkins – Claude McKay – Leslie Pinckney Hill.
• Joseph S. Cotter, Sr. / The Boy and the Ideal (74) [prose]
• Joseph S. Cotter, Sr. / The Threshing Floor (75)
• Joseph S. Cotter, Sr. / The Flowers Take the Tears (76)
• Joseph S. Cotter, Sr. / Oh, My Way and Thy Way (81)
• Joseph S. Cotter, Jr. / Rain Music (81)
• Joseph S. Cotter, Jr. / Compensation (82)
• Joseph S. Cotter, Jr. / The Band of Gideon (83)
• James David Corrothers / The Dream and the Song (85)
• James David Corrothers / At the Closed Gate of Justice (88)
• James David. Corrothers / The Negro Singer (89)
• James Weldon Johnson / O Southland (92)
• James Weldon Johnson / The Glory of the Day Was in Her Face (93) [given as "226" in index of Titles]
• James Weldon Johnson / The Young Warrior (94)
• Charles Bertram Johnson / Soul and Star (96)
• Charles Bertram Johnson / Old Friends (97)
• Charles Bertram Johnson / So Much (98)
• Charles Bertram Johnson / A Rain Song (99)
• Fenton Johnson / These Are My People (100)
• Fenton Johnson / The Plaint of the Factory Child (101)
• Fenton Johnson / The Mulatto’s Song (101)
• Fenton Johnson / The New Day (102)
• William Stanley Braithwaite / Sandy Star (106)
• William Stanley Braithwaite / It’s a Long Way (106)
• William Stanley Braithwaite / Foscati (108)
• William Stanley Braithwaite / Autumn Sadness (108)
• William Stanley Braithwaite / Thanking God (109)
• George Reginald Margetson / The Light of Victory (110)
• William Moore / Expectancy (112)
• William Moore / As the Old Year Passed (112)
• Joshua Henry Jones, Jr. / Turn Out the Light (114)
• Joshua Henry Jones, Jr. / A Southern Love Song (115)
• Joshua Henry Jones, Jr. / The Heart of the World (117)
• Joshua Henry Jones, Jr. / Brothers (118)
• Walter Everette Hawkins / Credo (119)
• Walter Everette Hawkins / Hero of the Road (122)
• Walter Everette Hawkins / The Death of Justice (123)
• Walter Everette Hawkins / Ask Me Why I Love You (125)
• Claude McKay / Spring in New Hampshire (127)
• Claude McKay / The Lynching (128)
• Claude McKay / The Harlem Dancer (128)
• Claude McKay / In Bondage (129)
• R. G. Dandridge / Zalka Peetruza (130)
• Leslie Pinckney Hill / Mater Dolorosa (134)
• Leslie Pinckney Hill / To a Caged Canary in a Negro Restaurant (136)
• Leslie Pinckney Hill / To a Nobly-Gifted Singer (137)
• Leslie Pinckney Hill / Self-Determination (137)

Chapter 3: The Heart of Negro Womanhood: Miss Eva A. Jessye – Mrs. J. W. Hammond – Mrs. Alice Dunbar-Nelson – Mrs. Georgia Douglas Johnson – Miss Angelina W. Grimke – Mrs. Anne Spencer – Miss Jessie Fauset.
• Miss Eva A. Jessye / Spring with the Teacher (139)
• Miss Eva A. Jessye / To a Rosebud (141)
• Mrs. J. W. Hammond / The Optimist (143)
• Mrs. J. W. Hammond / To My Neighbor Boy (143)
• Mrs. Alice Dunbar-Nelson / I Sit and Sew (145)
• Mrs. Alice Dunbar-Nelson / The Lights at Carney’s Point (146)
• Mrs. Georgia Douglas Johnson / The Dreams of the Dreamer (148)
• Mrs. Georgia Douglas Johnson / What Need Have I for Memory (149)
• Mrs. Georgia Douglas Johnson / Smothered Fires (150)
• Mrs. Georgia Douglas Johnson / The Octoroon (151)
• Miss Angelina W. Grimké / Dawn (153)
• Miss Angelina W. Grimké / A Winter Twilight (153)
• Miss Angelina W. Grimké / The Puppet-Player (153)
• Miss Angelina W. Grimké / The Want of You (154)
• Miss Angelina W. Grimké / El Beso (154)
• Miss Angelina W. Grimké / At the Spring Dawn (154)
• Miss Angelina W. Grimké / To Keep the Memory of Charlotte Forten Grimké (155)
• Mrs. Anne Spencer / At the Carnival (158)
• Miss Jessie Fauset / Oriflamme (162)

Chapter 4: Ad Astra per Aspera: I. Per Aspera: Edward Smythe Jones – Raymond Garfield Dandridge – George Marion McClellan – Charles P. Wilson – Leon R. Harris – Irvin W. Underhill; II. Ad Astra: James C. Hughes – Leland Milton Fisher – W. Clarence Jordan – Roscoe C. Jamison.
• Edward Smythe Jones / Cell No. 40, East Cambridge Jail, Cambridge, Massachusetts, July 26, 1910" (extract) (164)
• Edward Smythe Jones / Flag of the Free (167)
• Raymond Garfield Dandridge / The Poet (170)
• Raymond Garfield Dandridge / To --- (171)
• Raymond Garfield Dandridge / Time to Die (171)
• Raymond Garfield Dandridge / Eternity (172)
• Raymond Garfield Dandridge / Facts (172)
• George Marion McClellan / To Hollyhocks (176)
• George Marion McClellan / The Hills of Sewanee (176)
• George Marion McClellan / The Feet of Judas (177)
• George Marion McClellan / In Memory of Katie Reynolds, Dying (178)
• Charles P. Wilson / Somebody’s Child (179)
• Leon R. Harris / The Steel Makers (182)
• Irvin W. Underhill / To Our Boys (185)
• James C. Hughes / Apology for Wayward Jim [excerpt] (188)
• Leland Milton Fisher / For You, Sweetheart (189)
• W. Clarence Jordan / What Is the Negro Doing? (190)
• Roscoe C. Jamison / Castles in the Air (193)
• Roscoe C. Jamison / A Song (193)
• Roscoe C. Jamison / The Edict (194)
• Roscoe C. Jamison / Hopelessness (195)

Chapter 5: The New Forms of Poetry. I. Free Verse: Will Sexton – Andrea Razafkeriefo – Langston Hughes -- Waring Cuney -- Frank Horne -- Albert Rice -- Edward S. Silvera -- James Weldon Johnson ; II. Prose Poems: W. E. Burghardt DuBois – Kelly Miller – Charles H. Conner – William Edgar Bailey – R. Nathaniel Dett.
• Will Sexton / The Bomb Thrower (198)
• Will Sexton / The New Negro (198)
• Andrea Razafkeriefo / The Negro Church (199)
• Langston Hughes / The Negro Speaks of Rivers (201)
• Langston Hughes / The Negro (202)
• Langston Hughes / I, Too (203)
• Waring Cuney / No Images (204)
• Waring Cuney / Dust (205)
• Frank Horne / On Seeing Two Brown Boys in a Catholic Church (206)
• Frank Horne / Nigger (A Chant for Children) (207)
• Albert Rice / The Black Madonna (209)
• Edward S. Silvera / Jungle Taste (210)
• James Weldon Johnson / The Judgment Day (213)
• W. E. B. DuBois / A Litany of Atlanta (218) [prose poem]
• Kelly Miller / I See and Am Satisfied (223) [prose poem]
• Charles H. Conner / The Life of the Spirit in the Natural World (226) [prose poem]
• William Edgar Bailey / To a Wild Rose (229) [prose poem]
• R. Nathaniel Dett / At Niagara (232)
• Margaret Adelaide Shaw / Closed Doors (233)

Chapter 6: Dialect Verse: Waverley Turner Carmichael – Joseph S. Cotter, Sr. – Raymond Garfield Dandridge – Sterling M. Means – J. Mord Allen – James Weldon Johnson – Theodore Henry Shackleford -- Langston Hughes -- Sterling A. Brown.
• Waverley Turner Carmichael / Mammy’s Baby Scared (235)
• Joseph S. Cotter, Sr. / The Don’t-Care Negro (236)
• Raymond Garfield Dandridge / De Innah Part (237)
• Sterling M. Means / The Old Plantation Grave (238)
• Sterling M. Means / De Ole Deserted Cabin (239)
• J. Mord Allen / A Victim of Microbes (240)
• James Weldon Johnson / My Lady’s Lips Am Like De Honey (242)
• Langston Hughes / Poem [The night is beautiful] (246)
• Langston Hughes / Suicide (247)
• Langston Hughes / Po' Boy Blues (247)
• Langston Hughes / Mulatto (249)
• Langston Hughes / Song for a Dark Girl (250)
• Sterling A. Brown / When De Saints Go Ma'ching Home (251)
• Sterling A. Brown / Strong Men (256)
• Sterling A. Brown / He Was a Man (259)

Chapter 7: The Poetry of Protest: Winston Allen -- Georgia Douglas Johnson -- Will Sexton -- Walter Everette Hawkins -- Lucian B. Watkins -- Carrie W. Clifford -- Claude McKay.
• Winston Allen / The Black Violinist (262)
• Anonymous / Old Jim Crow (263) [from "The Nashville Eye"]
• Mrs. Georgia Douglas Johnson / To My Son (264)
• Will Sexton / To My Lost Child (265)
• Walter Everette Hawkins / A Festival in Christendom (excerpt) (266)
• James Weldon Johnson / The Black Mammy (268)
• Lucian B. Watkins / I’ve Loved and Lost (269)
• Lucian B. Watkins / The New Negro (270)
• Lucian B. Watkins / A Message to the Modern Pharaohs (271)
• Mrs. Carrie W. Clifford / An Easter Message (272)
• Claude McKay / If We Must Die (273)
• Andy Razaf / Equality (274)

Chapter 8: Conquest by Poetry: A Miscellany: Otto Leland Bohanan -- James Edward McCall -- George Leonard Allen -- Clarissa Scott Delany -- Helene Johnson -- Jean Toomer -- Arna Bontemps -- Gladys Casely Hayford -- Kenneth W. Porter -- Gwendolyn Bennett -- Countee Cullen.
• Otto Leland Bohanan / The Dawn's Awake (277)
• James Edward McCall / The New Negro (278)
• George Leonard Allen / To Melody (278)
• Clarissa Scott Delany / Interim (279)
• Clarissa Scott Delany / The Mask (279)
• Helene Johnson / Sonnet to a Negro in Harlem (280)
• Helene Johnson / Bottled (280)
• Jean Toomer / Song of the Son (282)
• Jean Toomer / Georgia Dusk (283)
• Arna Bontemps / Nocturne at Bethesda (284)
• Arna Bontemps / The Return (286)
• Gladys Casely Hayford / The Palm Wine Seller (288)
• Kenneth W. Porter / The Slave Raid (289)
• Gwendolyn B. Bennett / To a Dark Girl (290)
• Countee Cullen / Black Magdalens (291)
• Countee Cullen / Atlantic City Waiter (292)
• Countee Cullen / Simon the Cyrenian Speaks (292)
• Countee Cullen / Judas Iscariot (293)
• Eleanor Graham Nichols / Black Boy Singing (296)

Miscellaneous:
I. Eulogistic Poems; II. Commemorative and Occasional Poems.
• Claude McKay / The Negro (298)
• John J. Fenner, Jr. / Rise! Young Negro--Rise! (299)
• George Marion McClellan / Daybreak (300)
• Andrea Razafkeriefo / The Negro Woman (301)
• Joseph S. Cotter, Sr. / The Negro Child (302)
• Mrs. Georgia Douglas Johnson / The Mother (303)
• Ben E. Burrell / To a Negro Mother (303)
• Mrs. Mae Smith Johnson / To My Grandmother (305)
• Lucian B. Watkins / Ebon Maid and Girl of Mine (306)
• James Edgar French / Dunbar and Cotter (307)
• Miss Corinne E. Lewis / Christmas Cheer (309)
• Joshua Henry Jones, Jr. / Goodbye, Old Year (310)
• Miss H. Cordelia Ray / The Months (311)
• D. T. Williamson / While April Breezes Blow (314)
• Edwin G. Riley / A Nation’s Greatness (316)
• William Stanley Braithwaite / Thanksgiving (317)
• Andrea Razafkeriefo / Rainy Days (317)
• Harvey M. Williamson / I Shall Remember Thee (320)

A New Song: Frank Marshall Davis -- Melvin B. Tolson -- Richard Wright -- Robert E. Hayden -- Margaret Walker -- Owen Dodson.
• Langston Hughes / Let America Be American Again (excerpt) (321)
• Frank Marshall Davis / Snapshots of the Cotton South (323)
• Melvin B. Tolson / Dark Symphony (excerpt: Tempo de Marcia) (324)
• Richard Wright / I Have Seen Black Hands (excerpt) (325)
• Robert E. Hayden / Speech (326)
• Binga Dismond / We Who Would Die (excerpt) (327)
• Binga Dismond / To the Men of the Soviet Army (327)
• Margaret Walker / For My People (excerpt) (329)
• Margaret Walker / Delta (excerpt) (330)
• Owen Dodson / When I Am Dead (331)

• Robert T. Kerlin / Epilogue: 1947 (332)

Index of Authors, with Biographical and Bibliographical Notes (333)
Additional [Seven] Authors in the Fourth Edition (346)
Index of Titles (349)
Additional [Ten] Titles in the Fourth Edition (354).

• The 4th edition (1947) adds the ten poems in the final section, "A New Song," and Kerlin's one-page "Epilogue: 1947."

• Kerlin states (in the Preface to the Second Edition, 1935) that, in response to the New Negro Renaissance, the second edition adds " sixteen new names and thirty-six new titles, making some fifty additional pages. I could have used as many other new titles by these same writers without serious detriment to the collection; and I could have found fourteen other verse-makers in the pages of 'The Crisis' and 'Opportunity' and in Braithwaite's and Cullen's anthologies whose poems bear the impress of cultured talent. But these omitted singers are young and they may wait" (xxi).
• In the Preface to the Third Edition (1940), Kerlin notes that in this edition he has been able to "add a few significant poems and make some additional comments on recent trends and achievements in Negro verse" (xxi)
• Kerlin states that, in response to the New Negro Renaissance, the 2nd edition (1935) adds " sixteen new names and thirty-six new titles, making some fifty additional pages. I could have used as many other new titles by these same writers without serious detriment to the collection; and I could have found fourteen other verse-makers in the pages of 'The Crisis' and 'Opportunity' and in Braithwaite's and Cullen's anthologies whose poems bear the impress of cultured talent. But these omitted singers are young and they may wait" (xxi).
• Kerlin (1940) describes the purpose of the anthology as: "encouragement and instruction for Negroes, instruction for whites--instruction that leads to sympathy and justice" (xxi).

• In his Preface to the Fourth Edition (1947), Kerlin writes: "In the twenties of the present century there was a veritable renaissance of the American Negro, the beginning of a new era, as many persons, white and colored discerned. The Negro reacted to world democratic stirrings and renewed his efforts for self-emancipation. . . . The former editions of this book bore witness to these results in the realm of poetry. . . . Our additional selections [in this 4th edition] will suggest the marked advance in poetic achievement and the heightened vigor of the Negro's passion for freedom expressed in verse during the last seven years" (xxii).

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