Early Black American Poets: Selections with Biographical and Critical Introductions

Title

This edition

"Early Black American Poets: Selections with Biographical and Critical Introductions" . Ed. William H. Robinson. Dubuque, Iowa: W. C. Brown, 1969. xviii+275 pp.; "3rd ed." Dubuque, Iowa: W. C. Brown, 1971. xviii+309 pp.

Table of contents

● General Introduction

I. Orator Poets
● Lucy Terry / “Bars Fight”
● Jupiter Hammon / “An Evening Thought: Salvation by Christ”
● Jupiter Hammon / “An Address to Miss Phillis Wheatly (sic)”
● Gustavus Vassa / “Miscellaneous Verses”
● George Moses Horton / “The Lover’s Farewell”
● George Moses Horton / “To Eliza”
● George Moses Horton / “Slavery”
● George Moses Horton / “The Slave’s Complaint”
● George Moses Horton / “On Hearing of the Intention of a Gentlemen to Purchase the Poet’s Freedom”
● George Moses Horton / “The Art of a Poet”
● Frances E.W. Harper / “A Double Standard”
● Frances E.W. Harper / “Death of the Old Sea King”
● Frances E.W. Harper / “Songs for the People”
● Frances E.W. Harper / “The Slave Mother”
● Frances E.W. Harper / “The Slave Auction”
● Frances E.W. Harper / “Nothing and Something”
● Frances E.W. Harper / “Vashti”
● Frances E.W. Harper / “Bury Me in a Free Land”
● Frances E.W. Harper / “Learning to Read”
● James M. Whitfield / from “America”
● James M. Whitfield / “The Misanthropist”
● James M. Whitfield / “Stanzas for the First of August”
● James M. Whitfield / “To Cinque”
● Daniel A. Payne / “The Mournful Lute, or The Preceptor’s Farewell”
● Daniel A. Payne / from “The Pleasures”
● Daniel A. Payne / “May I Not Love?”
● Elymas Payson Rogers / from “On the Fugitive Slave Law”
● Elyman Payson Rogers / from “The Repeal of the Missouri Compromise Considered”
● Charles L. Reason / “The Spirit Voice”
● Francis A. Boyd / from Canto IV, “The Soliloquy” Columbiana
● Francis A. Boyd / from Canto V, “The Dream”
● James Madison Bell / “Modern Moses, or ‘My Policy’ Man”

II. Formalist Poets
● Phillis Wheatley / “To the University of Cambridge, in New England”
● Phillis Wheatley / “On Being Brought from Africa to America”
● Phillis Wheatley / “On the Death of the Rev. Mr. George Whitefield”
● Phillis Wheatley / “Thoughts on the Work of Providence”
● Phillis Wheatley / “On Recollection”
● Phillis Wheatley / “On Imagination”
● Phillis Wheatley / “To His Excellency General Washington”
● Phillis Wheatley / “To S.M., A Young African Painter, On Seeing His Work”
● Phillis Wheatley / “An Ode On the Birthday of Pompey Stockbridge”
● Phillis Wheatley / “On Friendship”
● Ann Plato / “Reflections, Written on Visiting the Grave of a Venerated Friend”
● Ann Plato / “Forget Me Not”
● Ann Plato / “To the First of August”
● Ann Plato / “The Natives of America”
● George Marion McLlelan / “A January Dandelion”
● George Marion McLlelan / “The Color Bane”
● George Marion McLlelan / “Eternity”
● George Marion McLlelan / “Love is a Flame”
● George Marion McLlelan / “In the Heart of a Rose”
● George Marion McLlelan / “A September Night”
● George Marion McLlelan / “The April of Alabama”
● George Marion McLlelan / “Day Break”
● George Marion McLlelan / “The Sun Went Down in Beauty”
● George Marion McLlelan / “A Decoration Day”
● George Marion McLlelan / from “The Legend of Tannhauser and Elizabeth”
● Henrietta Cordelia Ray / “To My Father”
● Henrietta Cordelia Ray / “Milton”
● Henrietta Cordelia Ray / “Shakespeare”
● Henrietta Cordelia Ray / “Robert G. Shaw”
● Henrietta Cordelia Ray / “Antigone and Oedipus”
● Henrietta Cordelia Ray / “The Dawn of Love”
● Henrietta Cordelia Ray / “Idyl”

III. Romantic Poets
● John Boyd / “The Vision/ a Poem in Blank Verse”
● John Boyd / “Sketch of a Varying Evening Sky”
● John Boyd / “Ocean”
● The Creole Poets: Armand Lanusse / “Un Frère Au Tombeau de Son Frère” [with translation]
● The Creole Poets: Victor Séjour / “Le Retour de Napoléon” [with translation]
● The Creole Poets: Nelson Debrosses / “Le Retour au Village aux Perles” [with translation]
● The Creole Poets: Nicol Riquet / “Rondeau Redoublé” [with translation]
● George B. Vashon / from “Vincent Ogé”
● Benjamin Clark / “The Emigrant”
● Benjamin Clark / “The Seminole”
● Benjamin Clark / “What Is a Slave?”
● Benjamin Clark / “The Pauper’s Grave”
● Benjamin Clark / “Requiescat in Pace”
● Benjamin Clark / “Do They Miss Me?”
● Benjamin Clark / “Love”
● Benjamin Clark / “No Enemies”
● Joseph Seaman Cotter / “Frederick Douglass”
● Joseph Seaman Cotter / “Contradiction”
● Joseph Seaman Cotter / “The Poet”
● Joseph Seaman Cotter / “Prologue to a Supposed Play”
● Joseph Seaman Cotter / “Answer to Dunbar’s ‘After a Visit’”
● Joseph Seaman Cotter / “On Hearing James W. Riley Read”
● Joseph Seaman Cotter / “Emerson”
● Joseph Seaman Cotter / “Oliver Wendell Holmes”
● Joseph Seaman Cotter / “Let None Ignobly Halt”
● Joseph Seaman Cotter / “Answer to Dunbar’s ‘A Choice’”
● Joseph Seaman Cotter / “My Poverty and Wealth”
● Albery Allson Whitman / from “Leelah Misled”
● Albery Allson Whitman / from “Invocation, Canto I, ‘Twasinta’s Seminoles’”
● Albery Allson Whitman / from “The Southland’s Charms”
● Albery Allson Whitman / from “Miscellaneous Poems”: “Hymn to the Nation”
● Albery Allson Whitman / from “Miscellaneous Poems”: “The Lute of Afric’s Tribe”
● Albery Allson Whitman / from “Miscellaneous Poems”: “Custer’s Last Ride”
● Albery Allson Whitman / from “Miscellaneous Poems”: “Ye Bards of England”
● Albery Allson Whitman / from “Miscellaneous Poems”: “Stonewall Jackson, 1886”

IV. Dialect Poems
Negro Dialect Poetry
● James Edwin Campbell / “Ol’ Doc’ Hyar”
● James Edwin Campbell / “Uncle Eph—Epicure”
● James Edwin Campbell / “De Cunjah Man”
● James Edwin Campbell / “’Sciplinin’ Sister Brown”
● Daniel Webster Davis / “Miss Liza’s Banjer”
● Daniel Webster Davis / “Aunt Chloe’s Lullaby”
● James D. Corrothers / “Sweeten ’Tatahs”
● James D. Corrothers / “Der Rabbit’s Foot”
● Elliot B. Henderson / “Good Bye, Honey—Good Bye”
● Elliot B. Henderson / “Git on Board, Chillun”
● Elliot B. Henderson / “Uncle Ned an’ de Mockin’ Bird”
● Elliot B. Henderson / “Trussy’s Visit”
● J. Mord Allen / “The Devil and Sis’ Viney”

● Appendix A
● Appendix B
● Appendix C
● Bibliography of Other Early American Negro Poets
● Index

Reviews and notices of anthology

• n/a

Commentary on anthology

• "Its 'Bibliography: Early American Negro Poets' (pp. 269-271) is very valuable for the poems of black poets up to 1907" (Rowell 1972: 58).
• Organized by type: "Orator Poets, Formalist Poets, Romantic Poets, and Dialect Poetry" (Kinnamon 1997: 471).

• Baker, Houston, Jr. "Balancing the Perspective, a Look at Early Black American Literary Artistry." "Negro American Literature Forum" 6.3 (1972): 65-71. JSTOR.
This essay argues that we can't just focus on the "folk" roots of black American literature (in folk songs and spirituals, in folk tales and humor) but need to attend also to the "conscious" literary artistry of early black American poets from Lucy Terry and Jupiter Hammon to Paul Laurence Dunbar. Baker's discussion of these early black American poets rests entirely on the selections provided in Robinson's anthology and his essay can be taken, in large measure, as a kind of review of the contents of this anthology. He adopts, also, Robinson's four-part classification of these poets as "Orator," "Formalist," "Romantic," and "Dialect" poets.

JSTOR

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