Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1922-05-23

!FNHhEE recent books OF verse by
L Negroes afford an excellent opportu .
nifty for those interested in such mat
ters to examine into the literary de-
velopment Of the race and incidentally y
into the changing temper Of its literary
spokesmen.
The Negro Of slavery and the years
Immediately following the cmancipa
ton Is represented in Negro Foil
Rhymes (Macmillan). a collection OF
folk verse made by Prof. Thomas W
Talley, Of Fisk University. These
rhymes have no known author. They
grew up among the Negroes and were
developed by repetition and adjustment
until they reached the form in which
they are now repeated in the South
They are dance songs and love songs
songs Of animal and nature lore. charms
and incantations. and so on. II is re.
markable that there are 80 few in the
whole collection that show any realiza
ton of the enslavement Of the Negro
or any resentment against that condi
tion. Almost without exception the
rhymes indicate an acceptance Of the
world and cheerful adaptation to it.
Even where there is resentment against
slavery 1t is not argued, but exhibited
indirectly. Take. for example. prom
iscs Of Freedom" in which the singer
tells how his master promised to Sc,
him free and broke the promise. II
continues:
Ole Mosser lakwise promise me,
Wen he died, he'd set mo free,
But ole Mosser 60 an make his Will
Fer to leave me a-plowin' ole Beck still
Yes. my ole Mosser promise me:
But "his papers didn' leave me free,
A doze Of pizen helped i'm along.
May de Devil preach is funer'l song
One may assume that the slave had
something to do with the poison. bu,
there is no moralizing or justifying oi
"csentment against injustice. The fact
is stated with the simplicity Of primi.
tive people.
A similar simplicity rules IN tho
songs Of nature, a simplicity that
sometimes becomes beautiful.
THERE is no sophisticated and
i trained poet who could produce more
nearly perfect things than some that
have been handed down by\ word OF
mouth among the untutored Negroes.
Only a person with a sensitive ear and
II feeling for rhythm could have pro.
duced the Bob White Song:
Bob white. Bob white.
Is yo peas all ripe?
No! not! quite.
Bob white. Bob white.
Wen will dey be ripe?
Tomor--! row! night.
Bob white. Bob white
Does you sing at night"
No! not! quite.
Bob white! Bob white
Wen il de time right?
At can! die! light.
OF course. many Of the rhymes IN
he volume are little more than non :
,cnse iingles. They are the. product OF
, comparatively happy and irresponsible
phase Of the life of the Negro in Amer
lca. There is no conscious literary art
10 introspection and no philosophizing.
These things had to wait until a later
period.
Within the past twenfy years the
Ncgroes haze become conscious liter
arv artists.
THEY have written such a consid-
i cradle volume Of poetry as to Justify
the production OF an anthology. Under
The title of 1.-The Book of American
Negro Poetry" (Harcourt, Brace &
CO... James Weldon johnson has Sc,
forth selections from the work of more
than thirty Negroes who have published
verse since the late Paul Laurence Dun
bar began to write. Mr.. johnson says
IN his preface that more than one hun
dred Negroes in the United States have
published volumes Of poetry and that
only thirty Of them came between
Phillis Wheatley and Dunbar. The re
naming seventy belong to the presen,